Violence Against Women Is a Global Pandemic

[theHandpuppet]

Last edited Thu May 29, 2014, 01:41 PM - Edit history (4)

This article was from 2011 but is worth revisiting for the statistics alone. However, there are two specific paragraphs that I want to feature because they are especially apropos to DU. So the next time someone gets in my face about "women's issues" being a distraction from more important issues like the environment or income inequality or homelessness or an hundred other issues that are always more important, that person can kiss my ass. Because you see, being an environmentalist doesn't give you a free pass to be a bigot. Fighting the injustice of income inequality doesn't give you the right to be against women's equality. Championing the homeless doesn't mean you can turn a blind eye to the oppression of and violence against women. If it's not important to you RIGHT NOW, when?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/soraya-chemaly/violence-against-women-is_1_b_1121001.html?
Soraya Chemaly.
Violence Against Women Is a Global Pandemic
Posted: 12/01/11 01:30 PM ET

Violence against women is a global pandemic? Like H1N1? Like in Contagion? No way. Think of your instinctive response to the idea of a worldwide bio-terror -- that's what your response should be to the normalized level of violence against women around the world. Because, here's the thing: women are not a special interest group and fighting for the ability to live without violence is not a pet project...

... This is the subject of this post: Exactly how many people have to be beaten, sold, raped or die just for being born female? How many will it take for the issue not to be marginalized or considered an inconvenient side show to what is "really important" in the vein of "gender issues have to take a back seat to other priorities...There is no way we can be successful if we maintain every special interest and pet project."