All men should #BeThatGuy when it comes to preventing violence against women.
In his poem "When," actor and poet Carlos Andrés Gómez spells out the horrifying violence so many women are subjected to all over the world. Gómez partnered with Breakthrough, an organization working to end violence against women, to present the poem at the Omega Institute 2014 Women & Power conference this past September.
Gómez strings together true events -- and the disturbing norms they reflect -- to paint a powerful picture of sexual and physical violence against women:
"When rape becomes a fashion critique and then a sob story about two football players losing their way."
"When my 7th grade student gets catcalled on the way to school by a middle aged man and everyone in the room giggles, rolls their eyes, calls it Tuesday."
"When the miracle of a woman’s body is mandated into flaw because old men who drink together say it is so."
Nearly one in five women experience rape in their lifetimes and three women are murdered every day by a male partner. There are countless other violent acts committed against women every day.
"It seems like a lot of guys don't know what to do when confronted with violence against women -- other than say, 'That's bad. I don't do it,'" Gómez wrote in a blog for The Huffington Post in September.
Gómez explained that more men need to stand up against our culture that has allowed violence against women to become normalized. "This is about recognizing that each moment alive presents an opportunity to be a different kind of man -- a different kind of person," Gómez wrote. "By being aware, critical, humble, informed -- and yes, bold -- each of us can be revolutionary agents of the gender equality we need in the world."
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