It's my impression that the seemingly increase of physical abuse towards women in recent times is directly related to the rapid changes in our roles in society during the last three or four decades, that certain men's mentalites which are uncapable of progressing and developing themselves (not nearly as fast, at least) don't have a clue how to handle and the only wicked way they can think of to somehow try to "regain control" (as if anybody needed to overpower anyone else) is resorting to the most basic, easy, simple and stupid "tool" at hand, violence.
BTW, this theory explains a little why the figures have grown in the most modern of countries, where women have achieved so much, such as the Scandinavian ones.

Which is why Ignacio's posts, which don't give us a slight hint that he comdemns the domestic violence that we're all finally aware takes place on a daily basis, worries me, because it shows some of that male-on-the-defensive attitude (and towards what I wonder?). That is unless your comparison of one gender's abuses against the other is a bad joke, of course....
And no, I can assure you I'm in no way manimulated by the press, for, personally, I know a number of women, one very, very close to me, who have been victims, and I don't know any men, do you? (if you do, are you really aware of how have been/are those women attackers treated by their male partners to start with? Have the male victims that you know achieved to break up those relationships and have they been threatened still, stalked and pursued afterwards?, or have they escaped and had to live hidden in a special sheltered place?....Just curious since I know a thing or two about that from (almost first) hand)

I'll agree, though, that there are a couple of flops in the recently proposed and approved set of laws to fight this horror; and they deal with precisely what Ignacio comments on, although in a very exaggerated way, discrimination. It makes distinctions between the handling of abuses to women and to men, and that is in my view wrong, even though the percentage ratio for both these cases may be ridiculous, and unacceptable, since it also discriminates children, both boys and girls!

On another note, being as I have been quite familiar with the issue for a number of years, unfortunately, I'm totally disgusted by the utilization of alleged abuses by celebrities or even semi-pseudo-quasi-famous people (some men as well, by their gay couples), to get air-time on TV's gossip shows, covers on sexy magazines, contracts/money, recognition, etc... or simply "play" the victim, AND by the media that puts them on display; because being or having been a battered person is something so much more serious than that folks. However to those who say that all this innuendo I just described makes the WHOLE abuse scenario a not-so-clear matter, I say that there are real victims that DIE, at least a couple only in our country every week, and that there's no making-up those facts, so the problem we face is indeed huge.

Finally,
...."Porque hombres y mujeres somos distintos, pero semejantes. No somos antagónicos, sino complementarios.Y sólo desde una educación en la diferencia se podrá afrontar con mayor eficacia el drama de la violencia doméstica"....
Errr, I guess the quotee must have had a slip of the mind, and he/she meant "Y sólo desde una educación en la IGUALDAD se podrá afrontar con mayor eficacia el drama de la violencia doméstica"?

BTW, Ignacio, your considering yourself pro-feminist, is it another joke or are you simply a very contradictory person?

Fact: You don't seem to read I include lots of data showing that the violence at home both in Spain and in the world is similar in victims of one and other sex, and the ones who exercise violence are BOTH. so, the rest of the considerations you make are ok as guesses in a hypotetical case that's not the real one, that it's only men the violent or almost only.

First: I don't need to condemn everything always Of course I condemn it, but from both sides. And let me tell you the kind of argument you use it's absolutely unfair, like I have to prove I am a good guy by condemning something as a previous requirement to be able to have a weighed opinion. After all, what can I hope of a person that's so close ideologically with PP? It's the same system they used you-know-when.

Second: No, not a male-on-defense attitude, but you can bet it's a man-on-defense attitude, and there is a reason: the lack of equality in rights we have right now. We need to begin to defend ourselves, we have waited for too long.

One more proof you don't read. I enclose several links to documents by INstituto de la Mujer, Consejo de Europa, and so on, that support that home violence is for both sexes here and in the world.

The final piece is a real gem: So, if a woman kills or injures or something, a man, that's because he deserves it? It's a good example of what I say: Our grandfathers would say EXACTLY the same regarding women, but WE have gone past it, YOU don't seem to. Here is the different way to measure things I illustrated with the TV spot before (and there are many of those spots examples).

