Society, let’s raise men who promote gender equity.

Almost two decades into democracy, but we still live in a society where women are seen as punching bags or people that need to be overpowered. Patriarchal societies have created devious men – men who see fit to rape and kill powerless women and girls like Anene Boysen. Men who see fit in beating women to a pulp and still claim they love them. Men who engage in killing corrective rape with the hope of ‘curing’ lesbians. What kind of men are we raising, society?

Women have been subjected to abuse and scrutiny all their lives, and frankly, it seems as if it is not about to end soon. Reports of the malicious rape incidents have sparked great debate in different sectors of society. To add fire to the fuel, the infamous sushi king declared on national radio that he dated students during his days as a teacher. South Africa, what is happening to our fellow brothers?

As if that’s not enough, our blade-runner allegedly shot his girlfriend and killed her. These kinds of incidents have been trending in our society. To date, we hear reports about more women being raped and killed  as if it has become  a norm to do so. With our first-world constitution, brutal attacks continue to rise as if the law is non-existence.

Whenever tragedy strikes, we vent our frustrations on twitter by voicing out our opinions. Clearly, as twitter users we believe the problem could be solved in mere 140 characters or less. I doubt it! We need to do more than just tweet, in fact, let us all teach children about equality. It starts with us, young adults and adults. Let us normalize the fact that men hurt, too. They cry. They care and most importantly, they talk about how they feel.