Written By Chris Key on the 29th April, 2005
Amanda Marcotte,
Amanda Said:
The Men's Rights Movement, Part 2--MRAs deny that violence against women is an issue
One of the most important goals of the men's rights/anti-feminist movement is to convince people that violence against women is not a problem and hopefully even repeal legislation that's designed to protect women from male violence and sexual assault.
Chris Key Says:
Amanda your statement is fallacious based on the fact the law system has never given impunity to males who physically or sexually assault females. The various laws in existence prior to feminism prohibited male perpetrated violence against women.
The issue of concern is the fact that passing a bill which only offers protection to a specific group of people is discriminatory, fascist and is actually outlawed in many nations. As a result the passing of a bill that protects women only while offering no protection to males; is discriminatory, fascist and oppressive.
Main Entry: op•pres•sion
Amanda Said:
As one can imagine, they reject the tactic of openly advocating for violence against women as an acceptable means of social control--after all, the strategy in play is to restore male dominance by claiming that it doesn't exist. Instead, they just deny that violence is a problem and claim that feminists are hysterical or malicious, depending on the circumstances.
Chris Key Says:
The lack of physical evidence in your statement speaks volumes about the credibility of such a claim. The fact is your statement is merely your opinion and cannot be supported with physical evidence; meaning it is unsubstantiated. The fact you resorted to basing such a claim on an assumption; indicates that you are most likely uneducated on the issue of domestic violence; which is demonstrated throughout your article.
Amanda Said:
Argument: Women commit domestic violence just as often, if not more than men. Examples here and here. This belief is one of the tenets of anti-feminism, and it's critical for MRAs to believe this, because the alternative is to accept that men and women are not equal--for if we were, why is it so easy for so many women to be kept under control by violence?
Chris Key Says:
There is no doubt that females are physically and intellectually inferior to males; however females possess a psychological superiority over males. As a result females are able to control males through the usage of emotional manipulation.
This is due to the female brain possessing a much larger corpus collusum which means; the female brain injects a greater amount of emotion into the thought process, which causes her to generally react in manners that are influenced by her emotions rather than logic.
The correlation between physical and psychological abuse is distinct; as psychological abuse has a tremendous impact on a person. Considering females in general use their psychological superiority to control males; there’s a chance that males might be using their physical and intellectual superiority to maintain some control within their relationships with women.
There is no justification for physical or psychological abuse, but it must be stated that people in general do not resort to violence unless they have been the victims of immense psychological abuse.
Psychological abuse tends to cause a person to be overwhelmed by emotion to such a high degree; they begin to act on impulse rather than logic. So in regards to your comment, there maybe a very small amount of males who resort to using physical violence in order to maintain control in their relationships with females; however the vast majority of the time the females have used psychological abuse in order to have total control over the males. However it’s not only males who have been found to resort to physical violence in order to maintain control in a relationship. There is a diverse amount of physical evidence which conclusively proves that females who cannot maintain control through the usage of psychological abuse, will resort physically assaulting their spouse.
There are literally hundreds of scientific studies which were conducted using the proper scientific method; that conclusively prove that the vast majority of domestic violence tends to be initiated by females.
Amanda Said:
Unfortunately, the numbers that the MRAs cling to in hopes it proves that there is no epidemic of male violence against women pretty much all come from one study. And, as Ampersand of Alas, a Blog demonstrates here, that study isn't all it's cracked up to be.
Chris Key Says:
There are dozens of scientific studies which conclusively prove that the vast majority of domestic violence is initiated by females; with hospital reports proving that the statistics that feminist studies produce are fraudulent and unsubstantiated. I have documented many substantiated and reliable studies on my website, which can you access by clicking here.
Amanda Said:
Domestic violence and sexual assault are extremely problematic issues for anyone who wants to claim that women dominate men in order to shift even more power over to men. The following are various arguments put forth by MRAs to deny that violence is a cause and symptom of male dominance, and the counter-arguments put forth by the hard-working feminist men and women of the blogosphere.
