GENDER BASED VIOLENCE

MEMORIZED PERSUASIVE SPEECH

By: Marverick G. Cruz for Celestial Uranus

The quotation of Abraham Lincoln "All men are created equal" has been

called an "immortal declaration," and "perhaps the single phrase" of the

American Revolutionary period with the utmost "continuing importance”. Yet,

today the meaning of equality has become something quite different than the

one espoused in the Declaration.

Comfort women were women and girls forced into sexual slavery by the

Imperial Japanese Army in occupied territories before and during World War II, is

one great example of a Gender Based Violence in history. Estimated victims of

this violence range from 20,000 to 410,000 came from Japanese occupied

territories like Korea, China, and the Philippines.

Gender Based Violence arouses to people of all genders counting men,

women, children and gender diverse individuals. Hence men are not excluded

from gender-based violence. For instance, men can become targets of physical

or verbal assaults for misbehaving predominant concepts of masculinity, such as

when they have sex with same gender. Let’s talk about rape, generally rape is still

thought to be a crime against women specifically but, let me tell you something

a significant proportion of victims of rape or other sexual violence incidents are

male. Yes, they are. Some victims who tried to hide and denied their sad

experience because of shame and embarrassment. Since men are scared of

being thought and will doubt their sexual orientation and be labeled as gay.

We parents/future parents should teach our children that rape isn’t cool,

anyone can be a victim of this heinous act of destroying someone’s mind, body
and soul that every perpetrator must go to death row, so their actions will not

grow.

I think this is the time that we introduce Sex Education in our curriculum. Why

Sex Education is important? Sex education is primarily taught to prevent students

from future meetings with sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and unwanted

pregnancies, something that many high school students and even higher

education students can face in their school years, making it a significant part of

student’s education.

Learning STIs does not only feature sex education. It can also include body

development, sex, sexuality, gender development and relationships. In addition,

including Sex education to our curriculum can somehow prevent HIV AIDS Virus

infection from spreading through guided learning practices. According to The

Philippine National AIDS Council, if not enough is done there will be a quarter of

a million Filipinos living with HIV-AIDS in 2030. HIV AIDS Virus is also subjected for

Gender Based Violence as we generally know it to infect only men. It can also

infect women who are sex workers and the likes. Sexuality is bigger than sexual

activity. It covers all the things that make us who we are.

The Philippines ranks 7th and remains the highest-ranked country in Asia

and the Pacific in terms of Gender Equality Yet despite its substantial progress

towards achieving gender equality and having in place legislation to address

women’s human rights and discrimination, there are still major challenges,

including tackling violence against women and children.

We should not only inform our countrymen about this issue but we should

also improve and reinforce our policies and actions on gender-based violence

especially in crises as part of disaster preparedness efforts. Usually during these

times women and children are subjected as victims, good thing that we have
existing national laws such as the Magna Carta of Women, which provides for

women having the “right to protection and security in times of disasters, calamities

and other crisis situations especially in all phases of relief, recovery, rehabilitation,

and reconstruction efforts.”

Being a human is given, but keeping our humanity is a choice, so tie your

shoes, pack a good lunch and remember we’re all in this dilemma together.