Domestic Violence: complex problems demand complex solutions.

WhenIsItOkayToHate · 2023-01-08T17:30:51+00:00

What hasn't 'patriarchy theory' corrupted? I can't even read a book literally called "Broken Boys / Mending Men: Recovery from Childhood Sexual Abuse" without having my maleness called into question by this dogma.

TheTinMenBlog · 2023-01-08T16:32:45+00:00

Again, this is still a draft – so please any errors or suggestions, let me know!

~

There is a major and unspoken issue within the domestic violence industry.

A pervasive, stubborn and factually unsound political ideology is dictating funding, meddling in intervention strategies and warping how we view and help abusers and victims.

It’s not scientific. It’s not evidence based. And it is deeply divisive.

Yes, it’s the big P, yet again, ‘patriarchy’.

A theory that that for fifty years has been a spectre hovering over the domestic abuse industry to exclude male victims from receiving help.

A theory that claims that all abuse is fundamentally men enacting ‘patriarchal control’ onto women.

A theory that arguably the greatest living researcher of family violence in the world, Professor Don Dutton, has called ‘the ecological fallacy’.

‘These people are fanatics’, says the very founder of family violence research itself, Professor Murray Straus.

‘The big lie’ says Erin Pizzey, the woman who founded the oldest and largest abuse refuge for women in the world.

Forget the factors of low self esteem, of young age, youth delinquency, of alcohol and drug use. Ignore the experiences of childhood abuse, of spanking, of bullying, of trauma. Do not ask about the influences of economic stress, low education, poor healthcare and of poverty.

Erase the more than thirty associated risk factors as given to us by the CDC.

Don’t look at the data that again, and again, and again, shows that men and women perpetrate domestic violence at equal rates.

And ignore the fact that whilst 'power and control’ is a characteristic of male perpetrated abuse, it is just as much a characteristic within female abusers too.

So forget the data and forget the science, because the cause of abuse is one thing and only one thing, it’s the patriarchy.

Don’t get me wrong. You can believe in whatever bunkum political ideology you like.

But when it comes to who gets help and who doesn’t, and what happens to our hundreds of millions in tax funded grants, you can get that borderline conspiratorial garbage out of here.

So let’s take a broader, fairer and more evidenced based look at what really causes domestic abuse.

~Images by Gradienta, Carlo Alberto, John Towner, and Sophie from Unsplash.

~ Source: [1][2][3][4]

jfartster · 2023-01-09T01:00:08+00:00

I'm confused about "No direct relationship exists between power and violence within couples".

I thought wow... that is not what I imagined at all. I thought at least some of the time (like 25% of the time maybe) there would be one more powerful partner - that whole coercive control thing.

But then in the comment it says "power and control IS a characteristic" of both male and female abuse.

So - is abuse different to violence? Am I not understanding what a "direct relationship" is between power and violence? Or - is power referring to structural power?

Just confused by that sentence. "No relationship between power and violence AND no relationship between patriarchy and wife assault".

I think the main point is well presented though. Looking for one simple answer is dangerous. Then the slide with a multitude of contributing factors - we throw those all out the door and insert "patriarchy". (Only criticism/comment is, I imagine someone responding "sure, but a lot of those factors are caused by patriarchy"..... )

Blauwpetje · 2023-01-10T15:13:11+00:00

Too bad Erin Pizzey isn’t mentioned here. She was about the first to start houses for battered women, and soon got thrown out of the women’s movement for denouncing patriarchy theory.

Raphe9000 · 2023-01-10T23:34:34+00:00

Same thing as the term "toxic masculinity." Cultural issues against women in society? Result of toxic masculinity. Cultural issues against men in society? Result of toxic masculinity. It's used to insult men one second then supposedly "support" them the next, and then people wonder why so many men feel alienated and attacked by feminism. And both the patriarchy and toxic masculinity are used as excuses for what men face, as if to suggest men face issues is to say that those issues come from a matriarchy and toxic femininity (two things which are also stupid terms) and so must go on the defensive, meanwhile acting like it's somehow more okay if men are supposedly being hurt by other men.

But the same people who say that only fight against cultural issues against women. It's like how people act like feminism is synonymous with equality, but you can look literally anywhere and see that the overwhelming majority of the movement only cares about women's issues, even in cases like murder where men are the majority of victims and support is not gender-based.

So many of these terms have lost all meaning, instead only being whatever fits one's ideology at the current moment.

Title	Domestic Violence: complex problems demand complex solutions.
Author	TheTinMenBlog
Upvotes	195
Comments	16
Date	January 8, 2023 4:30 PM UTC (3 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates/comments/106nd5g/domestic_violence_complex_problems_demand_complex/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates/domestic-violence-complex-problems-demand-complex.1146492 https://theredarchive.com/post/1146492

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