Letters to the Editor
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Parson
The article was about hitting. Not killing.
Brightstar-why in God's name would ANYONE want to have control of you? Ick!
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Max, I know plenty of women who can fight.
I'm talking streetfight, not pitty patty sparring.
I don't know any man who is not also an expert fighter who could survive a fight against my fight class teacher. My classes were full of young women who were learning how to fight -- not box, fight -- and win in a vicious encounter with a thug.
Maybe it's a generational thing, or maybe its the emergence of a new kind of martial arts that stresses realism and survival fighting, but I have seen excellent female fighters, and I've been bruised more than once by women half my size who happen to fight really well.
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It is important to read the method section
Interesting study, but lets look at the data. I copied sections (yes, I left a bunch of stuff out in the interest of parsimony) from the study. There are some pretty important pieces of information that are not emphasized in the salon article. #1 The definition of violence includes both low-severity aggression ("How often in the past year have you threatened your partner with violence,
pushed or shoved him/her, or thrown something at him/her that could hurt," and fairly severe violence ("How
often in the past year have you slapped, hit, or kicked your partner").
This study does NOT differentiate by severity. In other words, if you answered "yes" to any of these questions you were considered to have either perpetrated or been on the receiving end of Intimate Partner Violece (IPV). It is important to know that in previous studies that used this assessment technique- namely the one that shows that 1 in 3 women are victimized by men, the VAST majority of those violent acts are at the low end of the severity scale. So, let me be clear-when violence is assessed, most reported incidents of violence reported by both men and women are usually at the low end of the scale. I am not excusing even low levels of violence (no matter who does it), but pushing someone is NOT in the same category as punching someone in the face or hitting with a baseball bat. So, lets save the hysterics on both sides of the gender spectrum.
Consistent with past research, when there is violence (reciprocal or not), it is women that are likely to get hurt. “Two parallel questions assessed the partner's
perpetration of violence toward the respondent. Injuries from partner violence were assessed with a single question for the perpetration of injuries upon the partner ("How often has partner had an injury, such as a sprain, bruise, or cut because of a fight with you"), and a parallel question assessed the partner's perpetration of injuries to the respondent.”
Results “For injury occurrence, both perpetrator gender and reciprocity were significant predictors, but the interaction was not significant injury was more likely when violence was perpetrated by men than by women (men=28.8% vs women= 18.8%; AOR= 1.30), and in relationships for which IPV was reciprocal versus nonreciprocal (redprocal=28.4% vs nonreciprocal =11.6 %; AOR=4.41).”
It is clear that this study does show that women act aggressively and sometimes violently. This is not funny, nor should it be excused. In my experience in the mental health field, some of the most violent relationships were characterized by reciprical violence. But, in most cases it was the women who went to the hospital (will never forget the woman with the scar because her husband had tried to slit her throat, or the schizophrenic woman with the dent in her head because her husband hit her) because men are on average bigger and have greater upper body strength.
Here is a link to the full text article-I don't know if it will work, since I downladed via a university sponsored website. If it does not work, google American Journal of Public Health + Whitaker + Intimate Partner Violence.
http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdf?vid=2&hid=113&sid=91db5685-27d9-4482-a214-d1176c9c8a9d%40sessionmgr107
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@Brightstar -- kicked in the ovaries
Some judicious googling should reveal methods (and, as it happens, YouTube vidios-- who knew?)
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@melthough -- A Little Knee-Jerking Perhaps??
If you are somehow referring to me with your "Femnazi Bitches" comment-- I'd like you to read anything you can ever find from me and let me know where I've ever advocated hitting anybody? Merely pointing out that women are not immune from painful blows and advocating that they should get to experience it once in their lives is not advocating violence against women.
A story of my own growing up-- I was in Jr. High, whatever age that is, I've forgotten-- 11 maybe? Standing there on the playground (recess yard-- whatever you call it) minding my own business not bothering anybody when these two girls come running up and without any warning or provocation kicked me right in the nuts and ran away laughing. I don't know who they were, and don't really care, but I got the distinct impression they just wanted to see for themselves what happened if they kicked a guy in the nuts and picked me out of the blue for their experiment.
So go ahead now and tell me again what it is I advocate.
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Remember what feminism is teaching girls Mr. E
Women are divine put upon angels.
Men are despicable evil punching bags for said diving angels.
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Ooh, I made a Freudian!
And it is APT.
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getting kicked in the nuts
is a male humor phenomenon.
Women do not, as a rule, find that scenario to be a real knee-slapper.
My proof?
How many "chick-flicks" or "chick-lit" books feature scenes where someone kicks a guy in the balls in a moment of levity? It's not a popular motif of genres that cater to women.
How many films, tv shows, books and comedy sketches aimed at males aged 14-40 feature nut-kicking scenes or stories?
Ah.
(My personal favorite? Hiomer Simpson trying to judge indie films for Springfield's film festival. Barney Gumbal submitted a beautiful Felini-esque art piece, but 'Football in the Groin' had a football in the groin! Doh!)
I suspect more men than women find woman-on-man abuse depictions "cute" or "funny" for 2 reasons: 1. the schadenfreude moment of "Better you than me, pal" and 2. the confidence to laugh at something one knows will likely never affect them. Plenty of women find humor in disrespecting men (Deborah Baronne as the patron saint of Wives of Clueless Husbands), but few women find humor in anybody hitting anyone.