Ok, ready your wit and threats of retribution as I tell you what you do not want to hear:
As a culture we care more about women as victims than we do about men as victims. I am not just claiming this, rather peer reviewed research bears this out. Here is the best short proof:
A study of the 7 major leading Canadian newspapers' front pages (over 7,000 front pages analyzed) found that women were reported to be the vicitims of crime at a rate of 21 to 1 for each man. This study was replicated in Israel and the same conclusion was reached: women are more likely to be reported as victims of violent crime even though men are 3 times more likely to be a victim of a violent crime.
A pleathora of studies since 1975 have continued to contradict our cultural viewpoint that women are the ones who are in the greatest danger:
<!--StartFragment -->When the first scientific nationwide sample was conducted in 1975 — by Suzanne Steinmetz, Murray Straus and Richard Gelles<SUP class=Superscript>
11</SUP> the researchers could hardly believe their results. The sexes appeared to batter each other about equally. Dozens of questions arose
("Don't women batter only in self-defense?"; "Aren't women hurt more?"). Over a hundred researchers during the next quarter century double-checked via their own studies. About half of these researchers were women, and most of the women who were academics were feminists. Most expected to disprove the Steinmetz, Straus, and Gelles findings.
To their credit, despite their assumptions that men were the abusers, every domestic violence survey done of both sexes over the next quarter century in the U.S. Canada, England, New Zealand and Australia — more than 50 of which are annotated in the Appendix — found one of two things:
Women and men batter each other about equally, or women batter men more. In addition, almost all studies found women were more likely to initiate violence, and much more likely to inflict the severe violence. Women themselves acknowledged they are more likely to be violent and to be the initiators of violence. Finally, women were more likely to engage in severe violence that was not reciprocated. The larger and better-designed the study, the more likely the finding that women were significantly more violent.
There are many books which attempt to explain the discrepancies between the cultural focus on females as victims and the reality that men are the greater number of victims. I am going to end this challenging post with a statistic that will force one to consider how deep this bias goes; this is something that was explained to me in a woman's studies class that blew my mind when I first heard it. It attacked my own prejudice against men. I share this with you in the interest of creating discussion.
First, I am going to tell you that more men are raped each year in the US than are women. Your gut reaction is, "no, that can not be true." Turns out that it is.
<!--StartFragment --> In fact, in the USA, there are far more male rapes every day in prisons alone than there are rapes of all females in the USA.
In class when this was pointed out someone said, "yea, but they are in prison, so that is not the same." To which the female professor asked of the questioner, "so, you justify rape in certain contexts?".
I don't care who you are, violence is something to fear and something that should not be justified. As a women, keep in mind that you are much less likely to be a victim of a violent crime than is a man. I am prepared to defend this position and expect it to be attacked: the bias to ignore men as victims is deep and the bias is well documented. I suggest for further readings to check out Christina Hoff Sommers, Who Stole Feminism?
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Ready, aim, return fire!
My husband's comments didn't instigate this post, as that happened many months back. What started me thinking about this issue was yet another woman posting on the backpacker forums that her FEMALE hiking friends scared her into posting a question about the safety of her hiking solo.
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After hiking I found that men really aren't so bad and I shouldn't be judging the whole lot by the bad actions of a few.
Originally Posted by The#Is10
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