Responding to message posted on EDEQUITY on 2/2 regarding masculine and
feminine labeling
While women can obviously be violent to men, women, and to children, and
while there has been some research to suggest the violence that women
perpetrate on men is equal to the violence that men perpetrate on women,
the majority of the research just does not support that. The largest
research regarding this very issue was the one done by the US Department
of
Justice, Office of Justice Programs, National Institute of Justice and the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This research surveyed 8,000
women and 8,000 men about their experiences with violence. The study
provides empirical data on the prevalence and incidence of male to female
and female to male intimate partner violence, the prevalence of rape and
physical assault among women of different racial and ethnic backgrounds,
the rate of injury among rape and physical assault victims, and injured
victim's use of medical services.
Using a definition of physical assault that includes a range of behaviors
from slapping and hitting to using a gun, the survey found that physical
assault is widespread among American women. Based on this study, 1.9
million women are physically assaulted annually in the US. The research
findings specifically state that women experience significantly more
partner violence than men do: 25% of surveyed women, compared with 8% of
surveyed men. The findings go on to say that violence against women is
primarily partner violence and that women are significantly more likely
than men to be injured during an assault.
Results from the survey show that most physical assaults perpetrated
against women by intimate partners consist of pushing, grabbing, shoving,
slapping, and hitting. The differences between women's and men's rates of
physical assault by an intimate partner become greater as the seriousness
of the assault increases. For example, women were 2 - 3 times more likely
than men to report that an intimate partner threw something that could
hurt or pushed, grabbed, or shoved them. They were 7 - 14 times more
likely to
report that an intimate partner beat them up, choked or tried to drown
them, threatened them with a gun or actually used a gun on them.
The research report goes on to say that violence against women is
primarily male violence. The survey found that most violence perpetrated
against
adults is perpetrated by males: 93% of the women and 86% of the men who
were raped and/or assaulted since the age of 18 were assaulted by a male.
In comparison only 11% of these women and 23% of these men were assaulted
by a female. Given these findings, adult violence prevention strategies
should focus primarily on the risks posed by male perpetrators, the report
says.
Paul Kivel, Co-founder of the Oakland Men's Project and the author of
several books including "Men's Work: How to Stop the Violence That Tears
Our Lives Apart" provides the foundation as to why this is the reality.
He states: "We live in a patriarchal society in which men systematically
exploit women. That means that every man grows up and is trained into
basic assumptions of power, privilege, and male prerogatives, and women
grow up being trained to fear male violence and to be submissive....Unless
we
are deeply aware of the effects of patriarchal thinking and training on
men's behavior we will ...end up replicating the patterns of exploitation
we hope to eliminate...One of those patterns is to try and de-gender
everything so that systematic gender injustice is made invisible...Most
violence, from drive-by shootings, war, rape, incest and domestic violence
is male perpetrated and in support of patriarchal power. Power itself is
defined by men as the ability to control or to be violent towards others."
Stating that female violence to males is equal to male violence to females
is an example of a statement that de-genders the problem and thereby
creates a barrier to effectively addressing the violence in our society.
Susan Strauss
<slstrauss@prodigy.net>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : Fri Apr 12 2002 - 15:16:41 EDT