More thoughts on Gender Bias & Violence Against Women

I was re-reading and thinking again about the article on Korea's shifting preference for male children (two posts ago), and found myself more and more outraged by the part about abortion and violence against women.

I was particularly disturbed by the Population Fund's warning in a report that the "rampant tinkering with nature’s probabilities in Asia could eventually lead to increased sexual violence and trafficking of women as a generation of boys finds marriage prospects severely limited."

That sounds like some horrible science fiction story; the sad thing is that it could be reality if countries don't change. It makes me so angry that these traditions could "so devalue daughters that mothers would often apologize for giving birth to a girl," that children would be aborted simply for being female, that women around the world are subject to sexual violence and abuse simply by being born into a patriarchal, oppressive society. Imagine the psychological damage these women must endure, those who were somehow allowed to live...that there are still honor killings and genital mutilations in this world...It sickens me.

I remember reading an article that Asian women have a suicide rate twice the national average in the U.K.; that a woman tried to run away from an arranged marriage, because her husband was abusive, but her uncle threatened to kill her if she did not obey. I've read on the American Psychological Association site that "Asian Americans who are born in the United States have a higher risk of committing or being a victim of domestic violence" and that "friends and family may actively urge women to keep quiet."

When will this abuse towards women end? I can see now why Iris Chang was so overwhelmed by the dark subject matter of her research, on atrocities like the Rape of Nanking, and am deeply saddened that the disturbing nature of her work left her weak and may have contributed to her depression and suicide.

I'm not sure what I can do, what one person can do—but everyone in America should be be aware of these atrocities and work to prevent them at home and abroad. Not that the United States is perfect—far from it—which is why we need to appreciate what we have and not take we have for granted.

I shudder to think what I—already quite traditional and conservative among Asian American women—might have been like growing up under a less open environment than this.