Its Not All Animals. So Why bother?
Only some animals will harm you in the forest. So why worry?
TW: rape and sexual assault
What happens the moment a news item about a rape or molestation case comes into the spotlight? Most often, there are just two reactions to it — and a million in between — should you be concerned about nuance and colour. But overwhelmingly, there are just two kinds of reactions to a news piece on rape or sexual assault.
One that sympathizes with the victim, and the other that says “its not all men”.
Today, I’m here to talk about the latter. Because just as the voices of the “not all men” crowd grow stronger, and their numbers grow larger with every passing year, so should ours.
To understand why the “not all men” statement is inherently problematic, I’m going to make use of a trekking analogy. Thanks to my foray into the world of fitness and outdoors, and subsequent experience in the space for more than a decade, I can elaborately use it to explore this particular societal phenomenon of men behaving predatorily towards women, and then trivializing and minimizing those very actions when women get fed up with them and become overprotective of themselves in retaliation.
Imagine you’re a trekker who goes trekking every few weeks. You know from your vast pool of trekking…