Prof. Zeev Weinstock of the University of Haifa, one of the world's leading experts on violence between spouses, revealed this week the truth about violence between spouses, a truth hidden from the public.
Weinstock made an emotional speech at the first ever meeting of the Distributive Justice and Social Equality Committee, headed by MK Mickey Zohar (Likud). "For almost 50 years we have known that men's violence towards women takes place in similar proportions to the violence that women use against men in intimate relationships, in almost every culture and society that we know," said Weinstock, "from traditional societies to liberal Western societies.
"In addition, we know that in the motivations for violence, there is no difference between men and women. For the same reasons that men beat women, women beat men. The results are different, because of the differences between men and women, and men's physical endurance - they are injured less and therefore arrive less to the emergency rooms. So the visibility of the problem is very high in the case of women, but the motivations and the violent behavior are not a peculiarity of either particular gender."
The expert also told the committee about a study that determined that the women who are most at risk of being harmed by men are those who themselves engage in physical violence against men.
Automatic cataloging of men as violent
Despite these data, Professor Weinstock explained, systemic treatment in cases of violence between spouses refers to women automatically as victims of violence, while men are always labeled as perpetrators of violence - "Even in cases where this is not true at all. Even in cases where it is the opposite. Even in cases where it is mutual.
"The system today is structured to deal with the violence of men against women, and it does not intervene in cases where women are violent towards men. Even in cases where women are violent toward men, the women are always treated as if they are the victim, and the victim is treated as if he were the aggressor."
I've been saying this for the longest time. This is the way I see it. There are the cases of truly abusive men, who have a disorder in the sense that they lack self control and are overly violent. This is the minority. The majority of cases of violence from husbands toward their wives, does not involve a man with a general lack of control. It's a dispute which reduces them to their lowest form. Statistically men naturally have better self control than do women. In the majority of cases of such violence, (not a vast majority though) the man was responding to violence perpetrated against him. In other words it's the women who get unreasonable first.
ReplyDeleteI commented earlier making statements which might be very controversial. The following statement, however, probably is more acceptable to most people.
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting and valuable post.
Sorry. Men should not be striking women. Except in extreme cases where it is dictated by self-defense. A man can take a hit from a woman. If it's really bad, divorce her.
ReplyDeleteYour sexist attitude is the problem. “Men should not be striking women,” implies that it may be OK for women to be striking men. Sorry, no one, man or woman, should be striking anyone. “Except in extreme cases where it is dictated by self-defense,” implies that the need for self-defense is rare. Sorry, when A strikes B, it is usually necessary for B to respond to A with a measured strike in self-defense to create the deterrence effect. True, in situations, “a man can take a hit from a woman.” It is also true that, in situations, a woman can take a hit from a man. So what? No one is required to take a hit from anyone, nor wait until a divorce is processed to obtain safety.
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