ALTHOUGH I agree with many of Kazeka Mashologu Kuse's views ("Drastic action on violence must come from men", February 26), I cannot help but comment on one particular view regarding the common attitude that most, if not all, South African men are rapists. Understandably, many South African women feel the same way as Kuse, but the thought is very emotionally charged, and not tempered by critical and psychological thinking.
Please allow me to answer the following questions many women have:
Why do men rape? What's wrong with them and why do they do it? Why do they murder and torture women?"
Every human being suffers the handicap of imagining what he or she would do in a particular situation and then expecting that same reaction from others. Unfortunately this isn't reality, therefore when others act unexpectedly, we express surprise.
Women are shocked by men's actions because women would never do such things. This stems from the feminist philosophy that has unfortunately plagued society for the past few decades, the philosophy that men and women are created equal (with the exception of differing reproductive organs and average strength difference of 60%).
Fundamentally, this is based on physical, biological, neurological and plain scientific lies. Men and women are not equal in every respect, nor do we have equal aptitudes.
Women will always outperform men in some areas and men outperform women in others. The inner workings of our minds are different in every respect and these differences are hardwired in our brains, not socially instilled as feminists would have us believe.
Don't take my word for it, just ask any neurologist, they've known for years. Feminists just refuse to accept it.
Men are the aggressive species. We are the angry ones who make war, rape, murder, scream in traffic and beat up wise guys in bars – not because we were raised to be aggressive, but because we were born that way. End of story. No discussion warranted.
But how do, or how should men channel this aggression?
The responsible male channels his aggression through exercise or becoming an athlete, through achievement in the workplace (perhaps the chief executive of a company), through mixed martial arts, hobbies and numerous forms of catharsis.
The irresponsible males...well, that's pretty much the focus of the issue, isn't it?
Males, being the dominant sex, will obviously be the prime movers and embodiments of any cultural peaks in aggression that are dominant within a community. Which brings me to South Africa – we have one of the highest rape, murder and brutal quality of crime rates in the world.
The levels and type of violence in South Africa are only found in actual war zones in other parts of the world, yet we aren't at war (not with another country anyway, only with each other, it seems).
The view from the rest of the world is that South African men are brutal rapists and murderers of women. To those who accuse all men, look at the countries with the lowest levels of crime; those countries will still be half male.
The problem we have in South Africa is that there is a fundamental flaw in our society. There is a brutal hatred for women, a culture of fear and anger, a lack of moral upbringing, poverty, a serious lack of education, stigmatism and, worst of all, a government that's planning on doing nothing about it.
The results of living in such a volatile combination of factors causes violence in our society and males will display this violence, not the women.
Men are therefore the litmus test for any prevalent violence, not the cause of it.
Instead of questioning the male sex, we need to address the breakdown of our society and the impact it has on men and what it has done to drive such violence.
For a start, the men of South Africa need to be real men and father their sons correctly, not leaving fathering up to women, schools, teachers, religion or our passive government that does nothing but siphon from the people. This will be a very difficult task because this fathering needs to be done in a morally depraved and uneducated society.
It must be done by men who themselves have not been fathered correctly. But it must be done regardless, lest this cancer of our men's hearts affects many more generations to come.
Neil Smith, Port Elizabeth