Tags
British Guiana (Guyana)/South America, Corporal punishment, Domestic violence, Intimate Partner Violence (IPV), Political Violence
As I shared in my May 23rd post on getting my creative mojo back, I have resumed work on my writing project about women of agency. Revision of the completed draft of Part One, set in Guyana, is steadily moving forward. I struggled with Chapter Two: The Violence of Men.
When I first presented this chapter to my writers’ critique group in August 2019, I discovered that it was an uncomfortable subject for the male members of our group. I could see the rage in the eyes of my writing friend seated directly across from me on the other side of the table.
“I’m not a violent man,” he told me, struggling to restrain his anger. “I defended my mother against our psychotic father… I protected her.”
Taken aback, I said: “I’m speaking in general terms.”
Another male member of our group was more measured with his response: “Rough content, but so is life.”
Guyana’s First National Survey on Gender-Based Violence, launched in November 2019, revealed that more than half (55%) of all women experienced at least one form of violence. More than one in ten had experienced physical and/or sexual violence from a male partner in the previous 12 months. One in every two women in Guyana has or will experience Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) in their lifetime. Moreover, one in five (20%) women has experienced non-partner sexual abuse in their lifetime; thirteen percent (13%) experienced this abuse before the age of 18.
We live in a world still dominated by the heterosexual male. All men are not violent. All women are not nurturers. I’m considering changing the Chapter heading to “Violence as Humanity’s Default System.” What do you think?
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