Friday 13 February 2015

ABUSE Part 1

Now, if there are any grammatical errors, in this I do apologise, I woke up and was just writing because I felt like I had a duty to make my views known, so here it is....


Now, about 3 days ago, a girl on my campus was beat up by a guy and since that, people have been outraged at the whole situation and the fact that at the moment it seemed like administration and those above us were sweeping it under the rug as if to say nothing was happening or it wasn’t a big deal. But many people forgot the whole issue and why they should have been outraged. The hall/dorm in which I’m apart of decided to do a silent protest and honestly I do believe that it made a humongous difference. But for how long? My question to you is, how long are we going to turn a blind eye to the things that actually matter? At one point in a discussion with a group of persons, someone said that it wasn’t like it was the first time this was happening on campus or that it happens all the time. Moreover, I don’t know if it saddens or outrages me more at the fact that, this seems to be the norm in our culture where you can easily say, ‘oh this type of thing happens all the time’. I think that is wrong on so many different levels and the mentality of our people need to be taken under serious thought.
          
However one of the things that really hurt was that, the beating took place at one of the well-known halls in our country (island) and many people blame the hall for what happened or are now attaching the stigma that all the guys that live there beat women. How is it that from all of what is happening around you, this is what you’re thinking? Why is it that every one of the guys that live on that hall should be punished from one guys wrong actions. Yes, this guy was from that hall, yes he beat this girl violently to the point of hospitalization but who are you to say that every single guy on that hall is the same? There is nothing to say that and because of this, we need to take a step back and realise the bigger issue. At some point in our protest, we got word that another hall wanted to stand up with us AGAINST the hall that the guy who beat the girl came from. WRONG!!! That was not the point of the silent protest and if that is what you were getting from it, we may have possibly failed to bring across our message that explicitly said that we were against GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE.
          
Another thing that got me thinking and talking to some of my friends was the fact that, many people were outraged because this was happening to a female. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m all about women empowerment, feminism and the whole equality issues but at the same time, most times we neglect to remember that though in this society we see males as leaders, alpha, strong, etc. that not all males are as strong as we believe or able to withstand or do certain things. And I honestly believe that even though females are being abused and not reporting it, even less males that are being abused are reported because, what is he going to tell the police officer ‘my woman beat me up and I’d like to press charges,’ or ‘I was raped and I’d like to report it,’ Most times these guys are laughed and told either to toughen up, or that no such thing is able to happen. And when the ones brave enough to actually do this and make their issues known and then laughed at, what kind of message does that send to those who weren’t as brave to step up and say the same.
          This will be part one so until next time, Have a good life

Xoxo

:)