Men in heels take to downtown Flint streets to end domestic violence

Submitted by Mastodon on Sat, 2014-05-31 22:43

Story here. Excerpt:

'Dennis Spears balanced precariously in his shiny green high heels.

Clad in a full-length green dress, he was determined to complete his walk.

But Spears wasn't a runway model, or looking to accentuate the figure of his legs.

The military veteran was working, along with about 100 other men in attendance, to shatter gender stereotypes and raise awareness for domestic violence.

"I've seen abuse," Spears said. "These women and children need help. This gets attention. If you can get enough guys together in heels for this, you're going to draw attention."

Spears and his friend Tim Graham, maintenance supervisor at the YWCA, both wore full dresses in hopes of drawing increased donations at this year's Walk a Mile in Her Shoes event, hosted by the Flint Young Women's Christian Association in downtown Flint, Friday, May 30.'

"It's about the women and awareness, but having fun like this brings a lot of attention," Graham said. "I know people that have been in those situations, and they hid it. Others need to be aware, and know what's going on."'

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... wherein the matter was about stopping DV vs. men also with women cross-dressing as men to "walk a mile in his shoes" as well, then I'd be all for it. And by "cross-dressing," I don't mean just jeans and a button-down shirt; that's been accepted as women's-wear too for some time. I mean something obviously rating as masculine attire, like a suit and tie -- or a refuse collector's uniform, since as we know, you'd be hard-pressed to find a woman in that job.

Well, fine if you want to do it. It's a free country, insofar as you espouse the "correct" causes, however. In this case, men parading in heels and dresses to end DV vs. women is fine. But guys, don't try dressing in stereotypical feminine attire in any other context, as you risk physical attack, and by persons of either sex.

But ladies, should you desire to wear a "men's suit" in public, you need fear not.

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Submitted by Matt on Mon, 2014-06-02 00:35

"The military veteran was working, along with about 100 other men in attendance, to shatter gender stereotypes and raise awareness for domestic violence"

How do you end gender stereotypes by continuing to propagate the falsehood that men and only men are abusers? Every psychological study done in the past 50 years about domestic violence has found gender symmetry. Some have even found that in relationships with uni-directional violence, the woman is the perpetrator in 70 percent of cases. Sorry, but I'm not going to humiliate myself just to spread more toxic hatred against my gender, and deny male victims of abuse well-deserved resources. I'll pass on events like this, and I'll be sure not to donate to the YWCA ever. I'll save my money for charities that care about BOTH genders (a fine example is Stop Abusive and Violent Environments).

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Submitted by xtrnl on Tue, 2014-06-03 20:56