Male Violence Within Activist Scenes

Yes, it happens here too. Of course it does -- it shouldn't be surprising, unfortunately. Personally, I'm not aware of it happening directly in any group I have been a part of, but that is probably more about how unsafe it feels for women and other gender oppressed people to talk about it to those directly connected to the spaces than it is about how wonderful and spiffy the groups have been -- I do know, however, of one instance where it happened peripherally connected to a group I was a part of, and of two friends to whom it happened in the context of groups I was never a part of. So, yes, it happens, and we don't usually talk about it much or well.

Here is a post (found via The Carnival Against Sexual Violence #12, found via this post at Taking Place) that deals with one woman's observations of this phenomenon in activist scenes she has been a part of (and see also the comments section for more insight and shared experiences).

And while we are on the topic of male violence, here is an article written by two young feminist activists in Ontario, Sarah Ghabrial and Laurel Mitchell. Though its analysis of gendered violence could be broader, it is a strong response to an "odious" newspaper column by an anti-feminist woman that ranted in Canada's most right-wing national daily newspaper against the annual December 6 commemorations of the Montreal Massacre. The authors of the response say that the original column argues that "Gender-based violence is a lie, or perhaps a plot; whatever it is, it is sinister and whiny and bad for national morale."

They lament:

Considering the immensity of the problem, that the popular media cannot even afford one day of the year to render some degree of solemnity to the countless women who've endured violence for being women is outstanding. That one journalist took the opportunity to deny this pandemic is disgusting.