Lessons for my Grandson: Enlisting Men to End the Violence Against Women
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At this moment in my life, my 2-and-a-half-year-old grandson is the most precious and exciting gift to me. He signifies the good in men. I would never imagine that such a beautiful boy would be capable of growing up and becoming a violent man. What is it that makes men—born such good little babies—become violent? Male violence against women is the most pervasive violence in the world today. So much so that in many arenas, we’ve become comfortably numb.
Where is the moral authority that women’s lives are so expendable that a woman dies every minute of the day? Seven in ten women experience physical and sexual violence in their lifetime.
For the last 25 years, the Global Fund for Women has worked with the women’s movement to shine a light on these violations, and drive policy change to ensure that women are protected and supported to live free of violence. But we can’t do it alone. We need a broader movement of men, women, boys and girls, to learn how to be human with each other in ways that are creative, expressive, and nonviolent. The perpetuation of women having low or no status leads to the trivialization of their real pain. The extreme violation of women’s human rights is what compels the Global Fund for Women to accelerate and deepen its support for women’s human rights organizations.
In the early days, women were silenced to protect the status quo of their male relatives, friends, superiors, and colleagues. Today violence is experienced in ways we never imagined. Digital technology, including social media, is proving to be a double-edged sword: it can be destructive and transformative. For instance, a woman who launched a Kickstarter project to raise funds to support women-friendly digital games had her online face and body brutalized, tortured and raped by men using computer imagery. These online gang rapes jammed her computer with brutal images for several weeks, leaving her traumatized. But she would not be silenced. Her social media rallying cry resulted in so many people feeling outraged that she far exceeded her funding target and was able to extend her work and produce more initiatives aimed at empowering girls and women.
She is part of a crescendo of women’s voices saying it’s not ok to keep silent. Breaking the silence—taking the courageous step to voice one’s experience—is already a success in communities where tolerance for violence against women has gone on for too long.
Read More:http://www.thedailybeast.com/witw/articles/2013/04/17/lessons-for-my-grandson-enlisting-men-to-end-the-violence-against-women.html?utm_content=buffer6c759&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer
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Thanks~
