We Need to Educate Everyone on the Harms of Misogyny and Sexist Stereotyping

This article by Jenny Jones first appeared in Unity, the weekly publication of the Irish Communist Party.

THE 25^th of November marks an international day of action against gender based violence and Belfast hosted a Reclaim the night march as it has done annually for the last 11 years.  Each year at this rally participants endure abuse from men with the most horrendous comments about our appearance and our messages and this year was no different. 

Comments on social media, refer to those at the rally as ‘ugly, smelly and dopey whores’ that’s the milder comments!  The abuse isn’t limited to online, this year one drunk middle-aged man thought it amusing to barge into the rally grab a placard and shout ‘rape women’ while his friends watched jeering and laughing.   

 They may have been drunk but that is not an excuse, especially grown men who most likely have partners, mothers, sisters, daughters and sons. What fine role models they were so it is no surprise that there was a large group of young teenage boys who thought it funny to run through the rally and shout comments, like ‘Yer mas a whore’ and ‘you’re to ugly to be raped’.

It is disturbing that these young boys think its funny but more sinister is they felt entitled to behave in this way. It’s a serious problem when we see a generation of young boys behave towards women in this manner.

The culture of abuse is so normalised that it’s a common source of humour to make ‘rape jokes’ and comment on women’s appearance. 

 The amount of pass remarkery on women is relentless and sadly it is not the sole domain of men.  Women can often be very judgemental of women, giving men a get out of jail card for their bad behaviours. We need to educate everyone on the harms of misogyny and sexist stereotyping and this is one thing the Ending Violence Against Women and Girls Strategic Framework 2024 – 31 calls for that we welcome.  

With a budget of £5million for year one we are moving in the right direction all be it slowly and they may have been shamed into producing a strategy because NI is the 2^nd highest place in Europe for femicides, while the republic of Ireland is on its third strategy with a 11.5milion euro budget for 2026. 

Women’s Aid cite that one in four women have experienced some form of domestic abuse since the age of 16, a truly grim statistic meaning there are thousands of women who are enduring physical, sexual, emotional, economic, and psychological abuse.

This means there are thousands of men who are carrying out this abuse.

Tackling VAWG is the responsibility of everyone, gone are the days when it was something that happened behind closed doors, today we all have a role in changing the culture.  We can no longer tolerate jokes that degrade and demean women, as this allows the more serious behaviours to thrive. 

We need to talk about misogyny and gender stereotyping that allows ‘boys will be boys, while girls should be caring and quiet.

We need to provide Relationship and Sexuality Education in Schools or the young boys who laugh at the women marching for safe streets will be the abusers of the future. 

Please don’t anyone start on the what about men, we know there are good men out there and it is these men who need to call out the bad behaviour of other men. 

Women who want to protect their sons, it’s time to educate them.  ‘Patriarchy is Putrid’ and ‘Misogyny is Minging’ were some of the messages on show and they apply all year round. 

Photograph above includes the speakers and organisers.