"Cuddly Duddly" <wotaloadofballs@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:8YWdnTc3FaxzI8janZ2dnUVZ_oKhnZ2d@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>> The following is the 2007 winning entry from an annual contest at
>> Texas A&M University calling for the most appropriate definition of a
>> contem****ary term.
>>
>> This year's term: "Political Correctness."
>>
>> "Political Correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional,
>> illogical minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous
>> mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it
>> is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end."
>>
>>
>
> Thank you and the winner.
>
> P.C. in Australia creating new Stolen Generation (1,2 Millions children
stolen from fathers by Magistrates & Family Courts already in only 30
years) :
>
>
http://groups.google.com.au/group/aus.politics/browse_thread/thread/d52461d00d9e8124/d19b9e5c36a5a234?hl=en&lnk=st&q=labor+failures#d19b9e5c36a5a234
> I felt very proud to be an Australian when Prime Minister Rudd delivered
the “Sorry Day” speech and a little disillusioned that, with all the
evidence and public sup****t, it took so long to achieve the apology for
the laws that caused so much grief and suffering.
>
>
> My thoughts now extend to the next stolen generation that has been
occurring, under the divisive Family Court laws that allow the removal of
children from mainly their fathers, causing the same harm and devastation
that the Aboriginals suffered for so long.
>
>
> Are we going to apologise to these children, or are the mistakes and
recompense of the Sorry Day speech going to act as a stimulus to save the
children and families of the future?
>
>
> Good government is about observing a problem and having the intestinal
fortitude to admit to the problem and then setting about constructing a
solution that remedies that problem.
>
>
> It is time for the Family Court to be directed to act in a humane manner
to help and maintain the balance and association children need with both
their parents, the mother and father
>
>
What's Wrong with the "Duluth Model"?
(caused more than 50,000 male suicides and more than 1,200,000 fatherless
(stolen generation) children in Australia in only 30 years).
Blame and shame, not help. Ideology, not science. It ignores drinking,
drugs
and pathology. Only one cause, only one solution. There's no real evidence
it works. It ignores domestic violence by women. Women who need help can't
get it. It's taught by "wounded healers." It's
gender-polarizing-perpetrates
the "battle of the ***es"
© 1999 by Bert H. Hoff
http://www.batteredmen.com/batdulut.htm
Batterer treatment programs around the world are adopting the "Duluth
model," perhaps the most widespread of the male-patriarchy batterers'
programs, with trainings in hundreds of cities across the country and a
recent series of Marine Corps contracts. It promotes a gender-polarizing
view that battering is a conscious strategy by men to assert male
dominance
over women.
What is the Duluth Model? It was created by the Duluth, Minnesota Domestic
Abuse Intervention Project. It's described in detail in Pence, E., and
Paymer, M. Education Groups For Men Who Batter: The Duluth Model. The
"Power
and Control Wheel," central to the model, "depicts the primary abusive
behaviors experienced by women living with men who batter." [emphasis
added]
There's no doubt that it reflects a feminist ideology of male oppression
of
women.
What's wrong with it? Here's what experts have to say:
a.. It's about blaming and shaming men, more than giving them the insights
and sup****t to help them stop their abusive behavior.
The Duluth Model preaches that men who batter don't have a personal
problem, but are simply reflecting "a culture that teaches men to
dominate."
John Everingham, co-author of Men Healing Shame and a professor at the
University of Illinois at Chicago, calls this "shame of male for being
male." But shaming is a cause of rage, not a cure for it.
Is wife-beating an accepted cultural norm? Think about it: do you know
any
man who thinks that beating your wife is "normal" or "OK"? Psychologist
Donald G. Dutton, author of five books about spousal abuse by men and
expert
witness in the O.J. Simpson trial, says, "Men who have been convicted of
wife assault do not generally feel that what they did was acceptable.
Instead they feel guilty, deny and minimize the violence, and try to
exculpate themselves in the manner of one whose actions are unacceptable
to
oneself." He points out, "the vast majority of men are non-assaultive for
the duration of their marriage." And as violence escalates beyond pushes
and
slaps, "the size of this minority group of perpetrators shrinks."
