relativists who will doubtless seek to argue to the contrary, people of all backgrounds, irrespective of their provenance or religion, must be made to see that violence against women is wholly unacceptable and not something which will be tolerated in this country. I for one would certainly also countenance the mentoring of young boys and teenagers, be it at schools, in youth clubs or in specially designed settings, in the ways to treat a lady, in order to teach them what behaviour is acceptable and what is not. Obviously this should be the job a parent, ideally a male one. But the crushing lack of hands on, positive male role models in young boys' lives, together with the relentless media images they are bombarded with, be it in music or film, have chronically distorted the acceptable paradigms of masculinity into such warped and debilitating caricatures, often of violent hypermasculinity, that it leaves us no choice but to intervene in their education. Violence: People of all backgrounds, irrespective of their provenance or religion, must be made to see that violence against women is wholly unacceptable. (photograph pose by model) As quaint and as impractical as it sounds, one could do far worse than to give teenage boys instruction in those medieval epics of courtly love, be it the Roman de la Rose or the medieval Italian Stil Novisti poets, for whom gallantry, chivalry, respect for women and gentlemanly behaviour were essential conduits to intellectual, moral and spiritual enlightenment, let alone to