Blindspot!
From Issue: 661 [Read full issue]
Violence
A common myth is that most violence against women is committed by strangers. The fact is, when a woman faces violence it is usually by a man she knows – her husband, boyfriend, father, or employer.
Most men love and care about women. Yet a frightening number commit acts of violence against the women they say they love. It occurs throughout the world, among the rich, poor, and middle class, and among those of every nationality, religion, and ethnicity. While not all men use violence - we believe all men have a role and responsibility in ending it!
Men are not naturally violent. Historically there have been societies with little or no violence. Even today, in many countries, the majority of men do not use violence.
Violence is something that some men learn. Men's violence is a result of the way many men learn to express their masculinity in relationships with women, children, and other men. Many men learn to think of power as the ability to dominate and control the people and the world around them. This way of thinking makes the use of violence acceptable to many men.
Most individual acts of men's violence are an attempt to assert control over others. Paradoxically, most violent acts by men are a sign of weakness, insecurity, and lack of self-esteem combined with a capacity for physical or verbal domination and feeling that they should be superior and in control.
Some violent incidents by men can be linked to substance abuse. Using alcohol or drugs may unleash feelings, fears, rage, and insecurities that some men, cut off from their feelings cannot handle.
But substances don't cause violence. Genes don't cause violence. Ultimately, it is the attempt by some men to dominate women, or adults' attempts to dominate children, or some men's attempts to dominate other men or groups of men. Violence is a way of asserting power, privilege, and control. Violence is a way for compensating for feelings that you're not a "real man."
Compiled From:
"What Every Man Can Do To Help End Men's Violence Against Women"