www.silverguide.site –

The Buckingham Palace statement (King Charles ‘ready to support’ police over claims about Andrew, 9 February) should be welcomed, but should have come sooner, acknowledging as it does the responsibility we have for the acts of others, not only for our own.

Male violence against women and girls is not the preserve of the rich and powerful. It is evident in every strata of society: behind closed doors in domestic abuse, in the spiked drinks in clubs and pubs, in the trafficking and rape of girls by grooming gangs of every ethnicity, in the offices of the Metropolitan police, in the genital mutilation of hundreds of thousands of women across the globe. I could go on.

In every iteration, it is an expression of power: of power over women, of power over other men, or of power created and shored up between men. However, we have created a comforting narrative that such crimes are carried out by people who are differentiated from “us”, whether that is socioeconomic status, ethnicity or culture. This narrative of “other” is a way to distance ourselves, because “our” men – our husbands, brothers, sons and fathers – would not commit such crimes against women.

We need to provide better support for women and girls who are victims of male violence. We need to work with the perpetrators, but we also need to challenge that majority of men who do not perpetrate abuse, but who stand by silently when they know it is happening.

These men have a responsibility to challenge the structural, institutional and individual misogyny around us, for every time that a “normal” man does not call it out, he is colluding in it and enabling its perpetuation.

I applaud the king for taking this lead. I call on other men to follow it.
Sarah Mulholland
Goldsithney, Cornwall

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