Our standards are too low

There has been a lot of talk about domestic violence on my social media feeds lately. This is due to a few sad events in my town; articles in some Sydney papers; international women's day and Q&A did something or another. I also just happened to log into my zombie tumblr account, say no more.

I don't identify as a feminist, but I do think women are presently not equal. If women were equal, then why haven't they oppressed a whole gender? If women were equal, our government would also run a stupid PR campaign stating that "Violence against men, Australia says no".

I think the campaign our government ran was stupid, not because of the content, but because it was needed. It is like having laws against not wearing a seat belt or a bike helmet, they are stupid because there is a need for it to be enforced. In what barbaric country do they say "yes" to violence against women? Wait... don't answer that, I don't want the moral outrage on this post to also include races or other religions. The fact that our government needed to say that it will not tolerate violence against women is stupid, not because it is bad a stance to take but because sadly it needs to be said in our country.

I do think women need to be given more protection and strength than men and I think it should be enacted by men for women. On Facebook you can boldly take a stance on something with very little impact to your actual life. This of cause does not reduce the amount of brownie points you may get with your peers. Remember when we all stopped Joseph Kony in 2012, or last year when we poured cold water on ourselves to solve something or another (and of cause not for our own self promotion)? (Yes, I am part of the postmodern generation that is deeply cynical, even though we are still unrealistically optimistic about technology and the outlook of our progressive future.)

So whats my point in all this? Some men are being praised for coming to the defense of women on social media. This is good, I think men should be first in line to defend women (and so women should not be first in line to die for this country - they are too valuable). But has our standards dropped too much? Why praise a guy for saying he would be decent and not hit their loved ones? You know who else doesn't hit their life long mate: Penguins*. Well done, we have set the standard of decency to the height of a black and white flightless bird.

Instead of telling men not to do the negative, we should be raising the bar in how men should do the positive. Men shouldn't hit women, instead they should honor them. Men shouldn't undermined women, instead they should understand them. Men should use their strength and privileged for those who don't have either. In fact, if you are married and you don't do these things to your wife then God won't listen to you.

Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered. (1 Peter 3:7 ESV)

*Cockroaches and termites also mate for life (and don't beat up their partner) but I didn't want to compare men to bugs, it just might hurt their feelings.