Category Archives: gender violence

Not in the headlines: Men working to end male violence

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by Pat Shelly

 

A major news story this month is about a NFL football player who punched and knocked out his fiance, with a security camera video recording the brutal act. The player was eventually fired, but only after a huge protest about the initial reaction by the NFL to this violence off the field: the player was suspended for two games.  These Twitter hashtags act as a short-hand summary of the trends in the news stories about this assault and about violence against women (VAW) that followed:

#RayRice  #NFL  #Abuse  #DomesticViolence  #DV  #WhyIStayed  #WhyILeft  #VAW

Missing from most news feeds? This:

 

Image: The question is not "Why didn't the vicitm leave?" The better question is "Why does the abuser choose to abuse?"

image: National Network to End Domestic Violence @NNEDV

 

 

 

Lately, I have spent time reflecting on the 40+ years that the global End Violence against Women movement has existed (the first Speak-out on Rape in the U.S. was held in January 1971 in New York City). While women have made up a large majority of activists in this area, I know first hand that men are concerned about violence against women (VAW). Here are a few of the ways that men, and institutions led by men, have joined in this struggle. Perhaps these can generate some headlines, too.

 

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Dancing Past Trauma: One Billion Rising

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Pat Shelly

Dancing through Trauma: 1 Billion Rising

Blog 1billionrisingLOGOfirst

Here is the math:

There are 7  billion people on this planet.

Half are women and girls – around 3.5 billion people.

One  out of three females will experience a sexual assault in her lifetime.

3.5 billion divided by 3 = 1.6666 billion.

How  does a society address the reality of 1/3 of its members undergoing this trauma?

Here is one way:

On Friday, February 14, 2014, women around the world will be dancing in the streets.

What’s the celebration? It is the expression of a different kind of love on this Valentine’s Day, a love of our/women’s endurance and survival and capacity for joy in the face of the global epidemic of gender-based violence.

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