I am concerned by the generalised implication that feminism is the root cause of male pain, family disempowerment/loss and eventually violence towards women; as articulated by M Mizzi (letters February 3).
No one in their right mind can justify violence of any kind. Violence is violence – no matter the institution that may ‘spawn, create, cause or apply’ it. Contained within violence exist many layered emotions: frustration, despair, low self-esteem, power etc. The effect is always the same: pain for the victims and pain for the perpetrators.
Feminists have a right to stand up and object to the weekly death of a woman in Australia due to domestic violence – and to continue to campaign to reduce such a phenomenon.
We witness historically/currently the violence of warfare, the effects of violence upon innocent cultures and the recent rise of Warfare Ecologists who are attempting to remedy the dire effects of violent warfare upon the innocent victims/ecology of warfare in Vietnam.
Violence wears many faces. Militarism depends upon violence. Should we not earnestly condemn it?
Nor do I believe that incarceration is the answer for violence, however, the law recognises that incarceration can be safer for some perpetrators of violence – and certainly safer for victims living in constant fear. But violence also exists in prisons. Having taught in them for several decades, this issue of violence has always concerned me.
I believe that all humans are capable of violence. The issue is to recognise that we must earnestly create more social structures to address potential/existing violence. Let us not overlook the ghastly social pressures that people are experiencing in this commodified society. Let us promote anger management programs, men/women groups, progressive ways to deal with pressure/violence for all humans. Let us attempt to dilute all violence and encourage greater understanding of human pain and work for realistic remedies.
Many lives will be saved by moving our consciousness towards a remedy. We owe it to future generations. Communities can and do create same. I question that the remedy exists within current political institutions. I maybe wrong.
I applaud M Mizzi, for opening this sharing of opinions. The struggle, it would seem, is to not personalise the issue but create social structures that recognise the existence of violence as a very harmful reality in all of its features.
That is why I was thrilled to see Rosie get the Australian of the Year award. She honoured her son who died at the hands of his violent/disturbed father. Perhaps this tragedy could have been avoided if we had more social structures for men and women and children that offered ongoing support for individuals and families.
The 21st century can be a time of great alternatives and achievements when addressing violence.
Jo Faith, Newtown
Jo Faith, your right on the identification as to what M Mizzi has stated and I agree that his sharing of opinion is one that we must consider as consequences in our society.
Rosie has given us some hope to curtail domestic violence, however the support network needs to be a continual process, from infancy/adolescence to adulthood, especially for boys and men.
We see too often in society and the world, violence and the quicker we can control our emotions by stepping back to reflect if this is necessary the more praiseworthy we become to be tolerant.
This has to apply to both sexes and be able to transfer these beliefs by example to our children and grandchildren.
The problem is that feminism has identified all the problems but provided no real solutions except family breakdown. Whether you care to admit it or not the disempowering of men has contributed largely to the conflicts we see in society. It is pretty evident in the Muslim world where the incursion of alien western liberal values has undermined the sanctity of the family and led men to retaliate in the most brutal fashion. This, although many leftists will argue the opposite from a point of ignorance, is stipulated by their religion and outlined in the Koran if you care to read it. You will see that this is very much the driving force behind all those young frustrated and socially alienated disempowered young men going off to fight for a caliphate that promises them a return to a time when men ruled the roost and the home was a sanctified place to rear a family. Why? Because the so called liberation of women in the west has created very little of real substance other than the pornification of women’s bodies and the wholesale adoption of this particularly by the current generation, both women and men.This is also the case in Christian families whose values feminists outright reject because all they see is patriarchy and yet for thousands of years these societies flourished and prospered only to become undone by feminism and its now extreme expressions. Largely what I see that has happened in modern western society is that everything has now become couched in politically correct terminology but the underlying problems remain. This is exemplified by the use of such words as “sex workers” instead of prostitute as if simply altering the name of something will alter its underlying nature which is essentially the exploitation of women’s bodies, not just by men but the women whose bodies they are too. As a result of all this so called liberation which is really nothing of the sort, reaction has become inevitable and with it the violence associated with it’s implementation.
Agreed Jo – feminism has been attacked by many people and blamed for a raft of social issues. I am yet to meet another male who has read a single feminist book from cover to cover. Most men’s view of the subject is coloured not by an informed understanding, but by fear and popular media bias.
That some domestic violence is perpetrated by women should never blind us to the fact that violence, of any description, is overwhelmingly a male problem. Until we men find the courage to take genuine ownership of our own behaviour, then some males will likely continue to focus attention on people and organisations outside of ourselves.