The Murder of Jeffrey Dryden: The Grim Truth Surrounding Male Domestic Abuse by Troy Veenstra

same-sex
relationships.
    A 1994 study on Intra-Lesbian violence
concluded that, “54% of lesbians reported having been physically
assaulted in their current relationship by their female lover as
opposed to on 14% of gay men reporting abuse by their male lovers
(Lie & Gentlewarrior, 1994.)”
    Despite these findings on lesbian
domestic violence, feminist and supporting advocates that defend
violence against men as self-defense offer no statistical or
supportive information to their defense and again just rely on the
circular reasoning notion that men are all powerful and women are
completely powerless, thus to them it is a justifiable defense
because it’s a defense that’s justifiable.
    That said if we take things a step
further and take their belief that women only use violence as
self-defense against their abusive male lovers there are statistics
that even show this defense to be in error.
    For instance, a 5-year study conducted
around nearly 1000 women in California concluded that nearly 20% of
the women surveyed admitted to physical aggression against their
male lovers (Fiebert & Gonzales, 1997). When asked, the most
common reason the women in the study gave for assaulting their male
lovers were, “(1) My partner wasn’t sensitive to my needs; (2) I
wished to gain my partner’s attention and; (3) My partner was not
listening to me.”
    When asked for a more detailed reason
as to why they assaulted their male partners their answers gave
light to the simplistic ideals embedded in our consciousness due to
our society’s use of social conditioning over the years. The women
in this survey gave the five following reasons as their most
favorable answers: “(1) Men can readily protect themselves so I
don’t worry when I become physically aggressive (24% agreed). (2) I
have found that men have been TRAINED (Conditioned) not to hit a
woman and therefore I am not fearful of retaliation from my partner
(19% agreed). (3) I believe if women truly are equal to men, then I
should be able to physically express my anger to them (13% agreed).
(4) I leaned when growing up that I could be physically aggressive
towards my brother(s) and they wouldn’t fight back (12% agreed) and
(5) I sometimes find when I express my anger physically I become
turned on sexually, (8% agreed).” Interesting to note that from
this study the reasoning of self-defense was at the very low end of
reasons for using physical aggression toward their male
lover.
    In two studies conducted by the same
researcher, a year apart of each other, each study found that the
most common type of male behavior that resulted in abuse by a
female lover or spouse was some minor violation of the household
rules, (i.e., leaving the toilet seat up, forgetting to take the
garbage out etc.) (Sarantakos, 1999). This study found that the
three most common reasons women gave for abusing their male
partners were, “(1) to resolve the argument, (2) to respond to
family crisis, (3) To “Stop him bothering me!”
    Several other studies have been done as
well, each study concluding the same basic findings that women are
not only the partner who initiated the act of violence but they
also did so for reasons other than self-defense.
    For example a survey in 1986 reported
that, “As many as 73% of women who used violence against their
husbands stated that they had used violence first (Bland & Orn,
1986).” A 1992 study reported that “nearly 53% of the women in
their sample initiated Violence against their lover, (Stets &
Straus, 1992).”
     
    Legal Terrorism
    In 1977 the feminist movement was still
growing to a massive scale, as such when Steinmetz brought her
findings to the public it was not well received; in fact, many
women rights organizations, and feminist groups found that though
Steinmetz was female she was an activist for anti-feminism. Thus,
Steinmetz, her findings, and even the research model in which her
findings were based upon were attacked on a massive
scale.
    However,