As I went through the whole process of writing about the different causes of systemic trauma I have to say that I struggled to figure out exactly where is at all this fit in. Did gender violence and trauma come under the clause of systemic abuse. Then I realised that despite the fact that most of the picture that accompanied this series were all taking from a Gender Violence march here in South Africa I struggled to understand if the problem was or was not systemic. I really had to think about it. Then I had to realise that I too was deftly unable to indentify the impacts of gender trauma in my own life that I was not able to see how gender inequality had effected me. right down to the way I thought about gender that even though as a woman I knew myself to be equal to all the men in my life and life expecting to be treated equally that the abhorrent truth was that I am not. From things as simple as domestic chores all the way to knowing that my body is not automatically respected in public and even at times intimate spaces. It’s been shocking to come to terms with and at the same time deeply personal. That my very being based on the very nature of my gender was under threat, especially here in South Africa.
It’s hard to know or understand why gender trauma exists and that it isn’t exclusive to women either. That men too suffer from the constructs of masculinity, to be strong, unemotional to the point that we as a culture are now able to defined ideas of masculinity toxic. That as women we can now write of half the population for the ways to in which they have been brutalised by the system, whether it be cultural, religious or economic.
Withs hastags to of #balcklivesmatter we have to accept the racial inequality is and ongoing feature not just in the west, here in the African continent too. Where war and genocide rage without western intivention, for reason that are never fully explored. Yet are recognised and understood. We still aren’t comfortable talking about racisim or the accptance of the percieved other. Her in Africa and I means as a continent it is often noted my other African nations how aggressive and entitled South African are and that that is often attributed to the Aparthied regime. Where most of the rest of Africa ratial tensions are minimal.
Sexuality is to also something which come under scrutiny within the public sphere, where anything other hertornormative poeple and lifestyles are often outcast and ostratised for what happens in the bedroom. When in all honesty it has absolutely nothing to do with anybody else. The truth is is that we are killing each other over the forms of our bodies, the colour of our skin and sources of our deepest desires. We are dehumanising our very nature to try and fit into cultures that were prescribed to us rather than designed by us.
We all deserved to be loved and respected for who we are no matter our human form.
