Answer

When I was growing up, I was taught about violence, bullying and abuse issue. I learnt that they collectively deprive a person of happiness and hinder healthy relationship with others. It is important to facilitate fair treatments among people and ensure that we learn to respect and appreciate the rights of people we get to interact with. I also learnt about dating violence and how to speak up about it in my peer group. Violence among women persists in Canada and in many parts of the world out of neglect of rights and over-reliance on societal beliefs that appraise men more than women.

A number of factors make it hard to eliminate violence against women. First, low level of education among women subjects them to intimate partner violence because they lack knowledge regarding their rights. In addition, inferiority complex limits them from speaking up about their issues. Lack of advocacy and empowerment counselling interventions also worsens the re-occurrence of these incidences.  Community norms and beliefs that ascribe or privilege higher status to men and relatively lower status to women, which compromises the value of women in the society and subjects them to objects of domestic violence.

There is much I have learnt about the bystander approach before. Jackson Katz and colleagues sort to develop a pedagogical model purposely to provide critical data and refute the ongoing battering and rape cases, but through a strategy that can possibly invite men and engage them in the dialogue. The bystander approach was used as a strategy of teaching people how to intervene at the scene of assault. It changes the current social norms in peer cultures across all levels. It encourages individuals to speak out in the face of any abusive incidences before, during, or even after an incident.

As I was growing up, I learnt that bullying and violence in school setting is an everyday reality that denies students a fundamental right to education. Bullying takes a number of forms including hostile intent, distress, power imbalance and repetition. In schools, it has a wide spectrum of effects on student including stress, anger and suicidal thoughts. Schools can “teach” students to become violent through discriminatory textbooks, practices and curricula. Unless effective approaches are executed, the abuse denies several great minds a chance to learn well. In life, bullying and violence can only be eliminated if people understand their rights and much more willing to fight for them.

The video reminded me of several course items. Among them, masculinity as a propeller of violence, violence against women as men’s issue, bystander approach to prevent gender violence and bullying as well as mentors in violence prevention (MVP) model. All these items relate to what Jackson Katz is pointing out because they all rotate around the ideology that men abuse of women is a growing societal issue. 

Topic 5- Health

http://serc.mb.ca/sexual-health-info/the-basics/what-is-sexuality/sex-positivity/ (explore the pages on this website, Sexuality Education Resource Centre of MB)

It is important to apply sex positive principles to whichever work we get involved in. By reading the content captured in the website, I have learnt that sex positivity is a significant concept as it affirms and acknowledges the right of each person to experience and denote their sexuality through their life and the choices they make. It is grounded in a comprehensive sexuality and sexual health education. Sex positivity is a respectful yet inclusive wide spectrum that covers sexual experiences, consensual activities (including non-activity), expressions and identities (including asexuality).