On Nov. 25, the International Day for the Eradication of Violence Against Women, a group of Taiwanese men joined a campaign against sexual discrimination and violence. The men wore white ribbons to express their promise not to inflict violence on women and not to tolerate any such act.
Statistics show 25 women seek court protection from violence every day in Taiwan, while four to five women are subjected to sexual assaults. Most of the violence is inflicted by males.
Most of the people who care about the plight of women facing violence are women. The various types of rescue and support organizations helping the victims of sexual abuse, marital violence and people-smuggling were founded by and are run by women. Women are also the prime promoters of related laws and regulations.
But women do need cooperation from men to enjoy personal safety. As long as men do not stop inflicting violence and sexual abuse, more laws and more effort from women's organizations will not be enough to rectify this situation. The impact of the anti-violence propaganda efforts by women's organizations seems to have been minimal.
Traditional society demands that a man should be "manly," a word often interpreted to imply being a conqueror and suppressor of opponents. Men's bullying of women is seen as inevitable. Discrimination and violence against the weak are prevalent phenomena in male society. Most men choose to stay silent when they see a man inflicting violence on a woman.
It takes considerable courage for men to break the silence, stand up and oppose men's violence against women because it means not just sympathizing with the opposite sex, but also criticism and "betrayal" of other members of their own sex. I once asked my third-grade son why he would not stop his male classmates from bullying his female classmates. He said he was afraid of being ostracized by the boys.
The Taiwanese men who launched the White Ribbon Movement are truly deserving of praise. I hope that this movement will continue to expand and become part of the mainstream. Only then will we be able to see true harmony between the two sexes.
Shen Mei-chen is a lawyer and a board member of the Taipei Women's Rescue Foundation.
Translated by Francis Huang
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