Violence is not alien
I have noticed that the vast majority (actually an overwhelming 100% from last January to November!) of what I read is authored by men. Generally speaking, identifying gender and ethnicity of an author has never been a particularly big deal for me. I typically search for books by themes, currents or style, and if not many women writers were part of that current, then it would be natural that I rarely encounter a female author. One may discuss why women authors would be under-represented in the first place... but that's not what I want to discuss today.
To conclude the year without regrets on this front, I decided to go through my to-read list and specifically pick some books written by women.
And so I was hit by the realization of how incredibly widespread the theme of violence, be it psychological, physical or sexual, is in women-authored books. As a man, who thinks of himself as being relatively aware of micro-aggressions experienced by women in their everyday lives, it is still wild to think how strongly the presence of plain, raw violence (as in, not hidden, not micro, nor accidental) must affect their existence. And it is something that, in comparison, is rarely portrayed in men-authored books.
A drunk teenager raped by her peers, a childhood ruined by an uncle's or a school teacher's perverse desires, a woman abandoned by her husband and family whose only hope to survive is now prostitution. These things happen everywhere, all the time, and it's necessary to remind ourselves that this is the world we live in. These experiences are rarely lived by the average white man (and we are extremely lucky in this regard), but they are experiences that someone interested in knowing the world cannot ignore nor dismiss.
There is no special conclusion to be honest, besides a kind of obvious one. I'll keep reading what I'm interested in, and if that happens to be written mostly by white men, so be it; but I want to remind myself to always look outside of the bubble, to actively look for different perspectives on the world, on life, to be receptive to stories from people with different cultures and different backgrounds, to keep in mind that I am in the privileged position to not experience many of the horrible things we humans are capable of, but that being privileged is not an exemption from being aware and conscious of what happens around me.
Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto.
On a sidenote, now after reading in excruciating detail how violence can be perceived by the victims, I am really curious to understand how it is lived by the perpetrators, because I really fail to process what is going on in their minds. I guess I'll have some psychology readings to do next year...