Apathy and Violence
Sophia Lardizabal
Apathy can be considered a plague in today’s society. Apathy is generally defined as, not
giving a damn. It is indifference toward different things in life such as people, events, hobbies,
and whatsoever. We currently live in a fast-paced world with a multitude of things trying to
catch our attention, most especially in social media. We get to witness different events, some that
bore and others that are bizarre. Over time, when we’ve witnessed enough, we’ll come to a point
where we would be indifferent toward most things in life— we would be harder to please.
Alternatively, that would also mean that it would be harder for us to be passionate about most
things in life. Apathy is both a blessing and a curse, a double-sided sword, perhaps. A blessing in
a way that we get the freedom from not caring too much, yet a curse because indifference is
often one of the causes why people lose their will to live.
Violence can be considered a plague in the olden days when war was prominent all over
the world. It is defined as behavior involving physical force intended to hurt, damage, or kill
someone or something (Oxford Dictionary). Violence against women and children refers to
abuse, harassment, assault and even rape toward women and children. If it’s that bad, then why
does it seem like people only participate in Anti-VAWC campaigns for the sake of it? Why does
it seem that most people don’t care about violence against women and children? People barely
talk about it— walking around, people don’t discuss VAWC that much, or even at all. There just
seem to be better things to talk about.
Upon discussion, we concluded that a cure for apathy, something that would make a
person passionate about campaigning against VAWC is to be violated as a woman and as a child.
Most of us are privileged enough to not experience violence in its extreme cases at all, and I’d
bet that it’s primarily this privilege that makes most people indifferent toward the graveness of
VAWC. Having people go through violence just to make them passionate about supporting a
campaign against VAWC is obviously unethical, so how are we going to inspire people to
genuinely support Anti-VAWC campaigns? How do we convince society to direct their attention
to campaigning against VAWC amongst the other things they could be doing?
The answer is connection. Connection in that makes people realize how evident VAWC
is in their lives. We don't have to make people go through violence, it's a safe bet that a woman
or a child already went through minor effects of VAWC, we just have to remind them. Think of
an event wherein being a woman hindered you from doing something you want. Something like,
not being allowed to hang out with friends because "you're a girl, it's dangerous". Or being
overly cautious of the places you go to because it's generally thought that women are easier
targets than men. Through relating to even these small things, by making a connection, we start
to care more about supporting campaigns against VAWC.
The apathy we experience is proof of our privilege. Privilege that is proof of the success
of Anti-VAWC campaigns. However, as long as VAWC is still evident in our country, we must
not be apathetic toward it. We must continue to fight for a VAWC free community until it loses
all its marks which would then allow all of us, women and children together, to be apathetic
towards violence because we would all then be privileged enough to not experience violence in
our lives.