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Violence against Women-It’s Men issue (Ted Talk).
Violence against women has always been deemed as a Women’s issue, just helped by good guys. Jackson Katz, on his Ted Talk, shares a paradigm shift of perspective on violence against women, these issues range from sexual abuse, gender-related violence, and others. It has been long thought that these are women’s issues. He argues that these are also men’s issues. Men have been unable to focus on these issues, mainly because they are women’s issues. And they tune out because they are men.
By objectifying gender and violence, people often see it as glorifying one gender; women. In an alternative universe, women usually speak out against the men who are violent towards them. They call them names,’ men batterers’ and other sorts of degrading names. However, in today’s reality, there are a lot of women leaders who are keeping the current system in place. It’s a battle of the sexes.
Boys are also affected by adult violence. The violence meted out to young boys by their adult parents(read fathers), and the same violence perpetrated by adult parents to their young girls, all goes to the point that it’s a men’s issue. The same system that produces men that abuse women also produces men who are abusive towards other men. They are all victims of men. They are all victims of domestic violence.
There is a need for men to speak out against gender violence, whether meted out to men or women. It is a continual process. Non-abusive friends need to talk to and support their abusive friends. It can only be achieved through constant counselling and support since it is hard to stop a violent act when it has already happened. If an abusive friend is aggressive towards another person, it is vital to point it out.
However, no single factor alone can cause violence towards women. All women are at risk of violence regardless of social background, position, and identity. Different factors differently shape every woman’s experience. Women with disabilities usually face discrimination up to four times the normal average person. While men also experience violence based on their gender, it is not as systematic and on a bigger scale than women.
Most of the time, women are always viewed as the ‘weaker sex’. Men usually use their physical strength to exert violence when women at the same time only use verbal threats. In Kenya, 30% of women have reported cases of violence based on their gender while in comparison, only 18% of men have reported. Five in every ten women in Kenya have experienced one form of violence at some point. This translates to roughly 47% of women experiencing such violence.
While fear of reporting to the authorities is an issue, this does not deter the fact that women are at a greater risk of violence than men. Simply put, men are in a position to defend themselves when it comes to such an attack, whereas women are unable or do not want to defend themselves. In the coastal part of Kenya, it is seen as a rite of passage for violence to be propagated, especially in family and rural settings.
Works Cited
Crowell, Nancy A, and Ann W. Burgess. Understanding Violence against Women. Washington, D.C: National Academy Press, 1996. Print.