By other men! The inevitable retort snorted by heartless trolls whenever I talk about men who are victims to violent crime.
81% of murder victims are men – BY OTHER MEN! Men are the primary victims of assault – BY OTHER MEN! 900,000 men have been sexually assaulted in US prisons – BY OTHER MEN!
WHO’S DOING IT! MEN. WHO STARTED THE WARS? MEN. WHO MAKES THE LAWS? MEN. WHO’S IN CHARGE? MEN.
Men, men, men, men. It goes on and on and on – these people are quite frankly, obsessed with men.
But I’ll tell you what, if your ‘advocacy’ is more interested in pointing out the sex of the assailant, rather than sympathising and supporting the victim, then maybe it isn’t advocacy at all?
If you care more about shovelling blame at the feet of ‘men’ as a group, rather than understanding that the vast majority of men are no different to you, and are just as fearful and at risk - then maybe you’re the problem?
And if you respond to a man who has been assaulted, by highlighting the genitals of his assailant – then honestly, you’re kinda weird.
We all know that a women’s outfit does not invalidate sexual harassment against her, but seemingly a man’s gender does exactly this for his assault?
Why?
Because it invalidates nothing. It doesn’t make the crime any less devastating, or the person’s pain less important.
It doesn’t mean we can ignore them, or drop them a few rungs down the priority ladder.
So is ‘by other men’, just another form of victim blaming?
-Sources –
81% Murder victims: tinyurl.com/dcp3nams
Assault, three times more likely: tinyurl.com/4nbrzb6k
98% of military deaths tinyurl.com/274ybdmr
900,000 men sexually abused in prison tinyurl.com/4ytkyj2f
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FGM tinyurl.com/2p95b56x
Child Abuse tinyurl.com/yf36du88
Online Misogyny tinyurl.com/yykg6cdx
Illustrations by Alice Noir of the Noun Project