The Duluth Model is a "blame and shame" behavior modification approach,
focusing only on the perpetrator's role. This approach is used often with
prisoners. Rule infractions result in punishment, and "good behavior"
(absence of rule-breaking) results in early release. A different approach
sees anger and violence as part of a "dance" between two people in an
intimate relation****p. The approach is to examine the role of each party,
so
that both may be empowered to make decisions in their own lives. This
model
is used in many successful prison rehabilitation programs and in AA, which
holds people accountable for their lives without "blaming and shaming."
a.. It's based on ideology, not science.
The authors of the book on the model make no bones about it:
The tactics used by batterers reflect the tactics used by many groups
or
individuals in positions of power. Each of the tactics depicted on the
Power
and Control Wheel are typical of behaviors used by groups of people who
dominate others. They are the tactics employed to sustain racism, ageism,
classism, hetero***ism, anti-Semitism, and many other forms of group
domination. Men in particular are taught these tactics in both their
families of origin and through their experiences in a culture that teaches
men to dominate. ...We use gender-specific terms not only because the
curriculum is for men who batter, but because battering is not a
gender-neutral issue.
The model was developed, not by a team of psychologists and research
scientists, but in consultation with "a small group of activists in the
battered women's movement," and "more than 200 battered women in Duluth."
The Power and Control Wheel names eight factors contributing to domestic
violence, including "using male privilege" and "using economic abuse." It
relies heavily on Dobash & Dobash, Violence Against Wives: A Case Against
the Patriarchy, who state: "[The] long patriarchal tradition... was
explicitly established in the institutional practices of both the church
and
the state and sup****ted by some of the most prominent political, legal,
religious, philosophical, and literary figures in Western society... They
believed that men had the right to dominate and control women and that
women
were by their very nature subservient to men. This relation****p was deemed
natural, sacred and unproblematic and such beliefs resulted in long
periods
of disregard and/or denial of the husband's abuses of his economic,
political and physical power."
The model rejects treatment through insight models, family systems
theory
or cognitive-behavioral models in favor of what sup****ters call a
"sociopolitical model" and San Jose therapist Eric Towle calls a "radical
feminist re-education camp," where battery is equated with masculinity.
The
goal of sociopolitical therapy is to "challenge ***ist expectations and
controlling behaviors that often inhibit men and motivate them to learn to
apply newly learned skills in a consistently non-controlling manner."
Intervention deals with ***ist expectations and attitudes.
Psychologist Dutton wrote an article outlining all the evidence feminist
researchers and proponents of the model had to overlook, because it
contradicted their ideological paradigm. As he put it, "Paradigms direct
research, but they also serve to deflect critical analysis of the
paradigms'
own central tenets through diverting attention from contradictory data. A
form of 'groupthink' ensues whereby dissent is stifled by directing
attention from potential contradictory information." Amy
Holtzworth-Munroe,
associate professor of psychology at Indiana University, says, "states are
basing rigid treatment policy on rhetoric and ideology, not data."
What evidence is overlooked? For starters, the fact that most men are
not
violent to their wives or lovers. Dutton estimates that 80% of the men who
do beat their intimates have drinking or drug problems, Borderline
Personality Disorders, or other diagnosable psychological pathology.
a.. It ignores drinking, drugs, Borderline Personality Disorder and other
serious psychological problems.
As Cathy Young, author of Ceasefire: Why Women and Men Must Join Forces
to
Achieve True Equality states, "Dutton and other researchers have found
that
wife-beating is far more strongly associated with 'borderline personality
disorder' (characterized by proclivity for intense relation****ps,
insecurity, and rage) than with patriarchal attitudes; drugs and alcohol
are
major factors as well."
Dr. Dutton's concern is echoed by Paul T. Mason, M.S. and Randi Kreger,
authors of Walking on Eggshells, who see Borderline Personality Disorder
at
the heart of a lot of domestic violence. And, they point out, 75% of the
people with BPD are women. A focus on "male oppression" must, be
definition,
overlook this im****tant contributor to domestic violence.
Yale psychiatrist Sally L. Satel uses the case of "Don" for an example.
