Beating violence

October 29, 2006

I don’t hit women as much as I should. Maybe it’s my upbringing or maybe it’s my common sense, but taking a swipe at a woman or giving some chick five across the eyes just doesn’t occur enough in my life.

Oh, were you paying attention? Were you annoyed immediately because I mentioned violence or because it was violence toward women?

If you know me – and just read back over the 250 entries at bowlofcheese.com to get a feel for my politics and outlook on life – I can be a little sarcastic.

Beating women isn’t something I really aspire to do, but it’s not because they’re women…it’s because I’m not a big fan of violence in any form.

Unfortunately, the people who have established violence prevention organizations feel differently. They’re totally in favor of violence if it happens to a man, but are against cruelty to women.

No, the sites infrequently make passing mention to domestic partner violence but gloss over the fact that nearly 1/5 of all victims are men! Really.

Here’s a quick list of three sites that appeared at the top of the google rankings…

Womenslaw.org – a group that pursues cases of violence toward women

ncadv.org – a national group focused on ending violence in the lives of women and children

feminist.org – big surprise here, but even after stating that 15% of all domestic violence happens to men, they go on to focus only on domestic violence as a problem only women face.

After doing the research I’m appalled at the figures and sympathize with the women who are abused, beaten and raped. There’s no reason for anyone to suffer at the hands of another person, much less at the hands of a loved one or domestic partner.

But until we look at issues like this fully and clearly, they just remain a rallying cry for women to discriminate against men.

And only then can issues like domestic violence be beaten.

More to come…