International Women's Day

"International Women's Day is celebrated in countries throughout the world with festivals, parades, and special events. Hostelling International is bringing the celebration to Boston with the International Women's Day Film Festival.

The mission of the Boston International Women's Day Film Festival is to promote a greater understanding of the extraordinary lives of women around the world through relevant and thought-provoking films and discussions.

This is the second year of the festival, sponsored by Hostelling International. The goal of this festival is to showcase films honoring the struggles, victories, and remarkable experiences of women around the world. Through this event, we aim to celebrate the lives and contributions of women from all corners and walks of life". Source: www.hinewengland.org

"On February 3, 2009, Break the Cycle, an organization aimed at empowering youth to break the cycle of domestic violence, addressed Congress. According to them, at least 17 states have introduced or passed legislation to try to take on the problem of teen dating violence.
Sadly, a necessity in a society where teens think Chris Brown was justified in beating Rhianna or that she must have done something to deserve it. A society in which teens believe that violence is not only normal, but sometimes even laughable and the butt of sad jokes.

According to Kathy Doherty, executive director of Between Friends, a Chicago based group which goes into schools to help educate teens about domestic violence, educating young people is the key.

“When we first get there, it’s not unusual for kids-both boys and girls-to say it’s OK to hit your girlfriend or boyfriend. By the time we’re done, they say, yes, it is abuse, and, no, we shouldn’t do that.” Souce: 20-forty.com

"At the same time, as part of this process, men are indoctrinated into violence as a means of protecting themselves and others, to solve problems and conflicts, and assert their perceived positions as men.

In many parts of the world, we are constantly fed images of men being violent. Through films, books, television, magazines, video games – we see men being violence and violent men revered as role models and even heroes. So an equation embedded in dominant masculinity becomes - to be a man, a strong successful leader, you also must be ready to fight, and if you don’t happen to be in the right social group to be a successful leader, you still have to be ready to use violence…perhaps even more so.Thus, dominant forms of masculinity encourage personal violence in men, and they help to legitimize other forms of violence as well. Part of gender-based violence as a “policing mechanism” is for men to establish, assert or protect their masculine identity. But men’s use of personal violence also permits and legitimizes the use of other types of organized violence – and visa versa. It is a vicious cycle of violence, a culture of violence into which men and women are socialized.

However, seeing masculinities as socially constructed does not mean that men are merely passive beings being shaped by “society” or “culture”. Men and women are active in producing gender discourses and acting them out. Men are responsible for their violence, and are part of the problem when they allow for violence – especially violence against women and girls - to exist in their communities.

We can further identify broader notions of responsibility when gender-based violence is placed within the social structures and histories of violence that both men and women have created and reproduce. Here, we can move beyond the interpersonal violence of men to examine the violence that lies at the heart of masculinity's stratifying of difference - the misogyny, homophobia and racism that are embedded in discourses of masculinity. It is here we begin to understand the relationship between ideals of masculinity, gender-based violence and other uses of violence as a means of establishing and maintaining power relationships and structural inequalities such as those based upon race, class or religion, etc. Violence, privilege and injustice are intimately linked". Source: toolkit.endabuse.orgSource URL: http://americanendeavor.blogspot.com/2009/03/international-women-day.html
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