Quote: (01-04-2015 09:49 PM)alexdagr81 Wrote:
Just that there are some cultures out there where a man doesn't see anything wrong with putting his paws on a woman. I remember a woman from Iraq who moved here. Her husband and sons-in-laws all beat their wives. A man who I knew (an Egyptian/Palestinian) spoke with one of her sons in law about beating his wife. It went down like this:
Egyptian: a man who hits a woman is not a man
Iraqi: sometimes a woman needs a beating.
I thought dude was insane. The mother's husband actually fled after he beat her up pretty badly once. She's no longer with guy and claims American over Iraqi every day of the week.
I think discussions of whether "it's okay" to
beat women are pointless.
It's a false dichotomy that doesn't take into account context. Life is neither a true or false question nor a multiple choice quiz. It's not black and white, it's that, shades of grey, and everything in between.
You might as well discuss whether it is okay to kill. Most people's initial reaction is to say, "No! Of course not!". But that presupposes that the dead person was undeserving of an untimely death.
That is why we have words like "
murder" and "
manslaughter". The context matters. If a man breaks into your house, slashes your daughter's throat, shoots your son in the head, and then walks into your bed room eyeing up your wife with a predatory grin - will you use your words and logic to dissuade him from coming closer because "murder" is wrong? Or will you speak a short sentence punctuated by two short blasts from your .45? I exaggerate to make the point of course, and the decision to make in the hypothetical scenario I laid out is an easy call. But the point still stands. The word "
beat" has the connotation of violent and criminal intent, as if the man beating the women does it because he likes it or something. "
Hit", is a more neutral, which suggest the person being hit did something to provoke it. Perhaps the best word yet is to use to word "
strike".
If a woman is trash talking a man, provoking him, needling him with words, as women are wont to do (and skilled at it to), she must at least accept that there are consequences, rightly or wrongly. That the woman is much weaker than the man excuses neither the man for his overreaction nor the women for provoking her own downfall. Reality will remind you of its existence if you ignore it for too long.
That being said, do not accuse me of condoning that man's actions. Having seen the appropriate part of the video, I think an open hand to the face would have sufficed - but that's neither here nor there.
So - is it okay to
strike a woman? Only when she deserves it.
-G