Written Excellence
On this page, you will see two papers I have written throughout college.
Should College Students Have To Pay For Textbooks?
A researched Argument
Makayla J. Davis
English 102
University of Alabama
College can be the best time of a person's life, providing an opportunity to learn and grow socially and academically. The only downside to college is the added cost of textbooks and the constantly rising tuition (Christie, Pollitz, & Middleton 2009). They've been able to keep raising prices because students are 'captive consumers.' They have to buy whatever books they're assigned." (Allen 2020) Because most college students do not have cash and only a few have book scholarships, many students have to choose between purchasing textbooks, meals, and/or other life essentials. (Christie, Pollitz, & Middleton, 2009). Some have even decided that not having class books is better than paying the extra cost for them. According to research, the value of these books is not equivalent to the price of the books (Unni 2020). Thus, college students shouldn't have to waste their money on textbooks, especially when schools have the resources and means to provide free or at least cheaper options, such as online books, library sets, and class sets. (Gann 2019).
The average added cost of textbooks is $750, which is, on average, 13% of the tuition (Christie, Pollitz, & Middleton 2009). It doesn't help that the funds for textbooks come directly from students' personal funds; thus, some have decided to cope by not purchasing them at all, while others look to the library. In a study done at Organ State University, students reported that it would help them if their libraries would purchase some of the recommended and optional books at the school. Organ State University's research reveals that students resort to the school library for access to assigned books due to their high cost and the fact that some professors only use a small portion of them. This is effective because of the student government's successful proposal to have at least two required textbooks in the library (Christie, Pollitz, & Middleton 2009). While it wouldn't be possible to purchase a full school set, the availability of a few books from the required book list in the library could alleviate financial burdens for some. To ensure fairness and prevent students from being unaware of their school's resources, we must inform all students about the available resources.
As mentioned before, the value of college textbooks is not worth the price they are being sold for (Unni 2020). Some of the textbooks are outdated and decades old, yet students are still required to purchase them. Professors often mandate the use of a book, but they only utilize one or two chapters due to last-minute changes in the lesson plan (Gann 2019). It can be quite costly for a school to purchase new books annually, so the most effective solution to the issue of low book value would be the use of online books. Putting textbooks online could not only lower the cost of textbooks by about forty percent, "saving about $3.6 million each year," but it could also get rid of the lack of value in the books, increase course completion rates, improve student attitudes toward the subject matter, and much more (Twigg 2003). There are many online companies that offer a handful of books for a lower price; Chegg and Open Textbook Library are some of them.
The final argument for not requiring college students to pay for textbooks is the availability of more affordable options, such as class sets (PR Newswire 2018). Class sets would get rid of the problem of students spending money on books that aren't even used in their classes. (Gann 2019) The college or university isn't going to waste its resources on books that are of low value or on books that are not going to be used; thus, it pushed professors to make wise decisions on what books they are going to require. With this solution, the only time a student would have to pay for a book is if they damaged or lost it. This would make access easier for not only students, but also professors.
In conclusion, the price of college textbooks is constantly rising, which is a huge loss for students, but there are many ways that colleges and universities could lower or eliminate the price of those textbooks. The first is adding a collection of required and optional books to the campus libraries. This ensures that everyone can easily access the books. The second is to provide a class set and have students pay for it if they damage the books. Finally, the third option involves the use of online books, which eliminates the need for outdated and expensive physical books.
References
Christie, A., Pollitz, J. H., & Middleton, C. (2009). Student strategies for coping with textbook costs and the role of library course reserves. Portal: Libraries and the Academy, 9(4), 491–510.
Eric.ed.gov. (2020). College textbooks: Enhanced offerings appear to drive recent price increases. report to congressional requesters. GAO 05-806.. [online] Available at: https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED497038 [Accessed 28 Feb. 2020].
Unni, R. (2020). Value perceptions and retention of textbooks among marketing and other business majors. Retrieved 2 March 2020, from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10528008.2005.11488909
New agreement between eCampus.com and mcgraw-hill education will make powerful learning materials more affordable to college students. (2018). PR Newswire.
Twigg, C. A. (2003). Improving Learning and Reducing Costs: New Models for Online Learning. Educause Review, 38(5), 28.
College Textbook Prices Surge at Twice the Inflation Rate. (2005). Pediatrics, 116(6), 1432.
