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Men Behaving Badly
In the face of continued male violence, the Toronto Police is one of a few organizations beginning to use more public campaigns against male sex criminals. This particular poster is likely directed at sex workers (it’s plastered around the Church-Dundas-Jarvis areas), but the idea can never be overemphasized in a broader sense.
But are public appeals doing enough? Or does City Council need to step-up efforts? Are rhetorical questions ever effective?
Earlier this summer, some very silly councilors spit out reactionary policy ideas aimed at curbing violence. These off-the-wall ideas were merely angry rhetoric, but they were treated with relevancy since they were directed at specific Toronto demographics (Mammoliti with young people, Thompson with black males). So this leaves us wondering if some of that vim and vigour might help against male violence: Statistics of male violence are beyond explicit, they’re damn damning (“Sicko Behaviour,” as it’s describe in this poster, are coming overwhelming/solely from men). Can we impose sanctions against a gender? Torontoist thinks so. At least as a three month experiment, all males living within city limits should be subject to an 11 pm curfew, after which they can be questioned by police without reason. Imagine Toronto man-free for just one night, what would our crime rates look like? Perhaps this would give men some insight into the after-dark limitations women face nightly. It would also force Torontoist to stay home and get his work done.
Of course this is as far-fetched as gender equity in the workplace, and as extreme as any of the aforementioned curfew-police state plans from our dumb-o councilors. But if this idea were ever offered up in council or a similarly revered forum, at least a valid public discussion of such issues would follow.