How about we end all violence?
Apparently today many women in Canada are trying to promote a ‘National Day of Awareness’ in a campaign to stop voilence towards women. I have a pretty big problem with these organizations and their alledged agenda. Am I against stopping violence towards women? Of course not. But whenever I hear someone say we should end violence against women, to me is sounds incredibly ignorant. All violence is bad, so we should be campaigning to end all violence, period.
While I happen to agree that no one should be violent towards any woman, I prefer to go a step further. How about we take a stand against all violence? Let’s be agaisnt violence towards not only women but against children, animals and dare I say it… men.
Rather than have a campaign to stop voilence towards one specific gender, let’s choose to have a campaign to stop any kind of violence towards all genders rather than just one. No one should be a victim of violence, so to campaign to stop it just against women seems extremely hypocritical and worse than that it seems very ignorant. If this was men campagning to stop violence against just men, I have no doubt feminists around the world would call their cause ‘dscriminating’. Yet when women champion a cause that only concerns themselves, it’s not considered discrimination. Why not?
I’m not ignorant to the where these ‘groups’ are coming from. I am well aware what tactics they are using to inspire people to become motivated to care/act towards a specific cause. Putting an emphasis on what society believes is weak creates a more sympathetic audience, which in turn generates support for their cause. Campaigns like this are in fact extremely counter productive as Feniminsts for decades have been asking for gender equality. Yet every year they want the world to stop and spend an entire day to become more aware that they are in fact victims of men and society. That my friends is hypocrisy and the reason why this campaign is not being run with the best interests of women in hand. Either you are treated as an equal member of society or you are treated as the victim: you cannot be both.
Like all aspects of life, there is a flip side to this campaign. When we preceive (and assume) that only women are the true victims of spousal abuse (which is not true) then people become cynical about the other victims, for instance male victims of domestic violence because they are not perceived to be weak so they are less deserving of compassion/assistance when they are assaulted. Women are just as capable of violence as men, even domestic violence, but this campaign has programed society to think only men are capable of beating a spouse, which simply is just not the case. Women are capable of violence, and not all of it is done in self defense.
I will be the first to agree that no one should ever hurt a woman but at the same time no one should commit an act of violence towards anyone, period. When I teach Ethan that violence is bad, I promote non-violence towards everyone and that includes women. The campaign against violence shouldn’t be so restricted, we should be against all violence. Zero tolerance towards violence towards men, women, children, animals and then you’ll have a cause that everyone can get behind.
Peter
Check your privilege. https://sindeloke.wordpress.com/2010/01/13/37/
Warning Comment
Very good point, Peter. Violence is a natural trait of the human animal, I suppose it can be controlled through years of education. The problem is there is no worldwide education standard. That is needed to eradicate the old bad habits, like violence, belief in mysticism, religion etc. But any parent is free to raise their kid any way they like. Good luck.
Warning Comment
i respect what your saying but it’s specifically december 6 because that’s the day a monster seperated the men from the women and gunned the women down in cold blood. yes by all means let’s promote antiviolence for everyone but is it really so horrible to take a minute on dec 6 and think about how tragic that day really was?
Warning Comment
Groovy: No one seems to care about the four men who were shot and injured that day. Let’s only call for violence against women to stop. Shoot men but not women… right? I am disgusted by how a shooting of men and women was hijacked by feminists and exploited for political gain. It’s why this day and how people use it sickens me. People should be against all violence, not just theviolence that futhers their political agenda.
Warning Comment
who said i didn’t care about the four men? i care abuot everyone who was a victim. but you make it sound like lepine came in just wanting to shoot a bunch of people when he obviously was there for the expressed purpose of killing as many women as he could. he shot 24 women and killed 14. again like i said before i am for antivolence for everyone but why can’t you see this was (continued)
Warning Comment
OBVIOUSLY an attack aimed at women? can’t we respect dec 6 for what it is as well as promote antivolence across the board, thats all i’m saying.
Warning Comment
Groovy: Lépine was a “lone gunman” who does not represent men, and violence against women is neither condoned nor encouraged officially or unofficially in western culture. In this perspective, memorializing the shooting is irressponsible and socially divisive on the basis of gender and therefore harmful by bestowing guilt on all men, irrespective of individual propensity to violence against women. We should be against all shootings and acts of violence… not just those against one gender.
Warning Comment
well i never said he represented all men. im only arguing that this was an Act Of Violence Against Women, maybe one of the most tragic ones ever. yet again, i am ALL FOR promoting antivolence for evryone but if instead of targeting women lepine separated the whites from the blacks and just shot the blacks and then went around targeting the blacks and the occasional white who got in the way (con)
Warning Comment
would that not be something that would make you sensitive to a specific problem within the greater contex of the larger one?
