Violence is Gender-Blind

Written by Shawn Ruest on 20/10/11

Photo by European Parliament on Flickr

This week is the Young Women’s Christian Association’s (YWCA) Week without Violence and its main focus is a program called ‘Power of Being a Girl’. This goal of this program is to create a violence free world and it also encourages people to discuss many issues that are linked to self-esteem, bullying and Internet safety.

By discussing these issues, the program ‘Power of Being a Girl’ aims to create a safe space for young girls. The idea here is to discuss how physical abuse is not the only issue to overcome when we try to build a safe space for people. The founders of this program want to show that even if it isn’t physically hurting someone, bullying and gossiping in any form, whether it’s online or offline, in person or behind someone’s back, whether it is directed towards a girl or a guy, is still harmful.

Keeping this program in mind, we should also consider that violence hides behind many shadows. Did you know that 8 in 10 youth who are victim of a violent crime don’t report it to the police (Statistics Canada)? Just because you don’t see violence happening, it doesn’t mean that it isn’t.

Violence against women is an issue that concerns everyone. Men or women, everyone can take a stand on the subject! If someone I knew was being mistreated, I would certainly take a stand and would appreciate it if others would join too, because the truth is: everyone can stand up for each other. So let’s all take a stand together during the YWCA Week without Violence.

Links

Child and Youth Victims of Police-reported Violent Crime, 2008
Power of Being a Girl
Week without Violence
White Ribbon Campaign