Student paper: "On grammar: It's not violence against women but violence by men"

Article here. Excerpt:

'The patriarchy works in mysterious ways in society, from the big things like women getting paid 75 cents on the dollar to how we construct our language. In public discourse on violence, especially in journalism, men are often left out of the equation altogether, as if the violence women are subjected to is without a male perpetrator.

By using the passive voice when writing news stories, the blame is shifted from the men commiting this violence to the women targeted. We talk about violence against women instead of violence by men. By situating the terms of the discourse like this, we are ignoring that men are the ones raping and abusing women. Instead, women are continually portrayed as victims at the hands of a vague male entity. We should be talking about it as men being violent toward their girlfriends, wives, friends and family and working to eradicate this violence.

The feminist magazine off our backs rewrote a press release on the rising levels of violence against women by Amnesty International to reflect a more accurate worldview of gender violence. "Behind closed doors and in secret, women are subjected to violence by their partners and close relatives, too ashamed and afraid to report it," the original article reads. The off our backs writer changed it to say "Behind closed doors and in secret, men subject their female partners and close relatives to violence, and then shame the women and make them afraid to report it."'

Letters to the editor can be submitted here and also via email at mhnews-at-mtholyoke.edu.