Cathy Young: Drop the distorted feminist ideology

Submitted by anthony on Wed, 2012-05-02 19:04

Article here. Excerpt:

'The congressional battle over the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, which briefly pitted Republicans against Democrats in yet another skirmish in this political season’s gender wars, seems largely over. The Senate voted last week to approve the VAWA reauthorization; the House is expected to vote on it next week. Republican objections to the current legislation have crumbled under the threat of the party being seen as anti-woman.

But does VAWA truly advance the interests of women — or advance a divisive and paternalistic form of feminist ideology?

Obviously, no sane person is “for” violence against women. But VAWA, originally passed in 1994, has always been about more than preventing violence and helping victims. Sponsored by then-Sen. Joseph Biden, the law was crafted largely by feminist groups and activists who viewed domestic violence and sexual assault as a male “war against women,” an instrument for enforcing patriarchal oppression. While these activists are no doubt sincerely concerned with the welfare of women, this is a blinkered ideology that often creates more problems than solutions.'

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I've come full circle on the DV movement. I once believed it was well-intentioned if misguided. But the movement is very resistant to any data that shows men can be victims as well; it also ignores data regarding child abuse by women. And it largely ignores violence in same-sex relationships and elder abuse--a lot of which is committed by women.

Now I believe the movement has two purposes: to give women a great deal of legal power over men and to permit women to commit abuse--against men, women, the elderly, and children--without legal consequence. It's a way, in essence, to legalize abuse by women. And, in many cases, murder of men by women. Mary Winkler shot her husband in the back, spent two months in prison, and is now back living in the family home with her children. In my view, that outcome is a direct result of the efforts of the DV movement to convince the legal system that murder is the only option an "abused" woman has--and virtually any woman can claim abuse of some kind, especially if it's broadly defined and the "abuser" is dead. It's akin to honor killings in the Middle East, only the genders are reversed.

Of course, DV can be a real and serious problem. But you start solving problems when you start telling the truth about the problems, not stating half-truths and distortions. But the current DV movement is based on lies and half-truths, which means they don't want to solve the problem. They want to exploit it for their own purposes.

PS: The Republicans were wrong to oppose inclusion of DV programs for gays, as they apparently suffer higher rates of abuse than straights.

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Submitted by el cid on Wed, 2012-05-02 23:19