prusina

He's often called a monster, but he's not a monster. A monster is an exception, an outsider, someone society doesn't have to be responsible for. But society is responsible here. These "monsters" are not sick: they're healthy children of the patriarchy, of rape culture. Rape culture condones those behaviors that damage and oppress women, starting from things we don't recognize as important but are: controlling behavior, possessiveness, catcalling. All men are privileged by this culture. "Not all men," they often say. Not all men, no, but they're always men. A man can’t be good if he doesn't do anything to demolish a society that makes him so privileged. In this patriarchal society that gives them so much privilege and so much power, men are responsible for educating friends and colleagues when they hear the smallest hint of sexist violence. Say it to your friend who controls his girlfriend, say it to your colleague who catcalls passers-by, make yourself hostile to behaviors that are condoned by society and are the prelude to femicide. Femicide is state murder, because the state is not on our side. The State doesn't protect us. Femicide is not a crime of passion, it is a crime of power. We need widespread sexual and emotional education; we need to teach that love is not ownership. We need to support anti-violence institutions, and we need to give whoever needs it a chance to ask for help. For Giulia, not a minute's silence. For Giulia, burn everything down.