Defusing Patriarchal Violence: Editor’s Letter and TOC
This issue represents months of discussions with 24 people who are invested in the work of reducing gender-based violence. As the first major project of our new Changemakers Alliance (CALL) initiative, this month’s stories lay a foundation for understanding the primary reasons men in particular enact violence against women and how our existing solutions are inadequate.
- Setting Up the Issues & Solutions
- The Reality of Sex Trafficking
- Roots of Violence
- Why the Legal System Is Not the Answer for Many Survivors
- My View as a Police Chief
- How to Defy Rape Culture
- Talking to Boys About Masculinity
- Online-only: Red Flags in My First Marriage
- Online-only: When Domestic Violence Was Considered a Private Matter
- Online-only: Gender-based violence data and resources
The next step: hosting public conversations about better solutions, and following up with collective action steps. The mission of Changemakers Alliance: Media That Makes a Difference.
From genocide to enslavement, from internment to deportation, from racism to gender-based violence, patriarchy rules with power, control, exploitation, and violence. The role of feminism is to correct that system.
Cis men’s voices are included in this month’s issue, which is a departure for us. We need everyone engaged in this work, especially men, since that is the gender most often perpetrating the violence.
Several questions emerge from the interviews featured this month, which will be focal points in future CALL discussions:
- Why is it that men are more often physically abusive compared to women?
- Could investing in restorative justice models create a society more adept at conflict resolution and reduction of violence, rather than focusing mostly on punitive measures?
- Does incarcerating people for gender-based violence lead to better behavior? If not, can we invest in what does?
- The mandatory arrest law has unintentionally led to many victims being arrested instead of perpetrators. When can we adjust this law?
- Why is the state prohibited from tracking whether people have guns?
These questions and more will be part of our March 25 “Bodily Autonomy” event. Join us for the next step.
We are grateful to the planning team that helped us to pinpoint the participants and angles featured this month.
Underwriting support from Family Tree Clinic and Valvoline enables us to develop coverage about gender-based violence.
We are also very appreciative of the readers and CALL members whose donations enabled us to expand this issue from 24 pages to 32 and to print an additional 500 copies for statewide distribution. To help us keep this conversation going please become a CALL member.
