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How Does George Orwell Dehumanize Women

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In 1984 and society today, there is a casual disregard to sexual assault, ultimately leading to the dehumanization of women.
Women are dehumanized in today’s world and 1984 because society dismisses sexual assault. Winston describes his physical attraction to Julia, saying, “I wanted to rape you and then murder you afterwards” Winston says this comment directly to Julia, Julia laughed, and shortly later dismissed the comment. (Orwell, 121). Because society disregards sexual assault, Winston feels comfortable making this comment to Julia and Julia even laughs at it. As shown through a survey on the website of Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network, also known as RAINN, the fourth most cited reason is the victim feels their assault was not …show more content…

After going to the movies and seeing a woman character in the movie, Winston dehumanizes a woman. He describes a violent sexual fantasy imagining, “He would ravish her and cut her throat at the moment of climax... He hated her because... he wanted to go to bed with her and... round her sweet supple waist... was only the odious scarlet sash, aggressive symbol of chastity” (Orwell, 15). Violent sexual fantasies appear to be normal for Winston. His casual approach to sexual violence mirrors the violence throughout 1984. In this scenario, the sexual violence is dehumanizing the woman in the movie, just like women are dehumanized by sexual assault in society today. Despite sometimes appearing as a foreign problem, the dismissal of sexual assault is very prominent in society today. The United States 45th president, Donald Trump, has allegedly sexually assaulted nineteen women (NPR). These accusations surfaced before his election and after he bragged about “grabbing p***y”. Despite the allegations made against Trump, over fifty-nine thousand people voted for Trump, showing the lack of importance sexual assault has in our society. The dismissive nature of our country to sexual assault dehumanizes women the same way we see in

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