Slam Poet Jeremy Loveday says #MensLetsTalk about gender violence
Earlier this year, a report from the World Health Organization (WHO) stated that 1 in 3 of the world’s women have or will experience physical or sexual violence throughout their lifetime. It was noted that these numbers were likely underestimates. Alongside the report, the director-general of WHO, described it as a “global health problem of epidemic proportions.” While campaigns like this often stir controversy at their excluding male victims and survivors, all the research we currently have shows that women represent the vast majority of victims and men represent the vast majority of perpetrators. As such, the particular dynamics of this issue are worth addressing on their own and through this particular lens. What we know today of crime and criminality we know because we’ve studied it through both broad and highly-specific perspectives.
Jeremy Loveday is the 2-time defending Victoria Poetry Slam Champion. His latest campaign hopes to raise awareness for gender-based violence and, more than that, he wants to initiate a worldwide conversation among men. What’s driving this? What changes can be made? Check out his latest work below and connect with him afterwords on Twitter @JeremyLoveday with the hasthag #MenLetsTalk.
I think a number of commenters are mischaracterizing the issue. This is not about victims of violence or domestic violence. This is about sexual violence specifically: rape, sexual assault, sexual abuse. Statistics indicate that male victims are around 10 percent of all victims, and that female perpetrators are about 10 percent of the offenders. Given that, I think it’s fair to say this is generally a problem of male perpetrators with female victims in the overwhelming majority of cases. The author is trying to narrow the focus to those types of cases and how men might be able to influence… Read more »
Firstly, could you please site your statistics. Statistics without references are just opinion. Secondly, the author specifically includes violence and sexual violence in his statistics in order to get a higher frequency. “Earlier this year, a report from the World Health Organization (WHO) stated that 1 in 3 of the world’s women have or will experience physical or sexual violence throughout their lifetime.” In addition, it has been said by many feminist groups that rape is not about sex, but rather that it is about power and control, just as any other form of violence. So, if you want to… Read more »
@ Monica H Your comment is precisely the reason his poem supports and sustains rape culture. It uses as justification the fiction that men are a small fraction of total victims and more insidiously that women are a small fraction of perpetrators. That 10% figure people mention relies on a gendered legal definition of rape, which fails to recognize 90% or more of the female perpetrators because it relies on penetration. Women don’t need to penetrate to rape. They can envelope, but it makes for good feminist propaganda so don’t expect the definition to change soon. The 2010 CDC Intimate… Read more »
@ Monica H Let me add one other thing so that you can understand why this author is receiving so much push back from people on this site. When you tell men that only 10% of men are rape victims and that only 10% of their rapists are women when the reality is so far removed from this, you’re telling a male rape victim of a female perpetrator that there is something wrong with him. He’s an aberration. None of the other men were raped by women. What’s wrong with you? This keeps men silent. This keeps men’s under reporting… Read more »
All humans are capable of violence and often commit it when they run out of other ways of dealing with their frustrations. Anyone with a 2 year old, male or female, knows they both need to be taught not to hit. The rates of intimate partner violence experienced by men and women are almost identical. http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/ncfv-cnivf/publications/mlintima-eng.php Men are 3 times more likely to be the victim of violence in general and 3 times more likely to be the victim of murder. Why is domestic violence, which represents only a small portion of violence experienced by humans, the main focus of… Read more »
Violence against women should be talked about. Violence against men should be talked about. Violence in general should be talked about. Cancer in women should be talked about. Cancer in men should be talked about. Cancer in general should be talked about. Speaking only and in constant generalities (because of a perceived neglectful exclusion) will, in my opinion, prevent us from making progress in the particular as well as the general. Criminologists have known and exhibited this for years. What happens when violence against men is talked about? The discussion is hijacked by those fighting for women. What happens when… Read more »
“Speaking only and in constant generalities (because of a perceived neglectful exclusion) will, in my opinion, prevent us from making progress in the particular as well as the general.” I would agree and was prepared to accept it, but this poet decided to make a big thing about silence and how silence contributes to “rape culture” after he made the conscious decision to remain silent on men’s victimization by women. He then subsequently erases the majority of male victims when he says “a patch that said stop rape a message so clear so in arguably simple” and “That initial reaction.… Read more »
And again I go to the fact that VAWA was reinstated this year. An act that provides access to millions in funds to address violence against women. What more can we do? We’ve been educating populations for many years now so what’s next? With the numbers being what they are, it doesn’t appear that these well funded programs didn’t work very well or we wouldn’t be having this discussion, would we? So if we just stick to the topic of violence against women, why aren’t changes happening? Why are these programs ineffective? So I have to turn my focus on… Read more »
IMHO< these reports are also the beginning of a woozle, right now they count physical and sexual violence both intimate and non intimate partner violence, eventually the narrative will be changed that 1 in 3 experience sexual violence by intimate partner and of course this and subsequent reports will be quoted.
