If I could save the world, I would start by looking into the different inequality issues that exist in the world, and why certain biases exist in individuals. I think educating individuals on what we can do to acknowledge these biases and how we can aim to restructure our inherently biased actions is critical in changing our behaviours, tolerance and respect for others. For example, if individuals could learn their inherent biases on race, maybe microaggressions could be reduced. Many times, we don’t even acknowledge or understand how our behaviours could have possibly been hostile or unsupportive. If we were to understand how small behavioural actions can impact others, these microaggressions could be limited to a great extent. Understanding our privilege is definitely a part of this process, as we grow our self-awareness about the world and how we can channel this privilege to create positive change. Looking into gender privilege and gender roles would also be crucial for this because I think a lot of the time traditional gender roles and expectations are so ingrained into our cultures or environments as we grew up that we may sometimes be insensitive without realising the implications of our actions. Expecting a total shift immediately would be unrealistic, and so I think educating individuals on what these traditional views are and how they can be questioned would be more effective. I also think a better understanding has to be developed of non-gender binary people, I personally am also guilty of not always immediately acknowledging the traditional expectations that individuals may have of trans people. I would like to begin with understanding my own biases here and acknowledging how I can change them.
Lastly, I think there should be a clearer focus on abusive and non-abusive relationships. More education globally around the world about consent would help with this. Many times, individuals don’t always understand how their actions may be a form of sexual assault. This might be because the victim has not explicitly said yes, but also not explicitly said no. If there was more education around this, it would make the distinction clear and hopefully limit the number of rape cases each year to a certain extent. Understanding how victims can get support is also crucial. I think a particular emphasis needs to be placed on stopping victim-blaming and understanding when individuals may be in an abusive, toxic relationship. I really liked how we learnt about this with particular scenarios and how we were able to discuss different intervention strategies when we come across conflicts like this. I think if I were to save the world, the most important message I would want to spread is the idea of being respectful of one another. As simple as it sounds, I would also probably spread the message of only doing things that you would want to be done to you, and emphasize the need for individuals to put themselves in the other person’s shoes.