“Slap Her": Children's Reactions

    

So this is a really nice, (though not without flaws) social experiment conducted in Italy that I think serves to open up the conversation about males being socialized to be violent.

   

Not a single one of the boys here was willing to slap her, so where and why does the problem of males acting violent toward women start? (And yes it is still a prevalent issue, and you can find proof here, and here, and if you google it you'll find thousands more) 

In all honesty it was much nicer to see responses like "I'm against violence" that did not mention gender as opposed to "you shouldn't hit a girl" or "I can't hit her because she's pretty", because while the 2nd and 3rd examples represent something good in that these boys are expressing that they are against being violent toward females, it doesn't represent being against being violent at all. 

The last example also represents how indoctrinated in society the idea of assigning value to females based on their looks is, which is total BS. 

It's really cool that these boys are against hitting the girl, it really is, but in order for violence to stop being such a big issue we need to teach young people to not be violent for the right reasons, namely because it harms the other person and we should be empathetic toward those around us. I think it's only when we teach people to think a little more about how things will affect others that we're going to get concrete results in trying to make sure people stop hurting other people so much. 

And before anyone calls misandry, (and I do have a post lined up addressing this, so be on the lookout for that!) my next point is that I think it's important that we teach all kids to not be violent at all and not just to not be violent toward a group. Violence against women is a more prevalent issue, but I don't think the latter method is going to do much to help society, we shouldn't give off the impression that we think male-male violence is okay, because that isn't either.

So one final thing I want to mention: someone in the comments section of where I first found this video brought up a point that I think is really important to note: all the boys were okay with reaching out to touch Martina without asking if she was okay with it. 

That speaks a lot to what our societies teach kids about consent, which is namely not much. There is no doubt a lot of importance in teaching kids to be non-violent, but we also need kids to know that you shouldn't go about invading people's space whenever you feel like/without knowing that they'd be okay with it; that women are not there for guys to touch and do whatever they please with. 

Well what do you know, this one turned out kinda legit blog-y post like, consider it a thing to tide you over until the next time I dig deep into an issue. :)

Once again, I'd love to know people's opinions on this, so please share them with me in the comments. 

As always, please hit that g+1 button at the bottom of the post if you liked this, and if you like my blog please press the g+1 button at the very top of the page.

Thanks!

Love,

Maggs :)