Have you ever noticed that when women are being abused, people are more likely to intervene…
(Although, not often enough, if you ask me.)
…but when people see a woman harassing or abusing a man, people tend to laugh it off?
“LOL wimmen be cray!” — guy in the red
BUT! Did you know there’s a social structure in place that allows for this double standard of gender violence to exist?
Tell ’em, Joe!
That social structure, my friends … is called PATRIARCHY.
Patriarchy is why:
- Men are expected to be big, tough, macho dudes who hit things and are allergic to feelings.
- Women are expected to be maternal, nurturing, emotional ladies who are delicate and love babies.
These gender roles are bad for everyone.
- Patriarchy blames women who are abused by men for provoking their “natural male aggression.”
- Patriarchy hurts MEN, too. It says that men must be strong, which is why many male victims of domestic abuse feel they can’t ask for help.
Just how big is the problem of gender violence? Here are some stats on the same scale — seconds AND per year.
Abuse in seconds:
Abuse per year:
Too much.
What can we do? How can we care? This is a quagmire of gender yuck.
The answer, my friends, is FEMINISM.
Feminism: A movement that seeks to achieve social, political, and
economic equality for people of all genders.
Feminism seeks to dismantle the patriarchy. You don’t even have to ask it to! (But you can!)
Yep.
Remember how feminist folks want equality, even for dudes? Making what happens in this video a thing of the past is *exactly* what those feminists are talking about.
So there you have it. Gender violence is a problem; feminism wants to solve it. So let’s all dismantle the patriarchy together.
Who’s with me???
