The 101st anniversary of the global event acknowledged the economic, political and social achievements of women. But the relentless onslaught of harms and injuries to women and girls continues and I wonder, has anything really changed?
Violence against women is a scourge on the planet. Millions of women and girls trafficked into sexual slavery, female genital mutilation, honour killings, dowry deaths, forced marriage, female foeticide and infanticide.
According to the UN, about 200 million girls in the world today are missing. India and China are believed to eliminate more baby girls than the number of girls born in the US each year.
Women and girls are ground down in so many parts of the world. They are at risk of violence at every stage of their lives: from conception to old age. That was vividly illustrated for me during a visit to a shelter for women and girls in Hyderabad, India. On the bottom level were the abandoned baby girls, many with broken limbs from being thrown on to garbage heaps. On the second were the abandoned pregnant girls and women. And on top were the discarded widows.
Every day some new atrocity against women and girls is reported. A 15-year-old girl in the Maldives was sentenced to 100 lashes. Why? Because she had pre-marital sex. Actually she was raped by her stepfather, who killed the resulting baby.
And of course the death by gang rape of 23-year-old medical student Jyoti Singh Pandey in New Delhi. Rape is the fastest-growing crime in India. Delhi’s police commissioner compared women being raped to men being pickpocketed.
The conviction rate for rapes in India in 2011 was just 26.4 per cent. That seems bad, doesn’t it? Compare it with 5.7 per cent of convictions in England and Wales. And in the US, 97 per cent of rapists will get off scot free.
Reeva Steenkamp’s death brought to light that one South African is woman killed every six hours by her partner.
In Australia, violence against women costs the taxpayer an estimated $13.6 billion. Yet the mistreatment of women is routinely used in entertainment, fashion and advertising, even treated as a laugh. At the Oscars, host Seth MacFarlane’s sang We saw your boobs, a song about all the women in the audience whose breasts he had seen on screen.
MacFarlane seemed to miss the rapes and bashings, but at least he got to see naked breasts.
Men’s T-shirts collapse rape into a punch line, with slogans like: “It’s not rape if you yell surprise” and “Relax it’s just sex”, depicting the bound body of a naked woman spattered in blood, sold in youth surf stores. Online retailer Amazon had shirts printed with “Keep calm and rape a lot”. Another in the same line says, “Keep calm and hit her”.
Zoo magazine, read by 28,000 boys aged 14-17 a month, features two halves of a woman and invites readers to describe what they’d like to do to the disembodied half they prefer. Zoo is sold in supermarkets.
Facebook promotes violence against women: “Cleaning foundation off your sword after a hard day of hunting sluts, Dragging sluts into your room unconscious in a sack, You know she’s playing hard to get when she takes out a restraining order, I like my women how I like my Scotch, 10 years old and locked in my basement” are some examples.
“Rape is such a strong word, I prefer struggle snuggle” was shared widely through social media not long ago.
Sexual assault worker Alison Grundy says: “If we continue to subject future generations of young men to great barrages of aggressive, misogynist, over-sexualised and violent imagery in pornography, movies, computer games and advertising, we will continue to see the rates of sexual violence against women and children that continue unabated today. Or worse.”
But there are signs of hope. Women and girls are pushing back and demanding change. We saw it in the streets of India. We saw it in the response to the shooting in Pakistan of Malala Yuousafzai, who was shot because she wanted to go to school.
One Billion Rising (representing the number of female victims of violence) events have been held around the world. In Melbourne last month survivors of sexual assault launched a new book of their stories “We will not go quietly”, speaking out against sexual violence.
International Women’s Day should be an opportunity not to shy away from the difficult ugly truths, or be overwhelmed and depressed, but to name and shame them, harness our anger and be part of the solution.
Published in the Herald Sun March 12 2013
2 Responses
Male violence against women is pandemic globally and yet it is still taboo to name sex of those innumerable perpetrators.
Male Supremacist Systems continue to remain intact globally because holding men to account is taboo. Instead we continue to focus on what these invisible males subject women and girls to because ‘violence against women’ is the issue – not pandemic male violence against women and girls.
It’s a win win for males globally and a lose lose for all women and girls because how male power operates must not be subjected to scrutiny since this supposedly ‘upsets men and we mustn’t upset men and their fragile feelings.’
‘Rape’ is taboo for those innumerable male sexual predators because they don’t want to be held to account and told ‘you are a rapist.’ Instead these male sexual predators justify their actions by claiming ‘it was just “struggle snuggle.” Indeed – because men continue to refuse to accept they are accountable for their misogynistic beliefs and enactment of male pseudo sex right to females of all ages.
Yes women and girls are challenging male violence against women but we must name the problem and not pander to men’s fragile feelings (sic) because this is collusion with men and the male supremacist system.
Did the Civil Rights Movement refuse to name white male supremacists as the problem? No of course not but we women must not name men as the problem and mens’ male supremacist system must be eliminated if we women are to be accorded our fundamental right of dignity and respect. Yes respect from those women-hating men rather than colluding with men and hiding male accountability.
Hi Melinda. l read your articule in the herald sun on Friday. I totally agree with you that the women’s movement has not moved forward very much. l did look at their website on Friday and l must admitt l was impressed with it as celebrated the way women have come forward in the last 101 years.But if we don’t address the volience against women,then we let down girls like Jill Meghear and Sarah MacCafferty who was chopped up and body dumped in a wheelie bin.l actually saw a young fellow with a t shirt on the other day with a drawing of a gun on it.lt said;”lf you don’t like the bitch,shag her and then shoot her”.l was so angry l came dangrously close to ripping his shirt off!!! Decided that was not the way to go! ltrust this finds you in good health.Kind regards,Dianne Coyle