The cracks of society are well hidden, its shoulder is cold and the darkness deep.
Somewhere, a hidden room is walled off from compassion. One dimly lit, neglected and full of danger. Those inside fight and fear one another, clambering for help but finding little.
The ways out for them are limited – and too often taken.
Outside this lost space of society’s forgotten men, our narrow narratives of sexism and the self centredness and cruelty of those at its pulpit, too often bar us from entering.
Shrieks of misogyny are cried out to anyone who places an eared glass to the door.
Don’t go in, they did it to themselves, they belong there, it’s their fault, they deserve it.
They are the fathers losing children in secret family courts, the male victims of rape erased from legislation and the advocates cowed into silence.
They are the failing school boys we failed, the hopeless homeless left unhelped, and the incarcerated unwell, addicted and innocent.
The faceless victims nobody cries for, the shocking headlines left unwritten and survivors with nowhere to go.
Yes you can hide it, you can wave it away or turn off the lights.
Typo on page 9 *than 🚨
But just because we don’t see it, doesn’t mean it’s not there.
Z. Sommers - https://tinyurl.com/3b2ea658
Harvard – https://tinyurl.com/573m7ymf
L. Stemple – https://tinyurl.com/ebxajkvk
The Independent – https://tinyurl.com/8v99p5vd
ONS, Domestic Violence – https://tinyurl.com/yvbn657p
ONS, Stranger Violence – https://tinyurl.com/2bx5rayx
Nature COVID 19 – https://tinyurl.com/jshdaeej
New York City Health – https://tinyurl.com/frdnfk
Images by Henry Co, Dima Pechurin, Hamza Nouasria, Vidar Nordli, Gryffyn M, lIsabella and Zsa Fisher.
Illustration by Alexandria Eddings