“No man! Lick me again … Yuh always tell me say yuh love me when yuh BEAT me.” 

These lines were improvised by a teenager as she role-played the character of a wife at a recent WMW Jamaica workshop on intimate partner violence (IPV).

“I was playing the husband in the skit,” said Evoné Walters, workshop co-facilitator, leader in theatre arts for youth education, and Founder and CEO of Artribute Limited.

“The husband character had just apologised for hitting his wife, promised to work on restraining his violence and learn to be a better partner. Then the ‘wife’ character doubled down and, with emphasis, said, ‘Lick me again.’”

“I was dismayed by the world this youth was dramatizing. What are today’s youth… What are young girls being taught is love?”

Through the WE-Talk for the Reduction of Gender-Based Violence project, funded by Global Affairs Canada and Oxfam Canada, WMW Jamaica is conducting training for interested groups in every parish on how to recognise the warning signs of gender-based violence, how to prevent it, and how people can seek support if they’re experiencing it. 

“In all my years as an educator for girls and women’s empowerment, this destructive and self-destructive belief about love keeps coming up, and it’s tragic,” said workshop co-facilitator and WMW Jamaica co-founder Hilary Nicholson. 

“Now, especially with social media, we have to work even harder to counter harmful narratives that say, ‘men show love through violence, and women show love by encouraging it,’” she said. 

In 2021, research data from the National Family Planning Board and the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN) showed that 38 per cent of women across the island, and nearly 50 per cent of women in Kingston, reported experiencing intimate partner violence (IPV). Ongoing research suggests these percentages are actually much higher.

This Valentine’s Day, WMW Jamaica encourages all Jamaicans to join their campaign to foster a culture of safety and support for healthy and safe intimate partnerships. 

“To truly celebrate this season of romance, we cannot turn away from the violence that can affect many aspects of intimacy,” Nicholson adds. 

“Talking with our partners, ensuring consent to sex, building foundations of trust and mutual esteem, these are what Valentine’s Day can raise up, to build up a healthy love.”