Identify the goals and the beliefs of the MVP, the WRC, and Walk a Mile in Her Shoes. Then discuss similarities and differences between the three. Within your answer, discuss criticisms of WRC and Walk a Mile in Her Shoes and how MVP’s focus on bystanders encourages personal agency.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

ANS: The WRC is committed to ending violence against women. They believe that men should take responsibility to speak out against men’s violence against women. WRC believes that the problem is a small number of men who commit violent acts.

Walk a Mile in Her Shoes relies on community awareness and fundraising to end men’s violence against women. The idea is to cultivate men’s compassion for women’s experiences through the act of the march and then generate dialogue afterward about gendered violence.

MVP also is committed to ending violence against women. Unlike WRC and Walk a Mile in Her Shoes, which focus on the individual, MVP focuses on socialization as the problem that links masculinity to violence and aggression. They believe that men should be aware of bystander behavior, or how those who are aware of a violent situation respond to it.

Criticisms of both WRC and Walk a Mile in Her Shoes have said they don’t go far enough in their analysis of men’s violence. By focusing on making men not violent, they are not addressing societal issues, as MVP does. Furthermore, teaching bystanders to intervene makes more men responsible for violence instead of just the men who are committing the violence themselves. Speaking up as a bystander encourages personal agency in that by speaking up you are working to end violence.