Thread by @GappyTales

The phrase 'boys will be boys' is an attempt to naturalise violent behaviour in the male sex and will get no defence from me.

However, the notion that violent behaviour is being ascribed to a gender expression or identity is the most absurd thing I've ever heard and here's how.

If we look at crime statistics (any crime statistics for any part of the country) they will tell the same story. That 98% of sexual offences and the majority of violent offences are committed by natal males with most of their victims natal females.

Predators will be predators

is an attempt to obscure this reality; to 'de-sex' the truth, which is that men commit almost all sexually violent crimes.

Do natal females who identify with a masculine gender expression or identity rape women and children in a proportionate way to natal males? Of course they

do not.

It is not identities or expressions that are violating and terrorising the women fleeing Myanmar. It is men.

It is not identities or expressions that are responsible for the alarming rate of sexual violence in schools. It is boys.

It was not an identity or an expression that hissed at me while I was walking home the other night, causing me to feel fear and to quicken my step. It was a man.

Sex matters in a sexist society. When we attempt to use language that obscures that reality, who does it serve?

Who benefits when we de-sex the language we use to describe the perpetrators of sexual violence and domestic abuse.

Because it isn't women is it.