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From sexist jokes and coercive control to sexual assault and brutal jealousy-fuelled assaults - there’s not much off limits on the Love Bites programme which national charity Napcan has delivered to thousands of students.
The “respectful relationship education” title sounds a little bland. But it is being delivered against a backdrop of violence against women in this country that has been labelled a “national crisis”. At its core: trying to shift attitudes and behaviour that has contributed to that culture.
The high-profile stabbing murders of six people at Sydney’s Bondi Junction shopping centre last month - in which police said it seemed “obvious” that attacker Joel Cauchi targeted women - brought the issue into sharper focus.
In the month since then, at least three Australian women have been murdered, allegedly by partners or exes.
So far this year, 28 women have been violently killed in Australia, according to campaign group Destroy the Joint which runs the Counting Dead Women project. At the same point last year it was 15.
Nah, I’ll go ahead and argue for an end to all violent crime, and not exclude the victims who aren’t lucky enough to have their gender be the reason they were murdered.
I’ve never understood this prevalent idea that murder victims are only worth caring about if their gender played a role. Like, how horribly fucked-up is it to say that some murder victims are more worthy of concern than others, especially when those victims only comprise a small minority of murders?
Being killed because of your gender and being killed because you were in the wrong place or because you looked like an easy mark are all equally bad reasons to murder someone. They’re also all phenomena that could just as easily be addressed by government programs like in the OP, and yet all we ever hear about is the “violence against women” epidemic that only affects a minority of victims.
Plus, even if the numbers of women murdered for their gender is going up (which is obviously horrible and inexcusable), that number still has a long way to go before it even approaches the much higher number of men who are already being killed every year. Like, of course it’s a horrible thing that the number of murdered women is increasing, but I fail to see how that’s so much more important than the much higher number of men who are already being killed, but that nobody is doing anything about.
I mean, the reason for it is the same as it always is - men are seen as disposable by society and therefore issues affecting them are ignored - it just sucks to constantly be inundated with evidence of just how deeply ingrained this misandry is in our society.
Because we already have crime prevention? You’re the one who brought “what about the men” into it. Listen dude, I’m just some drunk lady on the internet and you clearly have some issues here. So how about whatever your problem is, you organize about it.
We care about misogynistic violence because women are tired of our gender getting us killed and we organized about it. Black men got tired of their race and gender combination getting them killed and so they organized about it. Whatever your problem is, either speak to a psychologist or organize about it. I think I know which one is more likely to help. But yeah you aren’t gonna get what you need or seem to want posting “what about men?” in a post about people doing something about violence against women. Unless you want to be mad for no reason and come off poorly, but even then you’re being inefficient about it, try making a scene to a minimum wage or tip worker if that’s your goal.
I wonder if the woman that killed her mum has been charged with DV.