Hiding head in the sand never solves problem

THE EDITOR, Madam:

IN THE Gleaner article ‘Lock shop in solidarity with all women’ dated February 4, 2020, Ms Joy Crawford added her support to the quixotic sex strike debate. Essentially, she is calling for a symbolic gesture, and this makes it nothing more than a ‘stupid, dumb, pointless idea’.

It is always easier to intellectualise about a problem; deceiving ourselves into believing that we are actually doing something about it, rather than seeking to do something practical and efficacious. Ms Crawford outlined an appalling list of horrific acts against women but unintentionally attenuated the gravamen of their situation by offering a mere palliative symbolism.

She denounced the idea that a woman’s choice to lock shop (withhold the tuntun) will justify men to increase violence against her. In that denouncement, she has a partner in me, but we part company in the denial of the factual reality of most of these disenfranchised women.

And, it is not the reality of only the ‘unempowered’ women but also that of some of the more liberated ones. This is so because their misogynistic, deranged, brain-damaged vertical beast of a man really thinks he owns his woman by virtue of providing the basic necessities for her or having an extra undeveloped leg.

Ms Crawford, calling for a sex strike while hiding your head in the sand is absolutely not a good position to be in.

I am agonisingly aware of the atrocities being perpetrated against our women and desperately want something done about it, but certainly not just a symbolic gesture.

PRACTICAL SOLUTIONS

Instead of calling for people to waste time with symbolism, why not call for something practical?

Why not go into the areas that have a high incidence of abuses against women and hold workshops for both the abused and the abuser?

Why not seek funds to set up a training centre to empower these disenfranchised women?

Why not seek to renovate some of those buildings downtown to house abused women who do not have anywhere to go, to escape from their abusers?

Why not set up a hotline for women to call for advice the moment they detect the scintilla of any form of abuse?

Instead of calling for couples to abstain symbolically from sex, why not encourage them to ensure they exemplify the right values to their sons and daughters?

This would not be for just a day or a month, but for perpetuity. This way, we would ensure a future free of abuse of our women.

E. ELPEDIO ROBINSON