Gann, H. (2020). Opinion: College students shouldn't have to buy their books. Retrieved 21 March 2020, from https://cw.ua.edu/54681/opinion/opinion-college-students-shouldnt-have-to-buy-their-books/
College Textbook Prices Have Risen 1,041 Percent since 1977. (2020). Retrieved from https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/freshman-year/college-textbook-prices-have-risen-812-percent-1978-n399926
Victim Blaming
A Feminist Critique
Makayla Davis
Com 310
The University of Alabama
Introduction and Justification of Artifacts
On August 9, 2018, Shannan Watts (who was 15 weeks pregnant) left home with friends for a business trip in Arizona. Before she left home, she left a note for her husband detailing how she missed him and was willing to do anything to make their marriage work. Little did she know, her husband was seeing someone else and had plans to divorce her. Shannan spent a week hanging out with her friends and attending business meetings before her friend dropped her off at her home at 4 a.m. on August 13. Just a few hours after Shannan's return, Chris Watts (her husband) suffocated her, and later that day, he killed his four and six-year-old daughters. While this story flooded the homes of many, the response to Chris Watts' actions was not what one would expect. Many people decided to blame Shannan for her murder, saying that "she drove him to it." (The American Murderer: The Family Next Door, 2020). These unidentified on-lookers deemed that Shannan's "nagging" was the straw that broke the camel's back. In other words, her nagging provoked her husband to kill her, their unborn child, and their four and six-year-old daughters. This is not an isolated situation; victims have been carrying the weight of the actions of those who abuse and violate them for years. Bystanders demonstrate this by saying things like, "What was she wearing?" or "Are you sure you weren't leading them on?" or "She should have paid better attention to her surroundings." When someone tells the victim or survivor of a crime that they could have or should have done something differently to have avoided the crime, or when outsiders use the victim's past as a justification for what happened to them, this is known as victim blaming. Victim blaming acts as an altar for perpetrators while altering the lens through which bystanders look. By doing this, the bystander shifts the blame from the aggressor to the victim, leading other victims and survivors to believe that they could have prevented or avoided rape, domestic abuse, and other crimes.
Some people choose to point the finger at the victims, whether they are male or female, because it lines up with the ideas and beliefs that have been so ingrained in our society. This raises the question: Why do we blame victims for their violations, abuses, and murders? Why is there always something that they could have done better?
Victim blaming is so ingrained in our society that parents chastise their daughters for expressing themselves in particular ways in public and for wearing crop tops and other clothes that show any small or large amount of skin. Parents inadvertently convey to their sons that they lack self-control. (i.e., boys will be boys.) Even schools are penalizing female students for showing skin. Some students have reported being sent home for wearing a shirt that exposed their shoulders, on the basis that it was a "distraction" to the boys in the school. When one half of the student population learns that they must prevent themselves from distracting the person of the opposite sex while the other half receives unrestricted freedom, it fosters division and animosity, serving as the foundation for victim blaming.
Our society heavily relies on the legal system, but only recently has there been a focus on holding the right people accountable for their crimes. With this comes a huge spotlight on the perpetrator's, victim's, and bystander's race, sexuality, social class, etc. This is called intersectionality, "the concept that one's gender is shaped by one's race, ethnicity, class, nationality, physical ability, sexual ability, sexuality, ideology, religion, and so on." (Kornfield, 167) How was or is the person perceived? How does this person interact with the world? How does their identity influence the perception of their culpability for the crime, abuse, and so on? All of these questions help us understand why people choose to blame the victim. Thus, in this paper, we examine feminist criticism to discuss victim blaming and its consequences, utilizing a wide range of references and addressing these important questions.
Method of Analysis
Before we analyze the artifact of victim blaming, we must first define feminism to gain a better understanding of its criticism. Feminism is "a movement to end sexism, sexist exploration, and oppression" (Kornfield, 163), which is highly present in society today. Feminist criticism is an "ideological critique [with] the political goal of ending sexism" (Kornfield, 163). Feminism is highly relevant today, considering there are a plethora of movements taking place in America. The younger generation's growing appreciation for justice, equity, and equality is primarily responsible for this. This method fits the analysis because it challenges the ideals and beliefs of those who point the finger at the victim, whether that be partially or fully. Most cases of victim blaming revolve around sexist beliefs and toxic masculinity. Toxic masculinity, according to the Oxford dictionary, is "a set of attitudes and ways of behaving stereotypically associated with or expected of men, regarded as having a negative impact on men and on society as a whole." (Oxford) This is not to say that only men contribute to the problem, but to address the problem outright and how it affects everyone. This challenges the myth that only women can be the victims of abuse and attack. Those who tend to see fault in the victim first, as opposed to fault in the perpetrator, whether noticed or not, buy into victim blaming.
