The recent and brutal deaths of three Jamaican women, within the space of a few days has caused quite a stir locally. But we suggest it hasn’t caused quite enough of a stir.

While the recent Yellow Pages Directory saga, regarding a dancehall session being depicted on the directory cover, saw nearly everyone throwing in their two cents, causing a whole lot of faux-outrage, unfortunately discussion online and in-person about this matter seems to turn on whether or not gender-based violence or violence against women and girls is a problem.

We do not even know whether the recent deaths were caused by gender-based violence (GBV), despite suggestions that they were. However, we have too often heard stories like the one run in the last Sunday Observer about an adult male repeatedly kicking a TEEN girl in face after he saw her washing her underwear at his home and she began troubling him about it.1. It is often seen as a private problem: Violence against women and girls whether it takes place in a domestic setting or out on the street for all to see is a problem. It is not a ‘family matter’ and not anything to be euphemised or downplayed.2. Persons that speak out are perceived as far more problematic than the abusers themselves: Persons that speak out against this violence are often suffered, mockingly entertained or endured as the ‘angry feminist’ or ‘overemotional’ person and this makes them not want to speak out. There is nothing impolite or politically incorrect about taking an active stance against gender based violence, and everyone would do well to be reminded to direct all eye rolls and ire at abusers and not good citizens brave enough to call a spade a spade.3. Protecting all women and girls isn’t seen as important: Women and girls make up half the population, if and when they are threatened it ought to be taken seriously and as a problem the entire human race ought to tackle, not just those who have personally experienced such violence or are at high risk of exposure to it. 4. “…True mi have a likkle daughter…”: We must all begin to see innate value and dignity in humans, whether male or female, before rushing to attach value to a woman or girl based on her relationship to a man or to anyone else. While we can all appreciate someone’s particular concern about GBV stemming from love and respect for women they are close to, the age old ‘Mi have a likkle daughter’ as one’s reasoning for standing up for women and girls provides an excuse for men and boys who aren’t so attached to their mothers or daughters or sisters or aunts or don’t have any such relations to not stand unanimously against this problem. So it isn’t okay.4. There simply isn’t sufficient outrage: There is a place in the stance against this violence for men and boys, and for women and girls who do not feel they have any reason to fear GBV as well. If we want things to change we’ve all got to get outraged (and then we have to do something).

The crux of the matter is not whether you have personally experienced it, or if you fear it happening to yourself or to women and girls you are acquainted with, but that violence against women and girls happens, happens in Jamaica, and that it affects far too many persons and occurs too frequently for us to regard it as a non-issue.

Violence against women is a complex problem with many causes but we will attempt to highlight and address five major issues of concern:

Good men have to separate themselves in every way from male perpetrators of abuse and need to get uncomfortable with sayings like ‘boys will be boys’ and ‘ah jus suh man stay’ that cast aspersions on their entire gender. And ultimately, we must recognise that violence against women and girls holds us all back from progress as one people. After all, how much progress can we all hope to have when half the population is not treated with the respect and dignity we claim to be innate in everyone?

Not very much.