Britton describes the gender climate of prisons in the opening. Men are more masculine than women, but women inmates are almost too masculine for female correctional officers to "handle". I think in the media, the women prisoners are portrayed as "butch" women, and so are the female prison guards/correctional officers, but they are also portrayed as hyper-feminine, sexual beings. Male guards/officers are often portrayed as larger, tough, males who are "real men". Women still face the butch image, but in the actual prison, women are viewed as weak, feminine personas. In women's prisons, male guards/officers are viewed as manly men, who are violent. Men still have the dominance in the prisons. Women still are not holding higher positions in male prisons, but males are holding high positions in female prisons.
In the promotional video it shows women in male dominated sectors of the work forces, showing all different types of women (both masculine and feminine). These women in the video are taking action, and breaking into male dominated fields. I feel like there should have been a female narrator though.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
It is true that males still hold the high positions in both male and female prisons. I think that this is due to the belief that the proper person to handle general problems and violent problems possess aggressive and assertive qualities, and it is still assumed that women do not hold these characteristics and are therefore unable to handle these jobs. I find it interesting that people seem to think female prisoners are to masculine for a female officer to handle. I just wonder what makes these women more masculine than the female officer? And why is it that a less masculine woman cannot demand respect from more masculine woman? Personally, I think that it can happen because these women are not as masculine as we think. This makes these more feminine guards more able to deal with hyper-feminine side of these female inmates that needs to be addressed and nurture. I think it is important that we try to deal with women specifically in a way that does not use violence because statistics show hat many women in the prison system have experienced violence all their lives. It seems that in order to evoke change in behavior from these women we need to deal with them in the least aggressive way possible so they do not put their guards up.
ReplyDelete