In the case of rape, victim blaming focuses on the appearance, sexuality, ability or willingness to fight back, and sometimes occupation of the victim rather than the intentions of the perpetrator. Focusing on appearance, girls are witnessing the sexualization of women's bodies as they grow up. The sexualization of women's bodies does not begin when women reach the age of eighteen and up; it begins in childhood, and instead of instilling in boys a sense of morality or respect for women, society teaches them that "boys will be boys." This phrase and mindset promote the idea that men cannot control themselves, and that women should always be in control of themselves. This leads society, particularly women, to believe that they could have avoided the attack if they had done something differently. This is why, in the majority of cases, when the victim was drinking before being attacked, they and the people around them tend not to count the act as rape or as the perpetrator's fault. There are two sides to this statement, just as there are two sides to a coin. Women sexualize other women and young girls as well. It can be attributed to "sexist hegemonic processes and sexist ideology" (Kornfield, 164), also known as the patriarchy. While parenting does play a part in assault cases, it is a societal or systematic type of parenting. We are not saying or inferring that all assault cases stem from men's and women's parenting. The world's events compel parents to instruct their children, particularly their daughters, to steer clear of specific locations and dress appropriately for self-protection. Therefore, when women act in ways that defy these teachings, it becomes easier for others to criticize them and dictate what they should or should not have done. The argument suggests that we should hold the perpetrator of the crime responsible rather than placing the blame on the victim or survivor or the circumstances surrounding the crime.
Analysis
While it is wrong, victim blaming is tricky to dissect. Some individuals may offer suggestions such as "Please be careful and pay attention to your surroundings." While this may seem like victim-blaming, it's actually sound judgment. This is equivalent to telling someone to lock their doors and windows at night or recommending someone purchase a security system after a robbery. This is not blaming a person for being robbed, saying that it was their fault, or even saying that they deserve it; this is telling someone the steps to take so that they have less of a chance of getting robbed. Now, in terms of victim blaming, taking all the precautions does not stop a person from attacking someone, and that is the point. Despite taking all precautions, victims are told they could have done more to prevent rape, beating, or death. There are three types of victim blaming that are the most prevalent. These forms of victim blaming include blaming the female, blaming the male, and blaming the victim's past actions. We will be discussing all three of these in depth, as well as answering the following questions: How was or is the person perceived? How does this person interact with the world? How does their identity influence the perception of their culpability for crimes, abuse, and so on?
Victim blaming is not something that happens to only females or to those who identify as gay, bisexual, lesbian, or nonbinary. Despite the common belief that victim blaming primarily affects women, "male victims receive more blame for their inability to escape, fight back, or resist the attacker." (Levy, Inna, and Keren—Miriam Adam. Online Commenting About a Victim of Female-on-Male Rape: The Case of Shia LaBeouf's Sexual Victimization). Let's take Johnny Depp as an example. His former wife accused him of domestic abuse, causing him to be stripped of many of the movie opportunities he had. Upon scrutinizing her allegations more closely, the evidence revealed that she had doctored the images she presented. The evidence then proved that she was the aggressor in the situation and had been abusing Mr. Depp. (Lawless, 2021) The media's response to this was unbelievable. Many people maintained the belief that he could not have possibly been abused by this woman because he is a man, and "a real man would not allow himself to be abused or attacked by a woman." This is a clear example of sexism and toxic masculinity. It not only causes men to be excused for their actions, but in cases like these, it also excuses women for their actions. While sometimes men hide behind the idea that they do not need to take responsibility for their actions, women can use this for their "benefit." They use the already-ingrained ideology of toxic masculinity to deceive people into believing that they are the victims instead of the perpetrators. This is so easily believed because men are looked at as strong (both mentally and physically) and prone to fits of anger and an inability to stop themselves from causing harm, while women are looked at as fragile, gentle, and innocent with the incapability of invoking harm. With this comes an underreporting of abuse of males by women because of the feeling that they are responsible, could have protected themselves, and did not. Additionally, they experience a sense of shame, resisting the notion that they lack masculinity and are incapable of self-defense. There is also underreporting of man-on-man sexual assault, mostly out of fear. Terry Crews explains how he was molested in front of his wife at an "industry function in 2016" (Mumford, 2021), and he did not retaliate due to fear of being jailed, nor did he come forward right away due to fear of being ostracized. In this particular situation, a power element is involved, and it plays a major part in victim blaming and victim silence. When a person in a position of power becomes the perpetrator in a situation, it instills in the victim a fear of potential losses, such as job loss or loss of respect. As in other cases of violations between the perpetrator and victim, it can also lead to hesitation in reporting due to the "their-word-against-mine theory."
The feminist movement has increased the public discussion of victim blaming towards women, in contrast to victim blaming against men. Feminism is like an unkept secret; it spreads quickly, and a lot of people are involved. As previously noted, this is partly due to the significant involvement of this generation in ensuring the administration of justice. Victim blaming is based on the same belief that men cannot control themselves and that women are helpless creatures. As a result of this, women are being taught at a young age how to adjust themselves to make men feel comfortable and to "prevent'' anything from happening to them. Victim blaming towards women is more focused on what they were wearing, their attitudes, and what they were doing (i.e., their physical appearance and mannerisms). The underlying belief is that women incite men, thereby 'asking for' the attack or abuse. For example, a female student at Patrick Henry College reported her own experience of sexual assault and received the following disturbing response: "You are in part responsible for what happened because you put yourself in a compromising situation... Actions have consequences." (Laura Niemi and Liane Young, 2014) This statement claims that the victim is responsible in part for the mere fact that she was present. By suggesting this, the dean (in this particular situation) dismisses the fact that the perpetrator decided to do this independently. Even if the student who reported was not there in the first place, the perpetrator might have assaulted someone else. His statement suggests that the victim, and women in general, should not go to certain places. This reinforces the idea that women should restrict their activities and locations to avoid potential harm, while supporting the belief that men are provoked by the presence of women and men's "inability" to contain themselves.
