An occasion to continue asking gender violence will stop forever.

"Gender violence", two words, and so many awful images.

Of direct, gratuitous violence to women and children.

Of genital mutilations, killing, war rapes to women (the weakest and nameless first).

Of sexual abuse and harassment, maybe in social indifference, if not blame.

Of treating people as commodities, and consumers.

Of fostering intolerance to diversities, and cowardice.

Of vilifying, dismissing, even killing anyone female because "of less value".

Of giving our children dolls so similar to objects of lust and desire (often designed by men).

Of placing unrealistic and inhumane expectations on girls (and more recently boys too), of beauty to any cost, of perfection, of ... domestication.

Of depriving women the right to learn, grow, thrive, and take a stand - so often, "in their own interest".

Of stopping women's career "because they may have children" - a nice shortcut to species extinction, in addition to injustice and lose of opportunities.

Of saying, or even secretly thinking, "it's all her fault" - beyond any reasonable evidence.

Of intoxicating people with cooking and other housewife television programs every noon.

Of using women bodies in the attempt of selling "goods" (and here the remedy would be so simple: don't buy.

Of constricting boys and young men in strict, humanless, aggressively docile and dependent artificial roles.

Of inventing divine intentions justifying any social oppression.

Of receiving women and weak people voices with laugh, mistrust.

Of portraying women in movies as sexy dolls, whores, good mothers, and any other traditional role, with no space for something else.

Of reading Germaine Greer's "The Whole Woman" (written in 1999) one month ago, and acknowledging that if something has changed, it has been to worse.

...

How long the list would be. So long, no one can complete in just 16 days.

And no place is safe.

We have to chose. Civilization and partnership on one side. Perduring degradation on the other.
Letting time just pass, is not acceptable.

I know, many of my concerns are shared. We're all human beings, and have so much in common. So, dialogue is always possible to find solution and, besides, change the world.

Hope, and respect.

Mauri