Violence

Calls for greater male participation are now a commonplace in work on sexual and reproductive health and rights. The need to engage men in efforts to prevent sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) and promote sexual health and gender equality is well accepted. But we know less about the optimal forms of such engagement, particularly when it comes to moving beyond a focus on changing individual men’s attitudes and behaviours.

I’ve often found myself trying to explain to people that rape culture and patriarchy aren’t just bad for women. If you draw attention to a form of violence that is primarily aimed at women by men, and a form of social oppression that is intended to provide men with dominance over women, a lot of people will think you must be hostile to men, or want to take something away from men. Nothing could be further from the truth.

During the run up to Christmas and into the New Year, our attention in the UK was brought several times to what worryingly seemed like a recurring story in the press about a man who had just murdered members of his family.

The first version of the story in December took the form of a newly unemployed policeman -Tobias Day- who killed his wife, his six-year-old daughter and seriously injured his two other children before then killing himself.

We have had 25 years of research on men and masculinities. The relationship between men as gendered beings, power and change has been central in this research. This article presents some of the main findings that most researchers within critical studies on men will agree on, and then it discusses how to better understand men’s relationship to power and marginalization, change and gender equality in future research. It is explorative in its style, and an invitation to further debates on these important questions.

The paper presents an overview of the role men can play in combatting violence against women. After a short introduction on the broader development in the thinking of men and violence and the changes in the perspectives on men’s violence, different initiatives are presented.
These are grouped into general prevention strategies, treatment programs, youth and schools and then fatherhood. The last part is devoted to recommendations for further actions.

A new report highlights the everyday actions men can take to help reduce and prevent men’s violence against women. The report is titled Men Speak Up: A toolkit for action in men’s daily lives, and it was released on November 25th, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.

The report is available at the following web address: http://www.whiteribbon.org.au/resources/research. (There is also an abridged version.)

Dear friends and colleagues,

We are pleased to announce the completion of the film A New Kind of Strength, located at the website www.privateviolence.com. The Waitt Institute for Violence Prevention collaborated with Astraea Productions, Markay Media and Shelter From the Storm Productions to capture the efforts made by men across the country to draw attention to the vital role men play in ending violence against women.

This 17,000 word discussion presents a comprehensive review of both the determinants of men's intimate partner violence against women and of the strategies for its prevention.

I want to start by offering some good news. As far as we can tell, rates of violence against women in Australia have declined. Comparing the 2006 survey by the ABS and the last national survey in 1996, smaller proportions of women experienced physical or sexual violence in the last 12 months than ten years ago. I hasten to add though: the other side of this is that over 440,000 women experienced violence in the last year.

Why might rates of violence have declined? One factor is that community attitudes towards men’s violence against women have improved. Another factor may be growing gender equality in relationships and families, reducing men’s willingness or ability to enforce their dominance through violence and abuse.

I have become increasingly disturbed by an ongoing pattern of wanton, arrogant and in some cases, downright hostile behavior that has been directed toward Black women.  Yes, I am male but I am also a feminist and strongly support the belief that our female sisters deserve as much dignity as we do. Having the XY chromosome does not allow anyone the right to “act the fool” toward or oppress those with a XX chromosome.