The attitudes of victims before the attack contribute to how people decide whether or not to blame the victim. For example, there was a lady who was attacked because she rejected a man who was trying to get her number. Most of the comments under this video, instead of addressing the attacker, criticized how she rejected the man. With comments such as "you did not have to say 'no' like that." and "that probably would not have happened if you were nicer to him," This enhances the sexist belief that men cannot control themselves and that women should be gentle when dealing with men. It also promotes the idea that men should get what they want.
In this type of victim blaming, the most common question asked is, "What was she wearing?" This implies that the questioner holds the belief that the victim's clothing led to the attack. An exhibit at Oregon State University has testified to this theory or ideal. Jen Brockman and Dr. Mary Wyandt-Hiebert from the University of Arkansas gathered stories from sexual assault survivors, and OSU replicated their outfits to demonstrate that the outcome remained the same regardless of their level of coverage. The online exhibit showcases outfits ranging from a sari to a swimsuit, allowing viewers to choose each outfit and hear the victim's story. This combats the idea that appearance and what someone was wearing played a factor in the attack. The notion that the victim deserved the attack or suffered harm due to their profession has also received significant attention. Laura Niemi and Liane Young point out that while women are more sexualized now in the media than ever before, research shows that people are more likely to blame sexualized women than non-sexualized women and to think that they were less harmed by the attack. (Niemi, Laura, & Liane Young. Blaming the Victim in the Case of Rape.) While sexualization does not disregard the harm presented, it does play a factor in people's justification of the harm done.
The victim's past actions are a very common form of victim blaming. This is when outsiders claim that the previous actions of a person justify why they were violated or attacked. For example, looking back at The American Murder, many people, including Cindy Watts (Chris Watts' mother), expressed that Shannan Watts was an unfit mother and that she was naggy to Chris Watts. They used these character traits as a basis and explanation as to why it was okay for Chris to murder his wife. The flaw in this type of victim blaming lies in its suggestion that the victim's unrelated actions justify an attack. Additionally, it perpetuates the notion that the aggressor, in this instance, a man, has the right to act out of rage.
Conclusion
Today's culture popularizes victim blaming, which has its roots in toxic masculinity and sexism and promotes patriarchy. By participating in victim blaming, the participant justifies the perpetrator and minimizes the experience of the victim. The perception of the victim greatly influences victim blaming. Their race, sexual identity, ethnicity, and so on. People who choose to blame the victim will more than likely blame someone who has a different ideology than them, and vice versa. They are more likely to sympathize with someone who is more like them. At the same time, most people will blame the victim because they believe they would do differently in the situation. For example, as mentioned in an earlier section, sexualized women are considered less likely to be sympathized with and not considered hurt when they have been attacked. The people who believe this do not see themselves as sexualized. When people solely visualize and do not empathize with those who are victims or survivors of abuse or any type of physical, mental, or emotional violation or attack, it creates victim blaming because it opens the door for individuals to think and comment on what they would have done differently. This is problematic because people ignore emotions before, during, and after an attack. This, in turn, fails to provide them with a precise representation of a bystander's actions or their own perceptions.
Sexual harassment, physical and emotional abuse, and other forms of harassment can affect both men and women, regardless of whether the perpetrators are of the same or different sexes. Thus, victim blaming is present in both sexes and is still a rising problem. While victim blaming is more prevalent in cases involving men, it manifests more subtly in cases involving men's assaults. This is due to the perception of men as protectors and the expectation that they can protect and defend themselves. This explains why people tend to believe men less when they report assault, and consequently, they tend to blame them more when they are assaulted. In contrast to men, the media tends to blame women for assault significantly less frequently than men. However, due to the increasing prevalence of this issue in the media and the increased vocalization of the feminist movement, we hear about it more frequently.
Unfortunately, everyone has the potential to experience abuse, rape, murder, or attack in one form or another. Although it is not a desirable outcome, it is a reality. If we persist in blaming the victim, we pave the way for the creation of additional victims and the exoneration of the perpetrator. Blaming the victim excuses the perpetrator and reinforces the idea that the victim should have prevented the crime. Rather than shattering the mold of toxic societal lessons, it shapes the new lens through which the feminist movement is created.
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