If one were to produce a TV series on our fish-shaped habitat and its sibling islands, it would probably prove to be quite a hit. For starters, we recently had the exposure of a long chain of corruption. This was then followed by the horrific slaying of the source, which had the effect of splitting open a can of fat, juicy worms.

The wriggly worms infiltrated through all areas of society and even managed to somewhat dampen the Christmas spirit. The sales of mobile power banks must have exploded as a whole nation was obsessively glued to their phones in an attempt to gobble up the latest news morsel featuring Yorgens, Melvins and the Castille clan.

Then we all sang Auld Lang Syne and a new prime minister was sworn in. We started having longer, sunnier days and suddenly the world seemed brighter. That is, until we suddenly got to know that an alarming lot of our big blue traffic boys on their even bigger bikes have allegedly put their foot in it... big time and mafia-style... because if you have to be involved in a scandal and you happen to be in Malta (among other countries), it has to be widespread, sensational and with a potential to bring the country to a halt. Why not?

But bang in the middle of all this, another young woman was brutally murdered and we were once again reluctantly forced to connect the dots with the realisation that this may have become somewhat of a dangerous pattern over the recent years. As a result, the current focus is on women and their life, or rather the lack of it if the murderers in our society have their own way.

However, the current prominence of violence on women in Malta may benefit from an exploration of aggression or oppression that goes beyond mere physicality. Practically, this refers to certain ways of thinking that feature in our society, namely, the discourse that may be setting the undertones of a culture of violence on women.

At first glance, our society seems to be quite progressive with many people being able to enjoy a satisfactory quality of life, irrespective of their gender. Still, figures show that while progress towards gender equality has been made, the journey is far from over.

Society places a lot of pressure on women in order to behave in certain ways

Last year, it was reported that Malta ranked 15th in the EU on the Gender Equality Index developed by the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE). This assesses equality in work, money, knowledge, time, power and health, as well as violence against women and intersecting inequalities. Malta’s score was 62.5 out of 100, placing us at 4.9 points below the EU average (Vella, 2019).

In Malta, women are largely under-represented in governance within the EU. For instance, 2019 figures showed that only six of the 28 national EU parliaments are led by a woman and seven out of 10 members are men (Debono, 2019). This may come across as surprising. But is it?

At the end of last year, I had written an article about a 16-year-old Maltese woman who had come forward to proclaim her thoughts and beliefs about the political issues that we were facing. I described how she had to endure all kinds of abuse, trolling and aggression and that many insulting comments hinted at the fact that she was a woman. Unfortunately she is neither the first nor the last female Maltese public figure who has been subjected to such derogatory comments.

Insults directed at such public figures included being called a ‘whore on heat’, ‘menopausal’, a ‘witch’ and ‘ugly’. Now, let us think about it… would these insults have much value if directed at a male figure? Probably not because they are designed to hit where it hurts, by targeting the feminine aspect of a woman.

Still, oppressive, forceful and aggressive discourses are not always so visibly rude or directed at public figures only. One simply has to go online to inevitably face thinly veiled attempts at dictating what women should do/look like.

It could be in the form of that pop up which features this £400 UK-based beauty treatment that promises the look of eternal youth as promoted by – wait for it – a certain female model. For those of you out there who do not have the financial resources and/or the time to regularly jet off to the UK to halt your aging, then you are welcome to join the group of old-hags-in-the-making.

Just what is it with women and aging? But of course, a man who starts showing signs of aging is often considered as having a mature appeal. Contrastingly though, many aging women feel compelled to hit the salon in an attempt to reverse or hide the process. And this is all a result of discourse on women.

Maltese people may be friendly and welcoming, but sharp tongues are also in abundance. Then we have the other type of degrading language that tends to pin down assertive/aggressive female behaviour on monthly hormones. Heck, we have even got a Maltese phrase to this effect.

The inevitable aim of such language is to try to attribute behaviour to uncontrollable hormones as opposed to controlled and at times justified thought processes that cause a woman to take stern actions.

If we then look at the area of women and child rearing, a Pandora’s Box flips wide open.

Last time I checked, a sperm cell and an egg needed to come together to produce a baby. Yet, common thinking processes and language used in our society still tend to pin child rearing responsibilities on women.

If a woman is in partnership with a man and the man “helps” with child rearing, then she is often expected to feel lucky and grateful “għax għandek raġel bil-għaqal li jgħinek”. A woman is also often judged on other issues such as whether she opts to re-join the workforce following childbirth and on whether she decides to breastfeed or not (and till when).

And of course, she has to prepare all the baby’s food from scratch or else endure the ‘home made is best’ lecture from all the self-made experts hovering around. It is not to say that some remarks are not well-intentioned. The point is that society places a lot of pressure on women in order to behave in certain ways.

It is no wonder then that some individuals out there feel as if a woman is a possession who cannot come and go at will. It is such discourses that have to be openly discussed and further tackled in order to promote an equalitarian society.

Paulann Grech is a lecturer at the Department of Mental Health, Faculty of Health Sciences (University of Malta).