I recommend reading the whole thing, but to summarize, the Straus/Gelles report that showed that men and women commit violence in equal amounts had some big problems--a slap in the face was rated equal to being pushed down the stairs, rape and sexual assault were not counted as abuse despite the fact that rape is a common form of domestic violence, that men more than women use violence as a form of control was disregarded, self-defense manuevers got counted as "abuse", and, most importantly, they used a self-selecting group and only asked about current relationships, knowing full well that women who are terrorized by controlling husbands are unlikely to confess to it.
Chris Key Says:
The accusations you made in regards to the study are indeed fallacious and taken well out of context; meaning your claim is unsubstantiated and unproven. No where in the study does it claim being slapped is the equivalent of being pushed down a set or stairs, nor does it classify acts of self-defence as being an act of abuse.
As for your claim that the users who participated in the study were from a self-selected group; the fact is the users who participate in studies conducted by feminists in regards to domestic violence are also chosen from a self-selected group.
As for your speculative claim that women who were terrorised by their husbands will not report the incident; the fact is most men who are terrorised by a women will be unlikely to report the incident due to the embarrassment of being physically overpowered by a woman.
Therefore the reasons that you have used to criticise the study can be used to criticise the studies that are conducted by feminists. For example, the feminist studies consider the act in which a man looks at a woman in an ‘angry manner’ to be a form of violence.
You can access the statistics from the Straus/Gelles study by Clicking Here.
Amanda Said:
As for the self-defense thing, Amp doesn't get into that too much, but I would point out that I know a few women who have been initially arrested for domestic violence when the cops got called out, and inevitably they were acting in self-defense, which was agreed upon later by all parties involved.
Chris Key Says:
Again you fail to provide a citation that would substantiate your accusation. Self-defence is act that is hard to prove in regards to domestic violence, as the actions of a person can be portrayed in various manners that a) make them appear to have been an act of self-defence and B) make them appear to have been an intentional act of violence.
However the validity of your statement must be questioned as laws such as the Primary Aggressor Law were introduced in 1997 in order to protect females who presumably act in self-defence. The act states that the Law Enforcement Officers are not allowed to base an arrest on who initiated the violence or who inflicted the most injury; instead the arrest must be based on who the LEO’s believe was the cause of the incident.
This law act was passed due to incessant feminist rallying in which they claimed females only react in self-defence. Domestic Violence Advocates such as Anne O’Dell train the LEO’s to arrest as few females as possible. Here is the exact statement from Anne O’Dell:
"if a police officer is arresting more than 8% women, you've got a real problem. When an officer arrests 12% or 15% women, I'm outraged." Anne O’Dell
Anne O’Dell has conducted over 500 domestic violence trainings of judges, district attorneys, police officers, commanders, and victim advocates.
Amanda Said:
The problem with measuring domestic violence and abuse is that it's not just quantitative but qualitative. Amp points out that size differences and power issues make man-on-woman violence a different matter much of the time. It gets even more confusing than that--if my boyfriend tried to force himself on me against my will and I shoved him away, that could be counted as an incident of "violence" only on my part, especially if there was confusion over whether he crossed the line with his sexual aggression.
Chris Key Says:
There are sensitive regions on both the male and female anatomy which can be injured with ease. For example, the testicles are the most sensitive region of the male anatomy; while the vulva is the most sensitive region of the female anatomy.
Therefore kicking a man or woman in the groin will cause an extremely high degree of pain; of which the quality of the pain is the same. Based on this, since females kick males in the groin far more often than males kick females in the groin; wouldn’t that mean females are more abusive than males?
If the party who inflicts the highest quality of pain is to be considered the perpetrator of the domestic violence, wouldn’t that mean the party who performed the groin kick is the perpetrator while the person who was kicked in the groin was the victim?
In regards to the quality of the pain, it must be stated that a kicking to the groin is far more painful than being hit anywhere else in the body with exception to the eyes. This is due to the fact that the testicles, clitoris, vestibule and labia majora contain an extremely high population of mechanoreceptors (pressure-receptors). The high concentration of mechanoreceptors means even a small force applied to the testicles/vulva will activate the nerves, causing a dull, aching, throbbing, intense pain in which the area feels like it is under extreme pressure. The pain is incapacitating and can cause many long term health problems.
