4th Quarter Extra Credit

1. The performance seemed to suggest that the main factor leading to domestic violence does not start within the relationship. Rather, it is a product of the abuser's social environment. The high school kid seemed encouraged to press that girl despite her protests because in the culture that exists in his school, this is the manly thing to do. The man who abused his girlfriend was mentioned to be a good friend before they started dating, perhaps that is how he was brought up to view relationships.

Part of what perpetuates dating violence seems to be mainly related to an unclear definition of what exactly it is. The woman that was being abused didn't seem to know it, and so when her friend tried to help she took offense. Similarly, if the boys on the basketball team had defined what was going on as rape, they would have been much more inclined to stop it.

2. I think that the culture in a society will respond very little to government interaction on this subject, again because so many people don't recognize domestic violence. That being said, I do think it would be helpful to recognize domestic violence as it's own crime. It seems like in our society domestic violence is often regarded as simple assault in our modern system, and the part about domestic abuse is simply mentioned when it comes to finger-pointing. True certain actions are identified as abuse, but I still think it is important to focus on that more and define it better.

3. one thing briefly mentioned was pressure on guys by their friends. There used to be these commercials on the radio trying to discourage having sex before you were ready. There were two of them, a girl talking to her friends and a guy talking to his friends. The girl would say things like 'he keeps pressuring me' and her friend would say something like 'if he keeps doing it leave him'. The guy would talk about how he feels uncomfortable being one of the few guys that's never done it (kind of like the virgin Larry) and he wants to just hurry up so he can brag. His friends discourage him from doing it just for that reason, and at some point one of them says 'half those guys who say they're doing it are lying anyway'. I know that type of pressure exists, but I still wonder if that's true.

4. I suppose so. A lot of the people in my discussion group said they didn't feel they had been exposed to anything new with it, but a different group of ninth graders may feel differently. And in the discussion, I think, people probably felt they came up with something new. It might also work to do something similar with an issue less commonly discussed in depth by SOF students, like gang violence.