Posted by Pala Molisa Dec 5, 31 12 min read. And fair enough, too, because this crisis is one of the most important we face as a society. In New Zealand, a third of all women experience physical violence from a partner. Globally, a third of all women will be beaten or raped in their lifetime. Some people see this increased activity by men in anti-violence campaigns as progressive β as feminist successes. Very few men are sociopaths, with no sense of right and wrong. Men hit and rape because we live in a system of power that puts men on top and women at the bottom.
Where women are freer than in most other countries? Well, yes. In New Zealand, women are over-represented among the poor. We still have a gender pay gap where women get paid less than men.
Look at the global multi-billion-dollar pornography and prostitution industries. Look at the music, entertainment and beauty industries. All these industries treat women as objects and their sexuality as a commodity β as something that can be bought and sold. To struggle for supremacy in social relationships. And to repress all those emotions that we think of as feminine. It also makes men dangerous to each other β and to women and children.
This is because the first group of people that boys are taught to exercise dominance over is females: women and girls. This comes through clearly if we look at sex. But the culture does endorse a model of masculinity that makes rape inviting. And why we can legalise the prostitution industry, which is based on commercialised rape β and not see anything wrong with it.
Nor do they link it to the violence of poverty and economic inequality that women suffer from. Or to the violence of militarism that women suffer from. Or the violence of pornography and prostitution that women suffer from. These campaigns will talk about the violence that an individual man will do to an individual woman. They experience incredibly high rates of violence and sexual abuse.
