Women for Change, or women against nature?
In recent weeks, social media in South Africa has been awash with purple. Women across the country have changed their statuses in solidarity with Women for Change, an organisation that campaigns against gender-based violence (GBV). The movement has become a powerful symbol — a collective outcry against the brutality faced by women and children.
But as this campaign gained momentum, something else surfaced alongside it: anger not just against abusers, but between men and women themselves. A gender war has erupted. Men have launched what can only be described as a counter-protest. The details of their campaign may vary, but the message is clear — both sides are now standing in opposition to each other.
What was meant to unite us against violence has instead exposed a painful truth: South Africa’s men and women no longer trust or understand each other.
From Protectors to Opponents
There was once an unspoken understanding of roles within society. Men were protectors. Women were nurturers. It wasn’t about power, but about purpose — about balance.
Today, that balance has been shattered. Instead of protection, we see aggression. Instead of respect, there is hostility. Men argue that more men are killed in South Africa than women. Statistically, this may be true — but it misses the point entirely. The role of a man is not to compete with a woman in suffering. His role is to protect her. To protect children. That duty cannot be measured in statistics. It is a moral responsibility woven into the fabric of nature itself.
Yet, something has profoundly shifted. Violence, resentment, and mistrust now define the gender dynamic. And while we can point to many social, economic, and political factors, we must ask the uncomfortable question: when did this all begin?
The Abandonment of Roles
Modern society has tried to erase the idea of gender roles — declaring them outdated or oppressive. But no matter how progressive we become, nature does not bend to social trends. It thrives on order, on balance, on distinct yet complementary roles.
Men and women were created with different, interconnected purposes. When those purposes are ignored or inverted, chaos follows.
Women, by nature, are nurturers. They bring life into the world and sustain it. Their role is sacred, foundational. When this nurturing instinct is compromised, the entire moral structure begins to decay. After South Africa’s liberation, and across the democratic world, women were granted the right to terminate pregnancies. It was framed as empowerment — as choice. But something profound shifted in nature’s order.
It is not in a woman’s nature to kill off her own offspring.
To do so is to go against the very essence of life itself.
The Shakespearean Warning
William Shakespeare understood this timeless truth centuries ago. In Macbeth, Lady Macbeth persuades her husband to kill King Duncan. After the deed, she cannot sleep. She sees blood on her hands that will not wash away. The world around them falls into chaos.
Nature itself reacts violently — storms rage, the sun is obscured, animals behave unnaturally. Duncan’s horses turn on each other, and an owl kills a falcon. These unnatural events reflect the moral disorder unleashed by an act against the natural order — regicide.
In many ways, our modern world mirrors that tragedy. When women, the givers of life, began to take life in the name of progress, something spiritual and moral was disturbed. The balance of nature tilted.
When Women Stray, Men Follow
If women — the moral compass of families and society — stray from their natural roles, men inevitably lose theirs too.
When women no longer nurture, men no longer protect. When the feminine principle of care and preservation fades, the masculine principle of strength and guardianship collapses with it. What remains is confusion — men who harm instead of defend, women who distrust instead of inspire, and a society that spirals into violence and fragmentation.
The rise in GBV, the hostility between men and women, and the collapse of family structures are not isolated issues. They are symptoms of a deeper sickness: the loss of natural balance.
Restoring the Order
Healing begins when women remember who they are — not as competitors with men, but as their counterparts in a divine design. The strength of a woman is not in imitation of a man’s power, but in the restoration of her own: to nurture, to guide, to give life and wisdom.
When women reclaim that power, men will rediscover theirs — to protect, to build, and to lead with integrity. The two cannot operate independently. One role gives meaning to the other.
Until then, campaigns like Women for Change will continue to highlight the pain, but they will not heal the wound. Actual change requires more than awareness — it requires a return to order, to nature, to the balance that once held humanity together.
Only when both men and women reclaim their rightful roles will peace return — not just between the genders, but within the very soul of our society.
Conclusion: Turning Purple, Turning Back to Order
Turning our profiles purple is powerful — it shows unity, pain, and courage. But symbolism alone cannot heal us. The real transformation will begin when women turn their hearts back to their true nature, and men return to theirs.
Only then will the colour purple — the colour of both mourning and royalty — reflect what it was always meant to: the restoration of dignity, harmony, and divine order between man and woman.
About The Author
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