Hamish Brennan

Safe Everywhere Always

Family, friends. Join me as I take part in a cause that is close to my heart from 25th November til 10th December. I’ll be running 30km because the next option 60 is 30 too far, and I'll be attempting to raise $1000 for UN Women Australia as I go. These funds go directly to initiatives by UN Women that prevent and respond to gender-based violence globally. There is a wealth of evidence and research supporting initiatives by organisations like UN Women, Respect Victoria, Our Watch and the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) that offers so much helpful information as to the why what and how we can resolve this issue. The strongest source of change comes from within communities. 

• 1 in 3 women will experience domestic violence in their lifetime 
• every 9 days a woman is killed by her current or former partner
• 95% of men and 94% of women who have experienced violence since the age of 15 have done so at the hands of a man.  

Gender-based violence is very clearly a male issue; it is caused by us and to everyone. No one is winning. One of the factors that evidence has proven to be a driver of men’s violence against women, as highlighted by Respect Victoria, is rigid gender stereotyping and dominant forms of masculinity. As men we’ve all felt the pressure to adopt traits and behaviours traditionally classed as manly, like dominance, aggression and control. Welcome to the world's biggest self-sabotage show.

When the prevailing idea of what’s masculine is just what’s not feminine, it figures that a collective identity crisis follows. Our Watch will be sharing actionable content over these 16 days to talk about healthy masculinities and how to be an active bystander. 

Please consider donating to The Man Cave as they also do some incredible work in this space (https://themancave.life/). 

Sherele Moody is an Australian Journalist who does a great job highlighting the impact of violence via The Australian Femicide Watch and The Red Heart Campaign (https://australianfemicidewatch.org/).