I am a big fan of the “Because I am a Girl” campaign. This is run by the aid organization Plan and looks to cure the world of some of its ails by addressing gender inequality. Before all of everyone else jumps on it for being about misandry, it really isn’t just because of the name. Gender inequality affects both genders equally. For instance, if a girl is forced by her culture to drop out of school and get married at a young age it costs the community by having an uneducated person in it, just as it costs the potential husband lost revenue from her not being able to find employment. Even if she lives in a more archaic society where she is expected to only tend to the home and children, a lack of education makes her less able to accomplish those roles. This is only one example and there are many others including such issues as prostitution and human smuggling. So basically the plan helps everyone. I routinely discuss this with my friends including here online as a really good initiative which can do a lot of good throughout the world.
With that in mind though I was reading Red Lanterns #4 today and the strangest thing happened (spoilers ahead). The lead character of the series, Atrocitus, is frustrated at Bleez because he freed her of her rage yet now is not sure that she is with him or against. As Atrocitus does when he gets confused he tends to take out his rage in very violent ways. In this case though he became an intergalactic anti-hero for the Because I am a Girl movement. First he travels to a planet where a sect cuts out the eyes of teenaged girls and then forces them to work in a temple for a year. Suffice to say things don’t end so well for the sect leaders or the temple (incidentally intentional blinding is unfortunately in the news in Canada as of late.) Then he travels to Earth where he kills someone that has been beating his wife (which is so common it doesn’t generally make the news). Of course in both of these cases this is not what is advocated by anyone actually interested in gender equality. The point is not to kill a bunch of men but rather to educate everyone. Nonetheless from a “righting of wrongs” standpoint Atrocitus has addressed some of the more compelling issues that we face in societies around the world. While it is not necessarily the treatment I would have gone for it is nice to see these issues addressed in other media where the message can get across. Meanwhile Atrocitus becomes one of the least likely champions of gender equality.
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