Today, like every day, I will brave the great indoors by walking among and sitting beneath towering volumes of other people's thoughts? Today it is my unfortunate task to read and write about the most tragic of tragedies - violence. I have put this off for months now and am no longer able to avoid it.
This particular kind of violence—domestic abuse—happens at the same rate in Christian homes as it does in non-Christian homes (1 out of every 4) but in Christian homes the idea that women are to be subject (object) to their husbands (and children to their parents) gets sacrilized, saint-ified and consecrated unto God.
This stuff horrifies me and frankly I would avoid reading about (and knowing about) it if it weren’t so damn relevant to my 80-page thesis (on evangelical feminism), which I hope takes over the world when it’s complete.
But for now…
Our Father who art in heaven, let the beatings begin, Amen.
9 comments:
Domestic abuse is a scary topic - so much more than hitting. I'm horrified how much the victimization is internalized as being "deserved."
Go change the world!
When I was a criminology major i had a teacher who was also a seargent at the local Police department who told us that spusal abuse of me happens as often as the other way around it is just almost never reported.
I'm not sure if he based that comment on statistical evidence or just his experience, but it a comment that i found interesting.
First of all, I think you meant "men" not "me" because if you didn't I'll have to report Suzzie on that.
Second, that is absolutely false. That bastard probably goes home and beats his wife and just wants to relieve his conscious!
It is true that men are abused sometimes by their wives, but it is also true that men are the abusers MOST OFTEN. I don't think this is because men are worse creatures. I think it's because they are given more power (and EXPECTED to have more power) by society, the church (and God, of course). Also, this behavior and disrespect for women is often modeled for him in his house (and home and church and Bible, of course).
As the founder of the Evangelical Feminist movement recently told me, "Who has the bigger bone structure and stronger muscles? Men do."
Here ya are.
"Despite the evidence that marital violence is mutual--wives acting violently toward their husbands, as well as husbands toward their wives--the severity of violence between husbands and wives varies greatly. Research indicates that when the severity and extent of injuries due to 'husband battering' are examined, the assults on men are statistically 'insignificant and incomparable to those sustained by women.'" (statistics came from Department of Justice, "Report to the Nation on Crime," Response, Jan/Feb 1984, p. 9)
Furthermore, Time Magazine (1983) reported "Nearly 6 million wives will be abused by their husbands in one year. Some 2,000 to 4,000 women are beaten to death annually. The nation... Battery is the single major cause of injury to women, more significant than accidents, rapes or muggings."
Show me a woman who has beaten her husband to death and I'll show you a woman who has had ENOUGH.
Whoops! yeah, that wasn't a cry for help, just a typo.
Maybe he was considering "wanting to talk" as abuse or something.
No arguments here, just getting you all fired up ;)
Heh Heh, you said bastard.
Didn't mean to get so loquacious on you. Just been reading a lot of gruesome stories of women who have been "battered into submission" these past few days. Guess you could say I'm a little angry.
But the good news is, this one woman, Lucy, after being beaten 3 times in one day shot her husband (AKA bastard) before he could kill her. So, that's good.
(Oh. But before that he left one of their kids blind, deaf and dumb from a single stroke across its head. But the kid died later anyway cause it wasn't healthy to begin with. And then the guy beat his wife when she cried over its death and then again after the funeral cause he didn't like the kid anyway. Yeah. I love my life, right now.)
Fantasies of Blake Lewis are the only things keeping me happy right now.
For serious.
Oh yeah. Forgot to mention that the bastard was a Baptist pastor.
Leeeewwwwisss.
That's the sort of reading that'll make ya drink,
bastard.
no problem with the loquaciousness as long as i don't have to look up what it means ;)
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