Michael Flood presents an overview of key insights in feminist scholarship regarding violence against women.
Violence
"Why didn't she go to the police?" It's one of the most commonly asked questions about sexual assault, and on the surface, it makes sense. Fewer than five percent of college women who are raped ever report it to the policeIf someone truly feels like a victim of crime, shouldn't they report it? And really, how will we ever stop rape if women refuse to go to the police?
It's the question that comes up at almost every rape awareness presentation I've ever done. It's almost always a man who asks, though I've had women ask as well: "What about when a girl lies about rape to get back at a man?"
There has been much talk at this conference about the need for men to love each other and be willing to speak openly about that love. That is important; we need to be able to get beyond the all-too-common male tendency to mute or deform our emotions. But it’s also crucial to remember that loving one another means challenging ourselves as well. That’s what I would like to do today, to challenge us -- in harsh language -- on men’s use of pornography. In an unjust world, those of us with privilege must be harsh on ourselves, out of love.
Pornography and prostitution are overwhelmingly not 'choices.' They are vast, exploitative, patriarchal-capitalist industries, largely violent, very lucrative, controlled by women-hating men, and destructive of the women (and children) who are victimized by them.
A gender lens helps us to make sense of acts of terrorism by men, both domestic and international.
A sexist, violent culture exists in some sports, writes Michael Flood.
Originally published in The Sydney Morning Herald, 3 March 2004
The men who make obscene phone calls or harass women aren’t all wearing team colours, says Michael Flood.
These workshop notes include useful questions for discussion, brief writeups on elements of ‘good sex’, further reading, and a handout for young people on “Tips for Good Sex”. I have also included a lengthier discussion of working with boys and young men on ‘doing consent’, as I think this is a critical issue. The materials on consent easily could be turned into a workshop on their own, for boys and young men.
For increased inclusion of men into violence prevention efforts to work, we need to educate them about consent. Real consent.
We're still missing the mark when it comes to teaching consent. We have heard "No means No", and I think we're finally clueing in on "Yes means Yes" - in other words that the absence of a "No" is not in itself consent. But the problem is that we are still stuck in the old paradigm. It's still based on the idea of permission: there is this line that once crossed can't be un-crossed, and the woman is just going to have to live with the consequences of her actions (emphasis HER actions). As a culture, we still blame male arousal on women.