Elinda wrote:
I guess that's my question too. Is it a problem. A man gets pushed around, even hit, by a women whom he knows he could restrain if he had to. Is it abuse?
...and is it wrong, or indicative of an ill-functioning society?
Even under the sarcasm, quite a few people have made some good points. Smash says:
Smash wrote:
Exactly, and there's where the real double standard lies. A woman endlessly assaulting a man because he doesn't do the laundry is lovable sit com heroine, a man who slaps a woman because she doesn't is a criminal.
A good point, they can hit (or otherwise abuse) without retribution for said actions in most situations because of the physical differences associated between "men" and "women". While I don't entirely disagree with the comment(s) Smash has made, I don't necessarily disagree with the comments Yoda has made either.
I've never been "beaten" by a woman. In my honest opinion being "beaten" requires that the woman be able to overpower me to the point where I cannot restrain or otherwise defend myself without doing harm to her (ie. push away, keep out of punching distance, dodge, etc). However, women aren't stupid, and they're well aware of the possibility of getting in "cheap shots" in if they mean to (ie. a shot in the nuts when you're off guard).
Then there's situations where you (the man) don't necessarily take enormous amounts of physical damage, or enough to inflict pain but not be incapacitating. For instance, a slap in the face. Sure, it hurt...this is a good example because many women (mothers included) will slap a male (although mothers don't discriminate on gender, they'll slap those misbehaving little sh
its without prejudice). When does slapping become abuse? Well that, technically,
does depend on a mans threshold for pain and how he interprets "slapping" (Score: 1 for Smash).
There's also situations where non-physical or intended physical actions take place. This could be verbal abuse or manipulation, or intended physical actions that could result in abusive injury (ie. dat beotch tired 2 stabz me wit da kitjen nife!). These situations more times are considered to be abuse, however most times there's no need for either party involved (especially the one on the receiving end) to stick around long after that. So with that, women "can" abuse men, and it's often overlooked because it probably either ends the relationship, or otherwise the "man" can't handle the treatment (and results the label of being a "Sally" or "Nancy" thanks to Smash...Score: 1 for Yoda)
Either way you look at it, the term abuse is open to interpretation through the eyes of the person being asked. Most surveys don't say:
Quote:
"Have you ever been hit by a women and considered it abuse?"
[ ] Yes (Call me Sally) [ ] No (Me Man!)
They ask a series of questions that imply the real question and analyze the answers to interpret the response to the actual question at hand (or topic of the survey).
Now to score the 3rd point. It may, very well be, that most men are just too freakin' thick to get the underlying message of a surveys questions to understand what they're really being asked. Therefore, their answer to common survey questions would be that of disdain for questioning their manhood. Men are dumb sometimes...not always so quick to "get it". (Score: 1 for all women)
Edited, Apr 9th 2008 4:15pm by Ryneguy
