Combating Misogyny
Educating men and boys on the importance of women’s rights is vital to the feminist cause. So many people perceive rape and violence against women to be a woman’s issue, but those people forget who the main perpetrators are: males. If we do not reach out to the male population and gather support things may never change. There needs to be education on all of the topics and a willingness to learn amongst both genders. Instead of working against each other and promoting hate between genders, a more effective route to take would be to work together to create equality for all. We may not reach every man, but we can appeal to those who have women in their lives and let these men know that misogyny and violence against women does personally touch them. If you have a woman in your life that you care about, it touches you. Women live in a constant hyper-vigilant state in order to avoid getting assaulted. Even if a woman has never been assaulted, we all take daily routines to avoid it, whether it is a conscious effort or not. We need to reach men, because they do care, they just need to be encouraged that it is acceptable and courageous to care.
As a rape survivor I agree whole heatedly. In fact one of my favorite quotes is ‘It is the duty of every man to uphold the dignity of every woman.’ (Pope John Paul II) When I’m brought in to speak to groups of young men I like to use this as a start for discussion of what that means to them .
Blessings
Shannon
Great post!
Reblogged this on KERRI CHRONICLES.
such a great message to promote — thank you for using your blog to put these issues out there 🙂
Pingback: I am not into S&M | cherrywhipt
Thanks, all. If you are interested in this perspective I strongly suggest reading “Macho Paradox”.