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
:)
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