"Don's group leaders were adamant that alcohol was never a cause of
violence. Feminist theory downplays the relevance of alcohol abuse, and as
a
particularly foolish result in Don's program, failed to make sobriety a
condition of the treatment for domestic batterers." The National
Association
of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Counselors' Nov/Dec 1998 issue of The
Counselor
raises concern about this issue.
a.. It says there is only one cause for domestic violence, and only one
solution.
This approach rejects joint therapy in all cases, even when the woman
feels safe and wants to keep the marriage together. San Diego judge
William
Cannon says, "It's ridiculous. We treat women as brainless individuals who
are unable to make choices."
Wa****ngton state specifically prohibits joint therapy, even in
conjunction
with the Duluth Model. One Bellevue therapist almost lost his license for
merely proposing joint therapy to another therapist.
Satel states: "In at least a dozen states, including Massachusetts,
Colorado, Florida, Wa****ngton, and Texas, state guidelines effectively
preclude any treatment other than feminist therapy for domestic
batterers."
Satel points out that these policies would outlaw, for instance, the
kind
of help that saved the decade-long marriage of a midwestern couple we'll
call 'Steve and Lois M.' After their last fight, in which he gave Mrs. M.
a
fractured arm, she gave him an ultimatum: unless he went with her to
marriage therapy, she would take their nine-year-old son and leave. He
agreed, and the couple saw Eve Lipchik, a Milwaukee, Wisconsin expert in
family therapy. 'One can still deplore the aggression and be an advocate
for
the relation****p when two people want to stay together and are motivated
to
make changes in the relation****p,' says Lipchik. 'It's too easy to stuff
people into boxes labeled villains and victims.'"
Satel asserts, "Many advocates are also apparently so blinded by
ideology
that they are unable to draw distinctions between types of abusers. Some
men, for example, are first-time offenders, others are brutal recidivists,
others attack rarely but harshly, others frequently but less severely, and
many are alcoholics. Such a heterogeneous population cannot be treated
with
a one-size-fits-all approach."
a.. a.. There's no real evidence it works.
The best we have is one-month follow-ups. Satel points out that women
are advised to leave their husbands; the programs have no faith that the
indoctrination they offer actually works.
a.. It ignores domestic violence by women.
The (U.S.) National Violence Against Women survey estimates that each
year 1.5 million women and 835,000 men are assaulted by intimate partners.
The (U.S.) National Child Abuse and Data System re****ts that over 55% of
the
physical abuse of children is by women. Dr. Dutton points out that lesbian
relation****ps were significantly more violent than gay relation****ps;
rates
of verbal, physical and ***ual abuse were all significantly higher in
lesbian relation****ps than in hetero***ual relation****ps; and in one
sample
of women, 78.2% had been in a prior relation****p with a man: re****ts of
violence by men were all lower than re****ts of violence in prior
relation****ps with women.
All of these findings refute the notion that family violence is caused
by male control of women. They are ignored by domestic violence "experts"
and the media because they contradict the ideological paradigm of these
programs, that family violence is men's efforts to control women. One
result
is that there is virtually no public education, victim outreach and
education, or help for battered men.
Is domestic vioilence by women in self-defense? Dr. Martin Fiebert of
the University of California at Long Beach surveyed almost 1,000 women,
280
of whom had initiated an assault on their partner. The most common
reasons?
"My partner wasn't sensitive to my needs." "I wished to gain my partner's
attention." "My partner was not listening to me." These all ranked above
"My
partner was being verbally abusive to me."
a.. a.. Women who need help can't get it.
A Detroit News special re****t on battered husbands provides a
dramatic
example.
For 13 years, Karen Gillhespy was the abuser. She says she broke
her
husband's ribs, ripped entire patches of his hair out, scratched him, bit
him, beat him with a baseball bat and kicked him. He never hit back -- and
he never filed charges. But more shocking to Gillhepsy are the reactions
she
encountered telling her story. "They told me I was the victim," said
Gillhespy. "Here's no way any of this was his fault."
