What happened with respecting our women?

For years I thought that the numbers about sexual violence and rape were decreasing in Europe but I guess I was wrong. Apparently a large group of men in Germany felt the need to sexually harass women on New Year’s Eve and in one case even rape a woman. When I heard this news I was actually eating a sandwich and I had to throw it in the bin because the news seriously made me gag. Sexual violence, dirty comments and rape have always disgusted me, particularly because in most cases this violence is directed against women. Only because we were born with a vagina, some women have to deal with dirty men who want to touch it without their permission. And since men are overall stronger than women we can’t beat them, especially if there are several men involved.

Germany was in shock, how could this happen to the women in their country? Most disturbing is probably that the attacks appear to have been organised. About  1,000 young men arrived in large groups at the station, seemingly with the intention to attack women. The Cologne police Chief Wolfgang Albers called it “a completely new dimension of crime” and Mayor Henriette Reker said that the attacks were “monstrous”. “We cannot allow this to become a lawless area.” Pretty soon people started pointing fingers at refugees, the police and even at the women who should have been drinking too much. We all know that pointing fingers doesn’t help but it definitely shows the anger that Germany feels. Justice Minister Heiko Maas tweeted that “we won’t  tolerate these abhorrent assaults on women- all those responsible must be brought to justice”.

But besides punishing the attackers I believe that we should look at the way these and all other men are raised. Where did they learn that it’s ok or even fun to sexually harass or rape a woman? They all came out of a vagina so you would expect that their mothers learned them not to harm a woman. Unfortunately we live in a world where ‘role models’ like Miley Cyrus, Kim Kardashian and Rihanna show that being sexually available and getting naked in front of thousands of people is ok. Hundreds of advertisements display a woman who is desperate to get with a guy and I didn’t even mention the success of Fifty Shades of Grey, where SM sex is displayed as something every women wants. Don’t get me wrong I don’t claim that Miley Cyrus is the reason why guys feel the need to sexually harass a woman. I’m just saying that we have to think about the environment that men are raised in and how we can educate them about women.

Written by: Marloes Hagenaars
Image by: The Independent