Tackling domestic violence is about reforms to policing and courts and services, and it’s about listening to and protecting victims. But it’s also about working out how to end this cycle, how to stop men who denigrate and disrespect women from teaching their sons to do the same.
Not all men, of course. But enough. A 2019 global masculinity survey found almost 5 per cent of Australian men did not agree that women deserved equal rights to men, which equates to about half a million men across the country.
That view was more strongly held among men aged 18 to 35 than by their 55-plus counterparts.
The Man Box 2024 study found at least a third of Australian men thought a man should have the final say about decisions in their relationship, were entitled to know the whereabouts of their partner and were owed sex by women.
We live in a strange, two-speed world in which schools and community leaders are talking about consent and respect, yet boys can easily access material that is far more explicit, violent and hate-fuelled than anything previous generations saw.
They can spend much of their lives in the echo chambers of their online communities – the supporters of self-proclaimed misogynist Andrew Tate, the incels (involuntary celibates), the strangers spewing bile against women as they play Grand Theft Auto.
When boys and teens have a different example at home, they’re less likely to be influenced by what they see online. But when kids are seeing women denigrated at home, they have no counterpoint. They think that’s how the world works, and take those attitudes into their adult lives.
Source: https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/dads-pass-misogyny-to-their-sons-the-cycle-of-domestic-violence-won-t-stop-until-they-do-20240426-p5fmu2.html?12ft.