I wonder if anyone ever sees the glass as half full
If 1 in 3 women experience this, it means 2 in 3 don’t.
I thought about that recently and have been contemplating doing an article on it. If men are responsible for ending violence to women, and men are responsible for 1 in 4 women being victims of domestic violence, then are men not also responsible for 75% of women NOT being victimized?
OK< so lets do this very unscientific study on GMP.
I am a man and I have experienced physical violence at least 20 times in my life.
NOW, other men (and women) how many have experienced physical violence in their lifetime.
If you start in grade school, easily 20 times. If you count parents hitting children, many many more. The violence I experienced was often perpetrated by females. For example, when braking up with a girlfriend she slashed me on the hand with a pair of scissors after she cut a photo of us up.
“Like gender violence isn’t a man’s problem. ” It is not only because men are perpetrators, but also because men are victims. “Like men can’t help themselves.” Yes, when a man is raped by a woman, he can’t help himself. Men can’t stop rape by themselves. Ignoring female perpetrators contributes to rape culture period. “Like the responsibility for one’s iwn actions doesn’t fall on their own shoulders. It does even when that person happens to be female. “a patch that said stop rape a message so clear so in arguably simple” So why is there the desire to make it… Read more »
This sort of “men are to blame” and “women are innocent victims” approach will only cause men to tune out from your message and bristle against it. Try a more constructive, less judgemental approach.
And what proportion of men and boys do you suppose experience physical or sexual violence in their life time? I would say that all males have been physically assaulted at some point – but 1 in 1 does sound like an odd statistic.
Given that likely 100% of males have experienced physical violence, not even addressing the number that have experienced sexual violence, perhaps we should focus some attention on the violence men experience rather than just blaming them all the time. It’s sad to see this sort of misadry on this site.
@ Scott
I agree with his message that people can and should control their own actions. It would be ideal if all violence stopped, but it would still be awesome if only the violence against women stopped. Where we part company is his insistence that men stand up against violence committed against people who claim the right to abuse us. This is essentially what he is saying by minimizing and choosing to ignore female perpetrated violence / sexual violence.
The problem is that human interactions are so intertwined that we can not hope to stop violence against only one group while permitting it against other groups. Some men hit women because they were beaten by their mother as children. So, in order to stop those men from hitting women we need to stop women from hitting boys.
We have a interpersonal relationship-focused violence problem……..Letting women off the hook, as either partners or caregivers of children is wrong and worse makes the whole campaign rather ineffective.
“all the research we currently have shows that women represent the vast majority of victims and men represent the vast majority of perpetrators” I’d like to see the definitions. My mother used corporal punishment, mostly on her three sons. My father died before my sister was born so I know he never hit her. Could it be that whole broken window thing? We’re so caught up in the murders that we forget the smaller things that lead to the deterioration of the neighborhood and eventually give rise to the murders. It would be ironic if the solution to stopping the… Read more »