In conversations around street harassment, sexual violence, domestic violence and rape, inevitably someone will say, well, men are “natural predators” and “biologically wired to be violent” etc. UGH. Guess what? It’s simply not true.
Agustín Fuentes, trained in Zoology and Anthropology, is a Professor of Anthropology at the University of Notre Dame. His research delves into the how and why of being human and he breaks down why it is wrong.
Check out the article and perhaps bookmark it so next time someone tries to tell you men can’t help saying sexually explicit things or grabbing you on the street you can tell them why that is wrong.
“…when men’s rights groups bemoan the oppression of their ‘nature’ by women they are wrong. When anyone asserts that sexual coercion, harassment, or even rape is, at least in part, driven by biological prerogatives, they are wrong—and no one can use biology and evolution as an excuse for being a jerk. But that does not mean that such behavior is not an ongoing reality—it just means that it is a reality that we can alter.
Most men aren’t sexual predators. But we need to be more active when someone is—especially in regards to sexual harassment, coercion and assault on women. Society needs to own up to the fact that sexual aggression is not inevitable—but it is predictable, explicable, and in most cases avoidable.”
