Elle Beau ❇︎
2 min readApr 12, 2022

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Because patriarchy teaches men that they have the right to control women. This is a deeply held belief, even though we've made some progress in the past 50 years. That's why a full half of women who are murdered are killed by current or former domestic partners. Conversely, about 4% of men who are murdered are killed by domestic partners. The most dangerous time for an abused woman is when she tries to leave her abuser, because it's when he's most likely to kill her (because he believes he has the right to control her). Domestic violence against women is overwhelmingly based in control (known as intimate terrorism), where domestic violence against men tends to be more often what is known as situational couple violence.

"In the case of frequent situational couple violence, for example, the relationship may involve areas of conflict that continue to be unresolved and one or more partners who regularly choose to resort to violence in the context of those conflicts. In the case of infrequent intimate terrorism, one assault may be enough to establish a level of fear that allows the intimate terrorist to exert control almost exclusively by means of nonviolent tactics. Thus, the two types of violence are not defined by the nature or frequency of violent acts but solely in terms of the relationship-level control context in which they are embedded. Intimate terrorism is violence that is embedded in a general pattern of control; situational couple violence is not. " (emphasis mine)

http://www.personal.psu.edu/mpj/2005%20JFI%20Johnson%20&%20Leone.pdf

Yes, the society needs to be doing a better job about addressing violence against men, which is again overwhelmingly perpetrated by men, but the violence perpetrated by men against women is, as she's already said a different thing, "male violence against women and girls is its own unique problem driven by specific cultural factors that we are trying to address. " Men overwhelmingly still have the vast bulk of political, social, and financial power and they absolutely should be doing a better job of addressing violence against men. But what you're saying is essentially a version of "all lives matter." Of course they do, but if a certain demographic is facing issues that are particular to them, they have every right to focus on that.

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Elle Beau ❇︎
Elle Beau ❇︎

Written by Elle Beau ❇︎

I'm a bitch, I'm a lover, I'm a child, I'm a mother, I'm a sinner, I'm a saint. I do not feel ashamed. I'm your hell, I'm your dream, I'm nothing in between.

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