2 min readFeb 19, 2020
- No, he wasn’t just speaking about male violence in the West, but neither was he speaking just about male violence outside of the West — rather, he lumped it all together, and therefore “male violence” could be taken in more than one way. The point I made in my previous response to you still stands, and that is that violence against women outside of the West often occurs for cultural reasons that are alien to the West, and so it is intellectually lazy to lump it all together as one monolithic phenomenon. Let’s keep the apples away from the oranges.
- Your notion about emotional abuse is nearly meaningless — while I’m sure emotional abuse sometimes occurs as an exclusive phenomenon, it is usually just one stage of an abuse cycle where physical violence is a factor. Those who are in an abusive relationship often experience a calm period, followed by emotional abuse that ramps up to physical abuse. No, emotional abuse isn’t physical violence in and of itself, but in its own way it is just as harmful and debilitating.
- Okay, so many men have more muscle strength than many women, and can therefore do more damage to the woman than vice versa. So what? That in itself has nothing to do whatsoever with a man’s propensity to abuse a woman. What makes any abuser dangerous is not their physical prowess, but their mere willingness to harm their partner (or their child, or their elderly parent). Particularly if an abuser is simply unable to feel empathy, then strength and size differential is nothing more than a detail.
- Regarding female aggressiveness vs. male aggressiveness, I agree to a point. The aggressiveness differential is only meaningful when it comes to women who aren’t abusers to begin with. I have seen female abusers in action with my own eyes, and it is something I hope I never witness ever again. But sure, girls like to have pretend tea parties while boys like to jump off monkey bars and wrestle.
- I’m not sure many people can evoke the “#MeToo” movement with a straight face anymore, as it is about social justice (presumption of guilt based on group identity, in this case male), and not natural justice (presumption of innocence, due process). Keep in mind that “#MeToo” once embraced Amber Heard due to its toxic and wrongheaded “#BelieveAllWomen” mentality. While I certainly support anyone (female or male) feeling comfortable enough to share their stories of abuse, I definitely don’t support society at large doing a #MeToo-style takedown of someone just because a woman pointed a finger at them.
