How to write about violence
against women
when you don’t really care
much for women
by CODE RED for gender justice!
So you’re a “journalist” who wants to write about violence against women but you don’t really care much for women. Here are 10 easy steps to make your job of ignorant, uninformed, misogynist commentary easier:
1. Call anti-violence activists “radical”, acidic, bitter and threatening.
2. Equate “woman will subtlely [sic] make her former spouse’s life ever miserable” with murder. Because “nagging” and murder are the same thing.
3. Say, “obviously we don’t support domestic violence of any kind, but…” and then outline 10 justifications for violence against women
4. When activists talk about gender-based violence accuse them of “finger-pointing”
5. Tell women to keep their legs shut.
6. Tell activists they will get nowhere unless they learn to work with misogynist men’s rights “groups” who have one lone member.
7. Recommend anger management classes. Because relationships based on dominance and control in which women are subjected to a range of coercive and controlling behaviours including stalking, sexual violence and spatial control are the result of a heat-of-the-moment burst of anger.
8. Blame gender equality. Suggesting to a woman that “he ain’t no head over you; you equal to him” is clearly what causes violence.
9. Remind the public that the six women killed by current or former partners in Barbados this year is a “comparatively small” number.
10. If all else fails just blame non-nationals.
With the exception of # 5, these 10 steps were brought to you by the Barbados Today.