Stop counting the victims and count the victimisers, then perhaps we can start healing and holding people accountable.
“We talk about how many women were raped last year, not about how many men raped women… it’s a bad thing that happens to women, but when you look at the term ‘violence against women’, nobody is doing it to them. It happens to them… men aren’t a part of it,” says Jackson Katz.
Katz is an American teacher, speaker and writer who is internationally renowned for his groundbreaking work on gender, race and violence.
It is important that in light of what could be a spike in revenge killings, we ought to be able to contextualise the error of omitting that violence against women is committed by someone.
We read that a hundred and something girls are pregnant, can we not remind each other that men did the impregnating?
Who are these perpetrators?
In light of the recent murders of Baleseng and Tshiamo Moramaga in Mamelodi, speculation has been rife on the cause of the killings.
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Many believe there was a clash of expectations after alcohol was consumed that night.
Many on social media have decided who the girls were, without really knowing.
Yet, it seems there needs to be a reason why the man killed; not that it is actually innate in him, that he is just that, a murderer.
From rape to murder, society seems to vindicate the men who continuously violate women.
Search for statistics on teenage mothers, how many women are sexually violated, how many students are impregnated by teachers – then search for how many boys are teenage fathers, how many men violated women and how many teachers impregnated students.
Google brings you right back to articles about how many females as opposed to how many men… even Google is confused…
ALSO READ: Police arrest over 500 suspects for rape, sexual assault within a week
The women could have had a transactional engagement as per social media speculation; yet this is no explanation for their senseless murders.
Our approach to violence against women and children is passive, while we acknowledge that it exists.
Let’s admit that these crimes are being committed by persons of a specific gender. If you cannot identify it, how can you heal it?
There is a portion of our society that is sick and there needs to be rectification.
Stop counting the victims and count the victimisers, then perhaps we can start healing and holding people accountable.
Maybe then the number of victims might just decrease.
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