Hermione McKenzie makes a point during a Gleaner Public Editors' Forum recently. Other panellists (from left) are Dr. Douglas McDonald, Glenda Simms, Ian Boyne and Hope Ramsay. - PHOTOS BY CARLINGTON WILMOT/FREELANCE PHOTOGRAPHER
Hermione McKenzie, senior lecturer, Department of Sociology, Psychology and Social Work, University of the West Indies:
I THINK the strong point I want to make is that none of this is fixed in stone, we can change it. I heard one of the panellists say that we can do a lot of change. We need to look clearly at what are some of the problems and then decide that we can try to change the attitudes of our boys and girls. We can try to influence the attitudes of men.
I just want to say something about the sort of statements that have been made about machismo and so on. I have recently been talking to men in communities, and what I get from them is a rational thing. They say, we want respect and I think respect is one of the most valuable things that people in society want. We want respect from the community at large.
Both men and women are looking for a level of respect in the society, and I think that that gives us an opportunity again to change the sort of brute force and machismo to an understanding clearly about respect.
