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Key points
- The 16 Days of Activism against gender-based violence run November 25 through December 10,
- During the COVID-19 pandemic, we have seen a shadow pandemic of violence against women and girls.
- Pop culture reflects, supports, and perpetuates this violence but can also be very powerful in challenging the status quo.
The months of November and December mark an international campaign to end violence against women and girls. The 16 Days of Activism against gender-based violence run November 25 through December 10, starting with the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, including the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women in Canada on December 6, and ending with the World Human Rights Day.
Dramatic Increase in Violence Against Women
In 2021, these 16 Days of Activism have never been more needed as reports from around the world reveal a dramatic increase in violence against women, with the hashtag of #CallItFemicide going viral.
Particularly meaningful to me as a Canadian from Montreal is the December 6th National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women in Canada. On this day, we commemorate the lives of the 14 women killed at the Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal in 1989, as well as the lives of so many other women and girls killed or harmed by men since.
More than 30 years later, I still remember vividly the moment I heard the breaking news—the shock, the confusion. It took a while for reports to recognize that these engineering students were murdered because they were women. Murdered by a man who targeted them because they were women.
For many in the hours and days that followed, the shock and confusion of this tragic event raised several questions: how could this happen in our beloved Montreal? And if women aren’t safe here, then where?
Of course, women aren’t safe anywhere. Women weren’t safe then; they aren’t safe now.
It is important that December 6 is not just a day of remembrance; it is also a day of action. While much has been accomplished since 1989, we must recognize that much work still remains. Male violence against women and girls persists. During the recent pandemic, we saw a shadow pandemic of this violence. In 2020 alone, at least 160 women and girls were killed in Canada—almost all by men. In Canada, one woman or girl is killed every two-and-a-half days.
Canada is not singular. Globally, 2020 marked a woman or girl being killed by a family member every 11 minutes.
Connecting the Dots
Why is this violence so persistent and so pervasive? Because it is deeply embedded in the fabric of our culture. To take effective action, it is important to connect the dots, to understand that all forms of male violence against women and girls are interconnected. This includes not only overt forms (murder, sexual violence, domestic violence, etc.) but also more covert forms (cat calls, harassment, the daily precautions taken against potential danger, etc.).
These acts of violence are supported by the sociopolitical underpinnings of gender inequity, misogyny, the objectification of women, the conflation of sex and sexual violence, and ultimately the normalization of male violence against women and girls.
All women and girls experience this violence, although all may experience it differently because of different intersections of such social locations as race, socioeconomic status, Indigeneity, gender and/or sexual identity, and ability/disability.
Influence of Pop Culture and Music
Our pop culture reflects, supports, and perpetuates this violence in all its forms. This is no less true of pop music. But music can also be very powerful in challenging the status quo. From Lady Gaga’s “Til It Happens to You” to the “Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Song” by Native American Culture, women are telling their stories in song and working for change.
I’ve been using the music of strong women singer-songwriters to support women survivors in music therapy and to support social action in the public sphere. In listening to the songs of others, women can hear their own stories. In writing their own songs, women can regain their own voices often silenced by male violence. In performing their own songs, they can claim their power. A glimpse into this musical process can be seen in the film, “Beyond #MeToo.”
In one of the original songs from “Beyond #MeToo,” Eleanor Hart sings of her understanding of male violence and places it in the context of her experience of the December 6th National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women—“On se souvient” (We Remember). It is time to remember, to understand, and to act.
Copyright Sandi Curtis.
This article was also published at iMPACTS.