Warning Comment
Groovy: It was an isolated incident by a lone, crazed gun-man and he was made the poster boy for ALL violence against women, which was political explotation since this is the ONLY time in history it has ever happened. If men had used an incident where one woman shot a dozen men to promote stopping violence against men, feminists around the world would not hesitate to label the memorializing of that shooting as ‘gender discrimination’ for not including violence towards women in it. How this shooting was handled created social division among many people by means of gender discrimination. The best way to unite people to rally against violence is to protest all violence, not a single example of it. The same goes for all shootings: they should be protested together, not singled out.
Warning Comment
so then i guess you’d join “the feminists” in de-crying it if men used such a situaton to promote awareness for violence against men? if violence toward men was even remotely as prominent as violence toward women then i would have to disargee with both you and the feminists because i’d be calling it what it was, violance against men, rthaer than trying to find some PC middleground.
Warning Comment
in the long history of the world male vioelnce toward females has alwyas been far more frequent then the opposite. even today in many countries which i wont name but which you know who i mean, women are systematically beaten, raped, and discriminated against at revolting levels. is your response to this that there is simply violence in all cultures toward all people and that this isnt (con)
Warning Comment
a very specific problem? i’m not a man hater. i will say one more time i am with you that we should all be for antivolence for everyone, all i’m trying to say is being sensitive toward VAW on this one particular day is nothing if not reasonable. anyway it was nice meeting you, i like your diary (i’ve been reading othr entries in the meantime)
Warning Comment
Groovy: “So then i guess you’d join “the feminists” in de-crying it if men used such a situaton to promote awareness for violence against men?” Yes, I most certainly would. Like I said in the entry, I’m against all violence… and that includes violence against women. I’m looking at the big picture here, which is zero tolerance for all violence against people of all race, creeds or genders. I’m glad you enjoyed reading the entries, and your comments (regardless if they agree with mine or not) are always welcome.
Warning Comment
sorry but you keep repeating that you’re against ALL violence as though we disagree on that, but i gues im confusded on why you dont even seem to want to acknowledge that male violence toward women is so much more prevalent than female vioelcne toward men. no ones arguing that one is better or worse than the other but can you deny that one is definitely more problematic than the other?
Warning Comment
I have to agree with your first noter. Check your privilege. The reason feminist groups have to promote awareness is because violence so disproportionately affects women. I guarantee you don’t see half of what women experience in relation to violence and harassment, because as a man you don’t have to worry about it. It’s not that women are asking for special treatment by trying to raise awareness
Warning Comment
of what is so commonplace that is seems acceptable. The misogynistic jokes I hear EVERYWHERE tell me that I have no right to exist as a person. Without a man a woman is nothing to society, so we should be grateful anyone wants us, even if he is abusive. It’s just something to put up with. Boys will be boys and all that nonsense. Women are more likely to continue to put up with violence and abuse
Warning Comment
than men, and the point is to encourage them to realize their own humanity and leave those abusive relationships, while also reminding men that we are in fact human and deserve the same consideration a man might. Abusive men don’t not hit men because the other guy is stronger, it’s because they actually respect other men, whereas women are nothing.
Warning Comment
With all of that said, yes, we should be working to end violence against everyone. Yes, you should teach your son not to tolerate violence against anyone, because he should respect everyone, no matter their gender. True feminism is intersectional and recognizes that for women to be equal we shouldn’t tolerate violence against men either. Nor should we be ok with mistreatment of anyone because of
Warning Comment
Prufock: Abusive men do hit other men, what you said is by far the stupidest thing I’ve seen all month. There are statistics that state that men are the larger percentage of assault victims, not women. That would suggest that men do hit other men. Rather than just float unproven feminist propaganda which is dismissive and divides people, wouldn’t it be more productive to boycott and protest all violence, rather than against just one gender? Or would you prefer to fight discrimination by practicing discrimination?
Warning Comment
Actually, let me rephrase that, since apparently I misstated my intent. *Men who are abusive specifically toward women rather than toward other men . . . But thanks for being a dick about it.
Warning Comment
i’ll put it one last way, once again putting aside for a second that violence against anyone is terrible whihc i think everyone here agrees with… would you agree that if if the number of violent acts perpetrated by men against women was equal to the number of acts perpetrated by women against men, than there would be much much much much much less violence to speak of in general?
Warning Comment
I am quite unsure whether humanity has the ability to end violence. I’ve been watching “Mankind: A History of All of Us” on the history channel. War seems to be our way. Further, the book “A Country Made by War” discusses that it was, indeed, war that made the country “great.” Kinda sad.
Warning Comment