Actor and anti-violence educator Ben Atherton-Zeman has performed at Whitehall school, in Glens Falls, New York. Sarah Sutton recently reported on the anti-violence performance. I include an excerpt:
“We all know most men don’t rape. So where are the voices of these men?” Atherton-Zeman asked the students at the beginning of the performance. “Most times, the voices of men, we tend to stay kind of quiet. If you’re part of a group that is committing violence, it is your responsibility to speak up.”
Throughout the presentation, images portraying the effects of domestic violence flashed across the screen of the darkened auditorium. One showed a terrified child huddled in a stairway, as his father beat his mother.
The statistics were equally startling. Every 12 seconds in the United States, a man abuses a woman. Every 2 minutes, a man rapes a woman.
I agree completely. Masculinity does not involve beating or abusing women. There’s nothing masculine about remaining silent like cowards while innocent people get abused.
All of us, both women and men, need to work together and put an end to violence and abuse. Although women and children get abused more often, I want to note that men also get abused.
What do you think?
