Violence against women.

In a recent homily at my parish, St. Benedict's in Rexdale, Toronto, Deacon Tom Pillisch recounted the story of the native chief who told his warriors that there were two wolves in each of them: an ugly, mean, evil one and a beautiful, compassionate, good one. One of the warriors asked the chief: "How do I know which wolf will manifest itself in me?" In his wisdom, the chief replied: "The one you feed."--The one you and I feed. For we have free will and can choose how we will act or react to every situation. We can react in an evil manner, or we can act in a good manner. It is up to us.

When we are children, it is our parents' responsibility to teach us the difference between good and evil, so we can make appropriate choices as we travel through life. Unfortunately, many parents under the influence of our secular, hedonistic society give the wrong messages to their children. They teach them to get all they can; step on toes (or lives) if that is what it takes to get ahead; live for pleasure; disallow all pain, suffering, discomfort, in their lives; live "for the moment."

Secular society teaches that abortion is okay (a "right," don't you know?); sexual permissiveness is pleasurable and hurts no one; same-sex coupling is normal and healthy; artificial contraception is absolutely necessary; and bringing "unwanted" children into the world is a crime. The unborn are killed, young children are violated, marriage bonds are loosened, everyone is hurting everyone else in the rush to succeed, children are left in daycare centres. Young people (and their elders too) dress immodestly, and tout tattoos and body piercings formerly reserved for drunken sailors. Common-law living arrangements are now the norm, and sex clubs are springing up across the nation. And the Christian religion is discounted.

What is astounding is that people are actually surprised when violence shows its ugly face. The mother of Marc Lepine who killed 14 women in a shooting spree in a Montreal college a number of years ago was shocked when she found out that it was her son who had perpetrated the crime. She went to a prayer group the evening of the shooting and asked her prayer partners to pray for the mother of the killer, not knowing that this mother was she! Several years later, her daughter died in a drug overdose.

I suspect that a large number of women reading this article are able to relate, personally, to the subject of violence against women. Perhaps the violence was, or may still be, against you, your daughter, your niece, your granddaughter, your neighbour's daughter--rape, stalking, an abusive husband or boyfriend, inappropriate "touching" by a family friend or relative, peeping Tom incidents. Violence against women is not just what we read in the newspapers or watch on television. It is happening in real time.

Violence on television

John Pungente, executive director of the Jesuit Communications Project, says: "If the demographic you are aiming at is the 18-35-year-old male, they don't want to see men in danger (Globe and Mail, Dec. 10, 2005)." That, dear readers, leaves women to be exploited.

The Parents' Television Council, a conservative U.S. watchdog group, makes a link between violence shown in video games and now shown on television: "There's an inseparable link now between the type of content you see in video games and what you're starting to see in motion pictures and T.V.... Sexual violence is something we track very closely. It's something we see much more played out.... The envelopes are not being pushed, they're being shredded (ibid)."

McMaster University professor Imre Szeman agrees. "We continue to think of television as mere entertainment. There is nothing mere about it. We have to see popular culture as one of the most important places where we learn about our society." Szeman contends that the portrayal of men as being violent toward women on T.V. helps to shape their attitude in real life toward women, and women towards themselves.

This last point brings us to the legitimization of pornography--it is normalized in the media, in advertising ("in-your-face" pornographic-explicit billboards), and even in conversation. So we are not shocked when we see sexualized violence on television--it has penetrated our reality and we are learning to live with it, and with its consequences, or so we think!

Violence in the workplace

Because of the violence portrayed on TV, in films, in video-games, we should not be surprised at the increase in sexual violence in our homes, schools, hospitals, nursing homes, and other places of work.

Women with jobs in healthcare, education and social welfare are in a higher than average risk of being violated in the workplace--including physical assaults, threats, rape, robbery and murder. Linda Haslam-Stroud, president of the Ontario Nurses' Association, says that nurses are three times more likely to suffer violence in the workplace than any other professional group; she calls upon the Ontario Ministry of Labour for legislation and prompt action to protect women in the workplace (Tor. Star, Dec. 5, 2005).

There is also "hidden" violence, often committed behind closed doors by unarmed patients, clients, or students whom the women know, according to a new study by the University of Albany, N.Y. Government employees are several times more likely to be assaulted than private sector employees and most workplace violence is committed out of public view in institutions and office buildings. Often the violence is not even considered a crime by the victim or society. Women who are victims of violent workplace crimes are twice as likely as men to know their attackers. Homicide is the leading cause of death for women on the job.

In the U.S. approximately 36,500 rapes and sexual assaults occur annually in the workplace. In 80% of these incidents, the victim is female. Junior high school teachers have a rate of victimization in the U.S. workplace similar to convenience store clerks. (Canadian statistics are unavailable.) More than 1 million women are stalked each year in the U.S. (Dept. of Labor statistics, 2004).

Even with the few statistics available, the data on workplace violence is scattered and inadequate to understand the extent of the problem. Many acts of non-fatal violence and threats in the workplace go unreported because there is no coordinated collection system to process it.

But statistics will not stop the problem of violence in our society.

Canadian aboriginal women face violence

(My acknowledgement to Joan Delaney of the Epoch Times, Victoria staff, for the insightful article "Canada's missing women" (Dec. 15, 2005, p. 1).

The statistics are shocking and should be an embarrassment to all of us. A 1996 Canadian government statistic showed that aboriginal women were five times more likely to die as a result of violence than any other group of Canadian women. Between 1971 and March 2003 more than 500 aboriginal women went missing across Canada. Some were murdered, some are missing and presumed dead. A large number of the missing women were drug addicts or prostitutes living out a desperate existence in some of the seediest districts of Canada.

The Native Women's Association of Canada is trying to raise the awareness of Canadians to the plight of its native women, many of whom, unfortunately, end up on drugs and prostitution. In a 2004 report, Amnesty International put a large part of the blame on governments, which, historically, have torn aboriginal families apart, "propelling a large percentage of women into extreme poverty, homelessness and prostitution." These vulnerable women are exploited by men who carry out "acts of extreme brutality against them."

Amber O'Hara, who is writing a book on the disappearance of native women, believes that "if women were given adequate support and a safe place to recover, ninety percent would turn their lives around." Recently, it came to light that native women have no protection under the Indian Act if their husbands toss them out and file for divorce.

Conclusion

Women should be nurtured, cared for and protected by men. Instead many women in our society are brutalized, harassed, and sexually exploited by those same men. That woman could be your sister, your niece, your daughter; that man could be your brother, your father, your husband. That person could be you, upon whom violence is perpetrated. Until we as a society condemn all violence--physical, mental, psychological, verbal--from violence against unborn in the mother's womb to violence against the elderly and disabled, we will continue down the slope toward destruction.

There are many organizations studying violence in our society. But it is our own secular, humanist society which is to blame. It has downgraded Christianity to something to be spurned. The time to fight back is long overdue. Unless and until we return to God, with a complete conversion of our hearts and souls toward the One who loves us, then all the studies and royal commissions in the world will be in vain.

See also Paula Adamick's column "The real cause of crime" (C.I., June 2006, p. 9).

Janice Glover, a retired librarian, is among the writers of News in Brief, and contributes occasional articles.