A House Where a Woman isn’t Safe is No Home
Why has domestic violence become a normal white male behavior with minimal punishment?
Home is where the heart is. For many women, their home is the only place they consider safe, a place to forget about the worries of their 9 to 5 job or the political nonsense of our current age. Women are not only susceptible to violence outside, but also have to face the reality that their home is not as safe as it should be. Nearly 20 people per minute are victims of physical violence by a trusted intimate partner here in the U.S. An average of 1 in 3 women will become victims of domestic violence within their lifetime and the numbers continue to get worse. A majority of this violence occurs in the home, where it seems the rules and laws of the outside world are ignored — the man rules his house with an iron fist.
Domestic violence is widespread. We see it happen all over the world, it’s reported on constantly, yet little has been done to stop it. Why has it become so normalized for women or weaker individuals like children to be mistreated and handled as though they are property?
Violence is something that must be dealt with at it’s root cause. While causes may vary, bell hooks suggests that one of the main causes is a man’s feeling of masculinity, which has a direct relation to the ongoing acceptance of violence against women. Men in lower ranking jobs or those that are unemployed lack a feeling of power. They return to their homes and use violence against their partners — slapping, hitting, stalking, controlling — all are forms of violence commonly seen in the household.
Domestic violence has become so accepted that the term does not cover a large enough spectrum. bell hooks introduces a new perspective, that the violence extends to that of the patriarchy.
“Patriarchal violence in the home is based on the belief that it is acceptable for a more powerful individual to control others through various forms of coercive force.” -Bell Hooks
Russia has an incredibly high number of domestic violence. Thousands of women there die each year because of it, yet domestic abuse is still not recognized as a crime in Russia, which hinders a victim’s chances of getting help.
Russian leaders decriminalized domestic violence.
Male President Vladimir Putin has made it easier for men to beat their wives and children.
Putin’s new amendment protects men who beat their spouses and children so long as it only results in bruising or bleeding, but not broken bones. The punishment for causing bleeding and bruising?
A maximum of 15 days in jail and a small fine, as long as it only happens once a year. Yeah, only.
The previous punishment for acts of domestic violence in Russia was a maximum jail sentence of 2 years.
The normalization of domestic violence no longer just stems from the household. The violence has only grown worse as a result of the patriarchy, which still believes that men own their women and children and have absolute right as to how they treat them. A majority of domestic violence cases go unreported, because the abused may fear worse punishment from the abuser if they find out. The abused might even be killed. It is estimated in Russia that one woman is killed every 40 minutes as a result of domestic abuse.
One Russian activist Alena Popova held a protest in response to the passing of this law. She said that one passerby told her that some women deserve to be beaten. This is not okay.
Russia has one of the strongest military forces in the world. Bell Hooks suggests that military and state violence likely makes patriarchal violence so much worse and it looks like that might be the case. This sends a terrible message to other powerful countries.
Will Trump follow in his Russian pal’s footsteps and pass a similar law in the United States?
Will domestic violence in South Africa ever be changed? A place where reports of violence goes by unscathed and where intimate partner violence between lesbian couples is barely represented and trivialized by Police, forcing victims to be unwilling to report crimes.
To add further insult to injury, one Russian tabloid the Komsomolskaya Pravada, which is very popular in Russia, has told its female readers to be proud of the bruises their husbands give them.
Despicable columnist Yaroslav Karobatov essential tells his female Russian readers to be happy that their husbands beat them, because according to him and an extremely controversial (and unreliable) report by Satoshi Kanazawa, “women who are beaten are more likely to give birth to boys!” Yaroslav also added “If he beats you, it means he loves you!”
Yeah, how about no. Kanazawa, a well known racist who has said multiple racist and sexist phrases, such as “women may have been selected [evolutionarily] to tolerate a certain level of nonlethal violence in their mates” or his claim that “ black women (but not black men) are ‘objectively less attractive’ than women of other races,” needs to kindly screw off with his discrimination.
Yaroslav’s article that he backed up with Kanazawa’s “research” is essentially trash. Trash that attempts to normalize violence in the home and uses their patriarchal privilege as an excuse to make it out as acceptable behavior.
Maybe if we focus on reducing violence within one’s state and reducing the violence of military forces, the home may someday become a true safe place for women. As unlikely of a solution as that may be, so long as violence is so normalized and accepted as a part of our nation, women may continue to be victims at home.