In males it can lead to sterility, while in females it can lead to nerve damage which affects sexual arousal. Chronic pain disorders can be caused by a kick to the genitalia, however this seems to be more common in females. Therefore a kick to the groin is a far greater issue than a slap to the face, and considering females kick males in the groin far more than males kick females in the groin; females are the main perpetrators of this act.
Amanda Said:
It gets even more confusing than that--if my boyfriend tried to force himself on me against my will and I shoved him away, that could be counted as an incident of "violence" only on my part, especially if there was confusion over whether he crossed the line with his sexual aggression.
Chris Key Says:
The situation you have described provides a stronger argument to the belief that there is a correlation between psychological abuse and physical violence. Therefore, if a female inflicted a large degree of psychological abuse on a male, and if he merely pushed her away, the manner in which laws are written means he would be arrested for domestic violence.
In other words, if the party who perpetrated the violence was to be given impunity because the other party displayed strong sexual urges; then impunity would have to be given to the party who performed an act of violence against the party who they were psychologically abused by.
Amanda Said:
Trish Wilson also tackled this study and gets straight to the point--if you count domestic violence incidents by tracking people who are injured, instead of hoping people volunteer that information, you'll quickly find that women are 7 to 10 times more likely to get beat up than men.
Chris Key Says:
While females do initiate most domestic violence, it is true that a greater amount of persons who enter the Emergency Room with domestic violence related injuries happen to be females. However this isn’t conclusive proof that females are the primary victims of domestic violence; as it only proves that females are more likely to admit themselves to the Emergency Room.
According to the Justice Department, 16% of persons who are treated for domestic violence related injuries in the Emergency Room happen to be male; which means females are 5.25 times more likely to be victims of intimate violence. Therefore the figure given by Trish Wilson which stated females are 7-10 times more likely to be victimised by intimate violence is incorrect.
However the figure above is not conclusive as 35% of males who suffered violent injuries refused to identify the victim-offender relationship; while only 20% of females who suffered violent injuries refused to identify the victim-offender relationship.
Based on that, a great deal of males who were treated for violent injury may have been the victims of domestic violence but refused to report the crime. If so, then the amount of males who received medical treatment for injuries that were caused by domestic violence would be far greater than 16%; while simultaneously lowering the percentage of women who victims of domestic violence.
A study from the New Justice Department found that less than 0.3% of women who enter the Emergency Room are there due to domestic violence. In total only 3% of women admitted do the Emergency Room were the result of injuries obtained during any form of violence. The Centres for Disease Control found that females are far more likely to be injured by an animal, or involved in a car accident.
Apparently 13.6% of females who are admitted to the Emergency Room are there due to car accidents, which is around 2,000,000 women; a number that is 10 times greater than the amount of women who enter the Emergency Room due to injuries sustained during domestic violence.
Source: Women's Freedom Organisation
However the vast amount of domestic violence is initiated by females; which means the source of the problem begins with abusive females. Therefore the eradication of domestic violence is dependent on the following;
- Understanding that the vast majority of domestic violence is initiated by females
- Understanding that females lack the physical attributes to compete with a male in a physical fight
- Understanding that such a combination will lead to more females being injured as they are placing themselves in a situation they cannot control or survive in
The only way to solve a problem is to gather an understanding the cause of it. Unfortunately the feminists and society in general have ignored the fact that females initiate the vast majority of domestic violence; which causes people to misunderstand the source of the problem.
Ultimately any female who decides to perpetrate an act of violence against their spouse is not deserving of any sympathy if she ends up being battered in the process; as she chose to engage in such an act and wouldn’t have hesitated about inflicting such injury upon her spouse if she had the means of doing so.
In conclusion, the fact females make up the majority of persons who are treated for domestic violence related injury along with the fact the majority of domestic violence is initiated by females; indicates that all actions have consequences and if females acted in a more responsible manner and showed some tact, then there wouldn’t be such a problem.
Sincerely,
Chris Key
