Hear mi nuh, man, I burn a special fire pon man who beat woman. As my brother Reginald Campbell said on my Facebook page in response to my column last week, "Men who beat women are usually short on numerous levels: intellect, empathy, emotional maturity, money, food, housing, courage, enlightenment, the penis, etc."

And I can't stand to hear the nonsense some people spewing about some women actually wanting the beating! Women don't desire abuse. No woman in her right mind aspires to be the victim of any kind of violence. I had to speak words to that effect quite a few times this past week, most times in vain I fear, as the discussion rages on about that YouTube.com video of the Jamaican man beating the woman. On two occasions, sitting with a group of mostly young men in Kingston, I was the lone voice against a chorus of acceptance and blame. Most of them appeared to accept the brutal display as a normal thing, and a few of them sought to blame the victim for causing the abuse.

That tendency of people to blame the victim is what upset some sisters and their supporters, and led to them walking the streets in protest recently. "Don't tell us how to dress. Tell men not to rape!" Those were the words screaming from one of the placards as the approximately 3,000 angry people, mainly young women, staged the interesting act of protest in Toronto last week.

'avoid dressing like sluts'

So what exactly was at the root of the protest? About two months ago, several meetings and interventions were initiated in response to incidents of rape on the campus of York University. During one of those meetings a police officer, in addressing the issue, made the remark that women who don't want to be sexually assaulted should avoid "dressing like sluts".

People were enraged. So a group of them got together and organised protest action. They marched from Queens Park to the police headquarters. They called it the 'SlutWalk' and, as I hear it, some of the protesters did show a lot of skin. The officer involved has since apologised, and the force made a statement saying the comments were unacceptable.

That was a positive walk-out! Yeah, man. We need to shoot down any attempt to revictimise the victims of violence by casting blame on them for their suffering. I respect those people who took a stand in Toronto. More and more people are standing up against the increasing scourge of gender-based violence; mostly women. The question now is: how many of us men are prepared to stand with them?

Mi ready. Fi real, man. Anytime my sisters in Jamaica decide to walk out dem way deh, yu can bet yu life I walking out with them!

box-mi-back@hotmail.com

That was a positive walk-out! Yeah, man. We need to shoot down any attempt to revictimise the victims of violence by casting blame on them for their suffering. I respect those people who took a stand in Toronto. More and more people are standing up against the increasing scourge of gender-based violence; mostly women. The question now is: how many of us men are prepared to stand with them?