http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlFAd4YdQks It's not because men aren't abused by women. It's because people tend to think (ie. assume) that they deserve that abuse . So, do you think a double standard exists in regards to domestic violence? Furthemore, does this double standard permeate into law enforcement and courts? And is it a significant enough issue that something should be done about it?
I think that some people probably regard domestic violence against either men or women as acceptable. I see no real evidence of a double standard, especially in the legal system. Many people probably aren't as aware of abuse of men, but I don't think it is as common as abuse of women, so that probably explains it. We used to have a couple of members here (a guy called "mountainhare" was one, and he had an offsider) who had a real bee in their bonnet about abuse of men. There are certainly organised "men's rights" groups who get up in arms over the issue. At least some of those are thinly-veiled fronts used to justify general misogyny.
After more than a century of the disturbing and certainly quasi-religious doctrine of women's rights we shouldn't be surprised that abuse against men by women is in some ways perceived as 'redressing the historical imbalance', and therefore goes unchallenged. The short film doesn't even touch upon how women's rights has altered the self-perception of mothers and how this has affected their relationship with their sons - possibly resulting in the widespread appearance of the emasculated male throughout Western civilization which we witness today.
Abuse can obviously take a non-physical form, and as such its more common in domestic cases of women against men. I think thats why it sometimes doesnt get taken as seriously as say, physical abuse because that is so much more graphic. Being treated like shit by a spouse and made to feel miserable all the time can be just as bad in both cases (physical or non-physical). Another issue is that men suffering from this are expected to "stand up" for themselves much more, and hence it is not considered as serious.
OK, what did you think of people's reactions in the Youtube video? Surely the hispanic woman pumping her fist in the air at the sight of a woman abusing a man raised your eyebrows? 'Good for her'... Or perhaps it's not taken seriously. That is what this youtube video suggests. The public reacted far more quickly to a woman being abused by a man, than vice versa. And passers-by smiled or pumped their fists in the air when they witnessed the male being abused. No such reactions with elicited when it was the female who was on the receiving end. How do Men's Rights groups engage in misogyny? Maybe they simply have experienced the double standards portrayed in the Youtube video I posted.
Let me give you one example. Start here: http://www.blackshirts.info/reason.html This is from a website in Australia of a particular "men's rights" group. The text on the particular page I linked to, and the text in general on the site (you might like to check it out) is written to thinly disguise a misogynist agenda. As a matter of fact, this group's members consist (at least in part) of men whose wives have left them. Some of those women have taken up with other men. Some of those women have found it necessary to take out apprehended violence orders against some of the men in this group. The propaganda here paints the group as fighting the good fight for men's rights (with some thinly-veiled references to "mothers' rights" though I'm not aware of any female members of the group). What does that involve, exactly? Well, for one thing the group advocates the abolition of divorce, for example. That would mean that women who have abusive husbands cannot leave (or at least, cannot remarry if they leave). The idea is that these women should have to put up with abusive (and, let's face it, somewhat deranged) men.
Of course it did. Anyone who supports that kind of violence is deplorable. The amount of people who walked past and ignored the woman being abused was just as many as those who ignored the man being abused. Police treat domestic violence quite seriously when it is between partners or former partners. Regardless of whether the victim is male or female. There is this perception that women somehow get away with it, but they do not. I see and deal with a lot of men and women who are the victims of domestic violence, mostly from their former partners and sometimes even from their children. The worrying trend that I am noticing is that while the police will take domestic violence between partners or spouses seriously, I have noticed that when the child is the perpetrator, they seem to take that less seriously, sometimes even blaming the parent who is the victim of the abuse or telling them that they are teenagers and they need to let off steam.
I think domestic abuse is treated differently because men view it differently. Men haven't set up support groups or shelters like women have. Men don't talk about it like women do. Men laugh about it. Richard Simmons slapped a guy. The guy had him arrested. He got so much crap for not 'taking it' from a little guy like Richard Simmons that he asked that the charges be dropped. Who do you think was giving him crap?? http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0525042milt1.html
