Picture supplied.
The recent outcry on violence against women highlights how society’s reaction to the issue does not solve the problem, says gender researcher Lisa Vetten, who decried such buzzwords as #MenAreTrash.
“We keep reinforcing the gender norms that are the problem, such as that one group [women] is vulnerable and needs the other’s protection. We don’t try to control men’s behaviour, we try to control women’s behaviour,” she said.
Society needed to look at men as victims of violence too.
“We neglect to ask about the victimisation of men by other men. Men are five to six times more likely to be murdered than the rate at which women are murdered.”