Cathy Young, author of Ceasefire, quotes a letter from a shelter
that
gives as an example of assault by the husband, "In an argument, 'Mrs. C.
grabbed Mr. C. by his necktie (and) he pushed her away. Mrs. C. then
punched
his face and her nail cut his neck.'" Domestic violence researcher Suzanne
Steinmetz says this is common, and is simply one more way that a woman's
experience is devalued. "The bottom line is that women get the short end
of
the stick anyway. When we say women can't possibly be violent, she must
have
done it for some reason, we are in essence denying women services."
And programs that preach that male oppression is at the heart of
domestic violence have nothing to offer to women who batter.
a.. It's taught by "wounded healers."
Shelter staffs and perpetrator treatment programs are often
dominated
by women who have been victims themselves. Maurice Oates, who co-founded a
highly successful Native-based Circle of Harmony Healing Society in
Terrace,
British Columbia that works with couples on a voluntary basis, says: "We
don't really give a damn about what white people think. All participants
are
considered equal and not adversaries. All our programs avoid ***ual bias.
Local gender feminists were telling us it would be a disaster. We call
those
people the 'wounded healers' because they try to help people, but they
have
not yet dealt with their own pain and agony."
a.. It's a gender-polarizing approach that only serves to perpetrate
the
"battle of the ***es."
Cathy Young, author of Ceasefire: Why Women and Men Must Join Forces
to Achieve True Equality, states:
The most obvious casualties of the War on Domestic Violence have
been men, particularly men involved in contentious divorces. But it has
also
hurt many of the women who are its intended beneficiaries. Part of the
problem is the one-size-fits-all approach to domestic violence. For many
couples in violent relation****ps, particularly those involved in mutual
violence, joint counseling offers the best solution. But if they have come
to the attention of the authorities, it's one form of counseling to which
they are unlikely to be referred. Couples therapy is vehemently opposed by
battered women's advocates--ostensibly out of concern for women's safety,
but also because of the implication that both partners must change their
behavior.
Yale psychiatrist Sally Satel states:
Like so many projects of the feminist agenda, the battered women's
movement has outlived its useful beginnings, which was to help women leave
violent relation****ps and persuade the legal system to take domestic abuse
more seriously. Now they have brought us to a point at which a single
complaint touches off an irreversible cascade of useless and often
destructive legal and therapeutic events. This could well have a chilling
effect upon victims of real violence, who may be reluctant to file police
re****ts or to seek help if it subjects them to further battery from the
authorities. And it certainly won't help violent men if they emerge from
so-called treatment programs no more enlightened but certainly more angry,
more resentful, and as dangerous as ever.
My thanks to Erin Pizzey, founder of the first shelter for battered
women and author of Prone to Violence, the controversial first book to
explore violence in women. She challenged me to write this piece, to use
in
speaking out against attempts to implement this model in the UK.
Further resources:
Yale psychiatrist Sally L. Satel wrote an excellent exposition "It's
Always His Fault. Feminist Ideology Dominates Perpetrator Programs" for
The
Women's Quarterly (ISSN:1079-6622) published by the Independent Women's
Forum. Summer 1997 - Number 12.
A good journalistic treatment by Ami Chen Mills, "Battery Row,"
appeared
in the April 3-9, 1997 issue of the Metro (Silicon Valley) Weekly.
University of British Columbia psychologist Donald G. Dutton wrote a
paper for Violence & Victims in 1994, which we summarize in MenWeb as:
Patriarchy and Wife Assault: It's Not Just the Patriarchy and Male
Oppression. The full article is there, as well.
The concluding quote from Cathy Young is from her excellent article
Domestic Violations from the April, 1998 issue of Reason magazine.
See also Gender Polarization in Domestic Violence Perpetrator
Programs:
The Duluth Model and A Duluth Model for Female Perpetrators.
The explanation of "sociopolitical therapy" is from a widely-used
paper
by Barbara Brandl, "Programs for Batterers: A Discussion Paper."
The explanation of the Duluth Model is from the Duluth program's "The
Duluth Domestic Abuse Intervention Project", available in the Australian
on-line Domestic Violence Information Manual
The reasons why women initiate assault are given in Dr. Martin Fiebert
and Deborah Gonzalez, "College Women Who Initiate Assaults on their Male
Partners and the Reasons Offered for Such Behavior," summarized on MenWeb
in
Why Women Assault.
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