November 25, International Day against Violence against Women
Also: gender-based violence, sexist violence, patriarchal violence against women
Topics: violence in human beings, violence in patriarchal societies/cultures, types of violence we know, our changing perception of violence, Law/Crime and violence: vulnerable groups in society, hideous crimes, torture & rape, the case of other animals + our perception, socially speaking
Clarifying commonly misunderstood concepts: domestic violence vs gender-based violence, human violence vs gender-based violence
Today we conmemorate this date because societies in the world have acknowledged we have a gender-based problem in our cultural and prevailing sex-gender system, whereby women have been considered inferior to Man and therefore subject to Man’s decisions. Women as objects, as possessions, as assistants or maids or slaves, particularly sexual slaves and workers, have thwarted their lives in particularly harsh ways, and although this has recently begun to change, our ways of understanding identity and relationships are still deeply marked by this century-justified set of beliefs. We need to question our inner thoughts and develop a feminist intelligence to do so, if we wish to understand there is no fixed gender human identity established by our genitals. Human minds are capable of all kinds of things, regardless our genitals. We can learn, and imagine, and therefore BECOME. So let’s hope we can overcome our sinister tendency to justifying violence, and understand we can be much better as human beings.
Today, the 41 women murdered in Spain by their meant-to-be male husbands or partners are on our minds, but not only them. The Law does not acknowledge all the cases. A terrifying amount of women suffer violence at the hands of men on this planet, including rape and rape by men who are meant to love and respect them, this is, in “safe” places. This violence is hideous and destructive for them, and its effects are long-lasting, but it is also degrading for men, because violence degrades the one who uses it. We can do much better. We can think, and love, and communicate in nonviolent intelligent creative ways!
Let’s keep safe and be kind! We’ll be happier!
Michelle Ford's Blog for Básico, EOI Fuengirola 