TED talk Tuesday #25: Violence against women – it’s a men’s issue

Watching TED Talks is a popular pastime at CN&CO. We visit TED.com regularly to clear our heads, have a laugh or get inspired. TED Talks open our minds, spark new ways of thinking and can lead to some very interesting conversations. Each week we pick a favourite and publish it on a Tuesday, because we like how “TED Talk Tuesday” sounds.

This week’s talk was selected by CN&CO team member Neo Matsei. Here’s why she chose it:

Over the past few weeks, the string of publicised horrific attacks and murders against women and children in our country has been disgusting and disappointing to see. The violence against women and children is on a rise and it does not seem to stop.

It only seemed ideal to have this TED Talk up today, when the nation is celebrating the life and legacy of the legendary Nelson Mandela, as violence against women and children is an issue he stood against.

“As long as we take the view that these are problems for women alone to solve, we cannot expect to reverse the high incidence of rape and child abuse. Domestic violence will not be eradicated. We will not defeat this scourge that affects each and every one of us, until we succeed in mobilising the whole of our society to fight it,” he said in his speech at the National Men’s March, in 1997.

Sadly, we have become a society that has distanced itself from the real issue and resorted to victim blaming. In many incidents we have heard the victim’s way of dressing, lifestyle, and attitudes being cited as the contributing factor to the violent crimes.

In this TED Talk, Jackson Katz, shares the same sentiments, that violence against women is a men’s issue and instead of isolating themselves from the problem, they need to be part of the solution to eradicate violence against women and children.

As a nation we need go back to the fundamental basics of having ubuntu and having concern for one another.

This “bystander approach” is not to infuriate men. It is a call for us all – women and men – to call out unacceptable behaviour and be leaders of change.