It’s up to the parents

In response to her question, “Who raised these … predators on womankind,” Sharon Welch-Blair concludes in her guest column that “we have met the enemy and he is us.” I would be in full agreement with her position if she had simply replaced the “he is us” with “he and she are us.”

Sexual predators, and more commonly men who see women as sexual objects, weren’t only raised by men. Most of these individuals were predominantly influenced by women as they formulated their basic attitudes about sexual roles and morals, with and without strong male influences in the household. So from where do these attitudes first come? It’s from their mothers and fathers. Both parents bear responsibility for the values passed on to their children. So where does the solution start? It has to start with mothers and dads and even grandparents raising their grandchildren.

I know some will claim this is deflecting blame from the perpetrators, or trying to blame women, but it’s not. They did it, and they are responsible. But we must realize that if we want better future behavior from our sons in their adulthood, we must first raise them to understand that equality between the sexes is first and foremost a fundamental value of our own households. No one will influence them more than a good parent (mother or father) in embracing this fundamental belief.

And our daughters need to share the same values and be courageous enough to resist and expose the predators no matter the power dynamics. Let’s raise our sons to be respectful of all women, and our daughters to be strong and smart enough to repel those men who are not so they won’t be the next victim.

JOHN BRAYMAN

Little Rock