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What is men's violence against women and girls?

Okay I'm doing it.

I’ve got my mug of tea, my thick skin, some optimistic innocence and I’m going to try to define this thing called men’s violence against women.

In under 500 words no less.

It's a topic more suited for a thesis but never mind, let’s have a go.

It’s violence

Defining violence could be its own PHD topic.

When we think about violence our minds conjure up physical acts of harm, but violence can be more insidious than that.

It can be controlling someone’s behaviour.

It can be saying horrible things and making threats.

It can be making a person feel worthless.

Violence is a form of enacting power over someone else against their will.

 

It’s violence that happens to women

Well, mostly.

It’s violence that happens to women and girls... or those who are perceived to present as women and girls. For example, a non-binary person the perpetrator sees as a woman.

It’s violence that happens to those who aren’t supported by male systems of power which we call the patriarchy.

It’s one of the negative outcomes of this power system (which also harms men).

 

It’s violence that happens because we’re women

What you might call the key ingredient is the ‘why’ behind the violence.

The thing that makes an act men’s violence against women is that the violence is caused by a system of structures that oppresses women.

It happens because men have the power and women... don’t.

Redistribute that power, change the systems and structures - aka end gender inequality - and violence against women stops.

 

Does this mean women would never experience violence?

No.

Because not all violence women experience is caused by gender inequality.

 

It’s violence that’s compounded by other inequalities

Men's violence against women shows differently across class, race, and cultures. How women experience this violence depends on our identity.

We have many different social identities - our race, class, religion, - and they link and overlap.

People are discriminated against for multiple identities at once, in a way that compounds to more than the sum of its parts.

For example, women of colour experience racism and sexism but are also discriminated against in ways specific to being a woman of colour such as being fetishised as exotic.

To effectively end gender inequality; we need to recognise these different compounding inequalities or fail to achieve gender equality for all women.

It’s perpetrated by a man

We use the term men’s violence against women and girls because this violence is most often caused by a man to a woman or girl.

But this violence can be upheld by other women. Women can be involved directly in acts of violence such as trafficking, forced marriage, voting to ban abortions, or they can contribute to the harmful systems of power by enforcing gender stereotypes, victim blaming, or denying the existence of gender inequality altogether.

Violence against women and girls can be carried out by groups and institutions. Banning abortions is an act of violence against women by the state, because it’s the state using its power over individual women to forcefully control their bodies.

 

Does this mean violence can’t happen to men?

No. Of course not.

But violence against men isn’t the issue we focus on as a charity or the topic of this blog.