Men, Not Monsters

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Every day, I think about the grand failure that is society. As a collective, we have failed woefully in upholding trustworthy values and in raising children who will carry them forward. What makes this even more troubling is the fact that we are still failing in the 21st century, despite our claims of being better than the past generations.

I think about the many monsters that plague different regions of the world. It is impossible to list them all in a single moment. The monsters of poverty, shame, injustice, violence, and gross misconduct. These forces strip people of dignity and erode the trust we have in our leaders and in those who wield power.

What is most destabilising is that humans are both the perpetrators and the victims. Humans are the ones who control the systems that keep our growth regressing. Humans are still the ones who pass unfair judgement in courts and weaponise shame to strip others of their humanity.

In a situation when cases of femicide, abuse, misogyny, and violent patriarchy surface online, we rush to label the perpetrators as monsters. While this may feel appropriate, it leaves a bitter taste once we realise that incorrect labels do not help our reality.

There are real men who orchestrate these acts against women and against other men who do not fit society’s rigid definitions. So, calling them monsters quietly suggests that there's an external force fuelling their actions. It creates the narrative that absolves them of accountability by implying they were not acting as themselves.

But these men are not another specie of monsters. They are simply MEN who commit violent crimes against oppressed and vulnerable groups.

For example, instead of saying, “Femicide is on the rise. We have monsters living among us,” we should say, “We have men who have killed women living among us.” Language matters. These perpetrators have names, identities, and pronouns, and they should not be stripped of them when a sensitive discourse that demands accountability is laid on the table.

Remember, we will only be able to confront our problems when we name them in all honesty.

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