From the NY Times, Oct. 19:
"BOGOTA, Columbia -- A new hotline takes calls from men struggling with jealousy, control and fear -- and challenges assumptions about masculinity.The calls are often urgent and pleading.
I've hit my wife. I've lost my temper. I'm jealous and don't know what to do.
Callers are young and old, wealthy and poor. But they all have one thing in common: They're men. The new hotline they are calling is aimed at fighting violence against women. But instead of focusing on women, it puts men at the center of the conversation, in an effort to teach them to understand their emotions and control their actions.
The shift is simple, but profound. The idea of the CalmLine, as it is called, is not just to prevent violence, but to address what many experts say is one of its root causes: machismo, the often ingrained belief that men must be dominant."
This is a truly brilliant idea from Bogota, Columbia -- initiated by the government of the first woman and first openly gay mayor of that city, no less. In other words, SHE'S A DYKE!! The idea is simple. It's cheap. It's catching men who are controlling or violent towards women at the moment that they REALIZE they are being macho creeps, at the moment they want help so they can change. The men initiate the contact when THEY are ready for it.
"The creation of the line comes as women increasingly demand that society cast off norms that have limited them at home or in the workplace, even as they make strides in higher education, business and politics.
In recent years, women from Mexico to Argentina have poured into the streets in mass protests to push for the legalization of abortion and call for an end to the violence they have suffered.
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