End the violence against everyone

I often wonder why we, as a society, can’t make more effort to end unnecessary violence in general, and why such an issue that concerns all people has to be broken down along political and group lines.

How about ending violence against everyone, not just preferentially selected groups?

Before the people of “Man Up” tell others that, perhaps they should raise their own consciousness up about the forms of violence against men and boys in society, such as the fact males are the victims of three-quarters of all aggravated assaults.

Or the wealth of scholarly studies on abuse in intimate relationships which often show women as likely, if not more likely, to commit violence against their male partners; and where the relevant medical data shows about a third of all victims of serious domestic violence are men.

What we lack here is the anecdotal information because men are not encouraged to speak up about it, and some of them might have even been trained through culture to accept it as normal — they’re told to (ahem) “man up” instead.

The people of “Man Up” are asking for men to show respect and compassion for women while not getting it in return, and that’s not right.

Demanding to respect and love your sisters, daughters, and mothers and then expecting a different standard for your brothers, sons, and fathers is just plain wrong.

To suggest that only half of the species deserve to have all violence ended against them is immoral.

Stephen MacLeod,

Stratford