And there are more stats to consider: the UN Women has a detailed rundown of statistics and other numbers putting violence against women in today’s society into perspective. Into real perspective—regarding everything from violence in public life to economic costs of violence to technology-facilitated abuse of women.
1 in 10 women in the European Union have experienced cyber-harassment since the age of 15. In 2021 alone, around 45,000 women around the globe were killed by their partners or family members.
Heck, even natural disasters resulting from climate change create situations that put women at risk of displacement, resource scarcity and food insecurity that might ultimately lead to social dependence and human trafficking.
This alone is indicative of a problem that’s far from resolved.
One thing’s for certain—the issues of misogyny and toxic masculinity have to be dealt with. While there’s a number of ways to do so, virtually all of them boil down to education, i.e. teaching the right kinds of behavior from the get-go and fixing the behaviors that aren’t right.
And when it comes to that, teaching has to be done by someone who’s trained and uses safe, effective materials and methods, all the while establishing a safe learning environment devoid of focusing on specific influencers, websites or groups that promote harmful attitudes.
And if toxic masculinity is already ingrained in your head, it’s not too late to do something about it. Question your understanding of masculinity by asking 'do you deny yourself things that feel feminine, do you judge folks for not being masculine enough or/and do you follow harmful behaviors dictated by others'?
Challenging those beliefs goes a long way, and accepting the fact that you are where you are and working towards fleshing out the reasoning and actions that are constructive instead of destructive gradually is a good first step.
If you want to go down this rabbit hole, Bored Panda has a number of entertaining articles for you to enjoy, and you can start with one where an online page replaces “woman” with “man” to point out just how stupid sexism is.
If you want more memes, be sure to check out the Misandrist Memes Instagram page for more and tune into the Sad Girls Against The Patriarchy podcast.
But before you do that, why not share your thoughts and stories in the comment section below!
