A few weeks ago during the 16 Days Against Gender-Based Violence (GBV), I made a mental note on my Facebook timeline and wrote;
“When we stand against GBV these 16 days, let us not just spread the narrative based on women being victims alone. We need to move away from the notion of seeing gender as only a women issue but as a collective. Gender theorist Judith Butler says, ‘gender is performative’. Remember that many men who do not fit the ideal standards of hegemonic masculinity are ostracized by society. Violence takes many forms both physical and mental. The important thing is acknowledging the power structure at play when we interact with the concept of gender as we raise awareness of GBV’’.
This post was picked up by the Agents of Change Foundation Zambia, a youth-led organization using the media of radio to provide Radio training and storytelling skills thereby tackling HIV/AIDS prevention, Environmental Sustainability, Human Rights as well as other issues of concern, and I was invited for a podcast interview.
In the podcast interview, I sat with one of the Agents of Change to discuss issues around GBV particularly affecting men and in the broad spectrum gender and sexuality as concepts in the Zambian context. Further on, we discussed consent and some ways to mitigate GBV. Happy listening. Feel free to comment and engage.
