Jackson Katz, an educator and social theorist, remarked how “we talk about how many women were raped last year, not how many men raped women”. This suggests a systemic issue within the United Kingdom (UK), whereby the epidemic of gender-based violence is shown to be a woman’s problem, with men frequently left out of the statistics altogether.
The tragic story of the Sarah Everard attack perforated the nation. Sarah vanished whilst walking home from her friend’s house, only to be discovered in Ashford woodland several days later, with a police officer—of those sworn to protect us—charged with her murder. However, even in light of this event, it is not uncommon for people to react by stating “women should not be walking alone at night”. Although such a statement does ring true, as women realistically have to take steps to protect themselves, this is only because the burden has been inequitably shifted on to women. The only reason why women should not walk alone at night is for fear of being attacked by men. Why then do people in this situation not respond with: “men should not attack women walking alone at night”.
Since this awful event, social media, rightfully so, has been flooded with people spreading awareness of how perverse and extensive violence against women really is. However, the statistics on gender-based violence are female-oriented. One such survey highlighted how 97% of women between the ages of 18 and 23 have faced sexual harassment, a despicable figure. However, by focusing on the women as the passive victims of the crime, this discourse leaves out the active perpetrators of the crime. If it were to highlight how men have sexually harassed 97% of women, it suddenly takes on a more profound stance and begins to acknowledge that men are part of the problem. By focusing on the women, these statistics create a culture of victim-blaming, which can be evidenced in a recent Amnesty International survey highlighting that a third of people believe that women who flirt are partially responsible for being raped. This highlights the damaging effect of one-sided data collection. One commentator notes that by removing men from the statistics it becomes “possible to forget that there are two people involved in these cases”. Therefore, gender-based violence becomes a woman’s issue, which women alone are responsible for and must protect themselves from.
Yet such protection is not as easily achieved as assumed. While one in 10 women are targeted on the street or in a public place, more shockingly, the most common location for sexual assault to occur is within the victim’s home (37%). Meanwhile, more often than not, the sexual assault is carried out by someone the victim trusted, with 44% of attacks being committed by a partner or ex-partner and another 37% being committed by someone else known to the victim. Therefore, by excluding men from the narrative, women are told to protect themselves, but from whom? As it is evident that in neither the public nor the domestic sphere are women truly safe.
There are positive steps in the pipeline. For instance, the UK government has announced that misogyny will be recorded as a hate crime, and this will involve the collection of data on “hatred of sex or gender,” which will focus on identifying offending perpetrators. This will serve to place greater emphasis on men’s responsibility in misogynistic crime, but only time will tell the true impact of such a policy. Moreover, government officials have been consulting with women and girls who have been the victims of gender-based violence, which will hopefully shed light on the female experience and the consequent need to shift the burden towards men. Many, however, argue that such policies are too little too late in a culture that has “effectively decriminalized [rape],” as said by Sarah Green, director of the End Violence Against Women (EVAW) coalition.
The statistics on gender-based violence are just numbers, though, and cannot accurately represent the trauma and difficulty that the victims suffer. These statistics often lead to narratives of victim-blaming, which has led society to believe that women are the ones that need to take action to stop such crimes from occurring. Fundamentally, though, men must stop committing the crimes. Only by actually pointing the finger at men that pose a threat can we really begin to reduce their risk to society.
Roxie Burton is a current undergraduate at the University of Bristol, studying Law and Spanish. She wishes to pursue a career in Human Rights and is deeply passionate about gender equality.