*the kind of re-framing we need All Over the Damned Place, from the first man to minor in women’s studies at U. Mass Amherst, Dr. Jackson Katz!
We talk about how many women were raped last year, not about
how many men raped women. We talk about how many girls in a
school district were harassed last year, not about how many boys
harassed girls. We talk about how many teenaged girls got pregnant
in the state of Vermont last year, rather than how many men and
teenaged boys got girls pregnant. So you can see how the use of this
passive voice has a political effect. It shifts the focus off men and
boys and onto girls and women. Even the term violence against
women is problematic. It’s a passive construction. There’s no
active agent in the sentence. It’s a bad thing that happens to
women. It’s a bad thing that happens to women, but when you look
at that term violence against women, nobody is doing it to
them. It just happens. Men aren’t even a part of it!
– Jackson Katz, PhD. from his TED Talk, Violence Against Women: It’s a men’s Issue
*the entire talk, so worth listening to, it’s under18 minutes!!, linked here: https://www.ted.com/talks/jackson_katz_violence_against_women_it_s_a_men_s_issue
*Dr. Katz’s wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackson_Katz