Letters to the Editor: Women as Likely as Men to Abuse Partners

• Tweet
• Email

• Tweet
• Email

The gender politics identified by Nathan Tumazi in “The Problem with Gender Identity” [published on July 14] would be less prominent if the media did its homework on domestic violence and rape instead of using sexist, men-are-bad/women-are-good language that “anti-sexists” like Jackson Katz use, which stigmatizes male victims and leaves half of the violence invisible.
There are now about 200 sociological domestic violence surveys worldwide (and growing) that consistently show “women are as physically aggressive, or more aggressive, than men in their relationships with their spouses or male partners.” Cal State Long Beach Professor Martin Fiebert documents this research in his online bibliography. One of the studies by the University of New Hampshire is a survey of 32 nations that found women are just as violent and controlling in dating relationships in both rich and poor nations worldwide.
Thankfully, the New University covered some of that research in its October 29, 2007 article, “Women More Abusive Than Men, Study Shows.” But the media and people like Jackson Katz choose to ignore or downplay this reality and instead quote crime data, which is unreliable because men are less likely than women to report abuse. And in their discussions of rape, they ignore the very high rate of female-on-male statutory rape.
A student survey in the News Observer (New Mexico) found 43 percent of teacher sex abuse comes from female teachers, but only 92 percent of prosecutions are of male teachers.
In fact, the Vancouver Sun just reported that two-thirds of homeless boys in Canada were molested by women.
I work with men who have been stabbed, cut with glass and had their teeth knocked out by female partners. They deserve as much outreach, inclusion, services and dignity as female victims. But as long as we turn to gender politics instead of social science for our answers, they will remain invisible while their children continue to be damaged by witnessing such violence (regardless of injury rates).

Marc E. Angelucci, Esq.
Men’s Legal Center
San Diego, CA
menslegal.com

Popularity: unranked [?]