With this paper I intend to convince the reader that religion is not the culprit for the presence of a culture which normalizes sexual assault and violence in most modern cultures where religion may or may not influence the societal practices and the ideologies and values that the people that are implicit in the people who make and live in those cultures.
Religion (mostly Islam) is more often than not blamed for the existence of a culture of rape and violence in the civilization of today. To a large extent, people use evidence which shows a correlation between the rape and violence and the religion of a place. Whenever sexual assaults or terror attacks take place, the violence is dismissed as “religious extremism”, and the followers of the …show more content…
What’s bad is when society tells us that being a man means strength and power, ad the expense of being allowed to feel things.” (Smith, 0:05). Toxic masculinity exists almost everywhere, in western society, as well as
Nagpal 3 in the society of Afghanistan, where the novel A Thousand Splendid Suns is set. “He was a man.
All those years without a woman. Could she fault him for the way God had created him?”
(Hosseini, 82). Here one can see what the fundamental problem with the thinking of Mariam
(and like her, a lot of other people) is: she dismisses the toxic, hegemonic masculinity of
Rasheed as the default behaviour for a man, or the set of characteristics traditionally associated with men (masculinity). She does not understand that this is only the way the men around her behave, because of the characteristics society induces into them: a lack of display of emotion, and a display of strength at the cost of other people. These men consider displaying “feminine”
(traditionally associated with women) traits a form of emasculation, and something the must be avoided at all costs.
“We are so caught up in these toxic ideas, that a woman granting her …show more content…
“I can’t,” she croaked, looking at his moonlit profile, his thick shoulders and broad chest, the tufts of gray hair protruding from his open collar.”(Hosseini, 75). The lack of consent is made evident by Hosseini in A Thousand Splendid suns, which acts as a clear confirmation of the
Nagpal 4 existence of toxic masculinity in Afghan society, and how it causes the problems one largely ends up blaming on Islam.
“But before all this, we need to start recognising male violence for what it is. We need to acknowledge that hateful, toxic masculinity is bred among us in the everyday. We need to start pulling apart and dismantling its roots in male entitlement and structures that promote masculine supremacy. That’s how we can truly address the regularity and scale of these attacks.”
(Stephenson, 17). It is imperative and all-important for people to acknowledge that while a culture of rape and violence, and a fundamental interpretation of religion that is not humanist share some of the common root causes, the latter is not the cause of the first. The main cause of rape and violence in modern society is toxic
Religion (mostly Islam) is more often than not blamed for the existence of a culture of rape and violence in the civilization of today. To a large extent, people use evidence which shows a correlation between the rape and violence and the religion of a place. Whenever sexual assaults or terror attacks take place, the violence is dismissed as “religious extremism”, and the followers of the …show more content…
What’s bad is when society tells us that being a man means strength and power, ad the expense of being allowed to feel things.” (Smith, 0:05). Toxic masculinity exists almost everywhere, in western society, as well as
Nagpal 3 in the society of Afghanistan, where the novel A Thousand Splendid Suns is set. “He was a man.
All those years without a woman. Could she fault him for the way God had created him?”
(Hosseini, 82). Here one can see what the fundamental problem with the thinking of Mariam
(and like her, a lot of other people) is: she dismisses the toxic, hegemonic masculinity of
Rasheed as the default behaviour for a man, or the set of characteristics traditionally associated with men (masculinity). She does not understand that this is only the way the men around her behave, because of the characteristics society induces into them: a lack of display of emotion, and a display of strength at the cost of other people. These men consider displaying “feminine”
(traditionally associated with women) traits a form of emasculation, and something the must be avoided at all costs.
“We are so caught up in these toxic ideas, that a woman granting her …show more content…
“I can’t,” she croaked, looking at his moonlit profile, his thick shoulders and broad chest, the tufts of gray hair protruding from his open collar.”(Hosseini, 75). The lack of consent is made evident by Hosseini in A Thousand Splendid suns, which acts as a clear confirmation of the
Nagpal 4 existence of toxic masculinity in Afghan society, and how it causes the problems one largely ends up blaming on Islam.
“But before all this, we need to start recognising male violence for what it is. We need to acknowledge that hateful, toxic masculinity is bred among us in the everyday. We need to start pulling apart and dismantling its roots in male entitlement and structures that promote masculine supremacy. That’s how we can truly address the regularity and scale of these attacks.”
(Stephenson, 17). It is imperative and all-important for people to acknowledge that while a culture of rape and violence, and a fundamental interpretation of religion that is not humanist share some of the common root causes, the latter is not the cause of the first. The main cause of rape and violence in modern society is toxic