expect it, don’t be grateful

I’m reading an old interview with Natasha Stott-Despoja about violence against women and I thought I’d share what I think is a great quote in response to the question of what she thinks about having men as Ambassadors campaigning for an end to violence against women.

“While, of course, men have to part of this campaign, tehir responsibility is to their brothers. They have to send strong messages to themselves and each other tha violence agains women is unacceptable. And women don’t have to thank men for doing that; we have to expect it. If people want to be ambasadors – male or female – that’s positive. But I don’t want us being grateful for those men who are prepared to be a part of this campaign or this cause because we should expect nothing less. I don’t want us being grateful for the small amounts of support that we get from powerful people. We should be empowering each other, empowering ourselves, and syaing ‘yes, and end to violence is exactly what we expect’.