I have been "lurking" during this conversation -- and have appreciated much of the points made. Largely, however, It seems to me that the critical conversation of what we do with men is so important -- something that I have found lacking in much of the conversation about ending men's violence at least in the States.
I do find it curious, however, that the focus of this conversation at this point has been on questions of men who batter, and no commentary, thus far, and the very related altho still distinct issue of working with men who sexually offend. It seems to me that we can learn much by looking at men who have developed a profeminist attitude and lifestyle -- or examined our systemic approaches to other forms of hate crimes -- gaybashings, crimes against people of color, etc. I find it curious, even as a social worker/therapist, that we develop these different kinds of responses (focus on counselling) when the persons most likely victimized are women, then we do when the persons most likely victimized are men. That being said, I do think that there is a place and a need for counselling programs for men who are abusive -- but these must be not only based on more careful screening, but also grounded in a profeminist perspective that sees it's primary work (and thus primary accountability and responsibility) in changing societal structures that allow men to see abusing women as an option. It is only by ending sexism that we will eventually effectively "counsel" individual men from choosing to abuse women. AND most of us who are men involved in this movement grew and learned and were "counselled" (if you will -- by which I mean supported, challenged, confronted, encouraged, etc.) into become increasingly profeminist and moving our developing profeminist perspective into actions. Dare I say that similar experiences are found with "White" anti-racist activists and heterosexual allies of the GLBT [***Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender, Mod.***] movements. One concern I have of this conversation has been the trend to separate "those men" who abuse from the rest of men. It seems to me that all men are in need of "counselling" to address our sexist attitudes and abusive (of power) tendencies. This is not to seem "anti-male" (tho I have no doubt that I will be read as such by some) but only to acknowledge that being male in a patriarchal society (much like being white in a white supremacist society) means that we have much to work on, endlessly, to examine, uncover and even learn to recognize our sexist, privileged, assumptions of entitlement and the accompanying abuse of unearned power(over) that often goes with that. Rus Ervin Funk, Washington, DC USA ***End-violence is sponsored by UNIFEM and receives generous support from ICAP*** To post a message, send it to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe end-violence OR type: unsubscribe end-violence Archives of previous End-violence messages can be found at: http://www.edc.org/GLG/end-violence/hypermail/