Again: You don't read. In my comments I include documents by psicologists saying something we already know: MEN FEEL MUCH MORE ASHAMED THAN WOMEN TO ADMIT THAT THEY HAVE BEEN ABUSED AT HOME, so it's not strange that we know less cases, however, I know at least two, one whose wife started fights and he forced him to fight her or hold her (if possible, she was biggeer), and I also know this quite well because we shared flat, and other whose girlfriend/lover has slaped him in the face a lot of times while going out in group, and once almost hit him with a bottle (these are the facts I saw, I guess there are many more).

And yes, I know of women that have pursued and harassed men after they leaving them. BTW, haven't you see the film "Fatal Attraction" or "disclosure" or others? Are women sanits? In your dreams maybe.

OK, then: If women never do violence at home, because they are saints, why not punishing them the same way for the same crime? It looks like old fashioned opposite-way sexism in disguise of feminism. Like centuries ago when judges took more pity of a woman and jailed her while hanged a/the man.

Killing is killing, and abusing is abusing no matter who does it, man or woman. Full-stop.

Now in Spain, PSOE-related feminists are trying to make that a man's violence is a crime whereas a womans' is just a "fault" that can be fined and that's all. I believe that this is anticonstitutional no matter your political adscription, but the politiced jurists in Spain think it is or it isn't depending on their loyalties.

It's true that most of these women are inventing batterings and harassment, but, as valiantly declared the decane judge of Barcelona and promptly confirmed the prosecutor in chief of Madrid and Barcelona, many of the common women sues for violence ARE FALSE TOO. It has became a common way to get better divorce conditions and do it faster. For this they were almost politically lynched by the feminists and almost all the press. By the way, the chief judge of Barcelona is a WOMAN, a progressive woman who has sent men to jail because of home violence prior to be commanded to do it by the new laws, not suspicion of machismo-connivence at all. But she is honest. And brave, because to say this in this country you heve to be brave, specially if your position and professional future depends on your silence.

Are YOU a very contradictory person? I am not, I am consequent. Read my words and tell me where I say MEN should have more rights or be more than WOMEN. Same as regarding the law we have just debated, I just ask for FAIR TREATMENT AND EQUALITY. A feminist is a person who wants that NO SEX is priviledged against other. Am I right?

The time to clamp down on domestic violence is before it becomes an epedemic, and I'm glad to see that Spaniards are doing so.

In the US, it was laughed at for too long and its become a serious problem. What bothers me even more is that it seems to be passed on from generation to generation in families, and you have to break that tradition to gain ground on that plain to make a difference.

Wolf

How true, Wolf. Sadly, as Aristotle said, what you teach a child from birth to age nine is what she/he will become. Apparently this pernicious violence is a vicious cycle, that needs to be stopped at an early age.

When I was in spain last year I saw a man smack hid wife in the middle of the street in front of his kids, with hundreds of people passing by during feria. In pamplona I saw a guy kick a girl really hard in the butt and some people helped her out. I don't understand what spanish women see in these men. Anyone who hits a woman is an insecure coward and in my opinion is not a man. It is a problem that should not be swept under the rug.

Hello all,
great to discuss this on this forum!
My two cents:
on abortion - did anyone ever realize, that the discussion is not so much about whether it should be allowed or not, but rather about who gets to decide about it? I still think this is about power and control over women, and those men, who so eagerly defend the unborn´s right to live for religious reasons are the worst.
on domestic violence - I ´ve seen my share of it in the ER. What always gets me and makes me incredibly sad, is that many women do not know about their rights! I am from Germany and since last year there is a law, which bans husbands from the house/flat on the accusation of domestic violence, no matter, who rented or owns the housing in the first place. Also, rape can be prosecuted in a marriage now (until a few years ago that crime, rape in marriage, was simply declared impossible). It is information that is the key. I am glad, these laws exist now, but the problem in society is a different story. There is still a lot to be done!

la calma

Hi Madridman,

I just noticed your response to my pointing out the injustices done to the Filippino commuity in Spain. Let's get one thing straight. I did not see or hear of this in any media. I heard it first hand from a Filippina family living in Spain. The main point is that the justice system is very corrupt in Spain. I can not even imagine the futility of a battered woman in Spain.

This is something that happens everytime everywhere, but we talk about it and try to solve the problem, that's because you can read notices about violence against women in Spain.

Thanks Pippo for the article. I was shocked while reading all the posts and all the misinformation.... As all of you know there have been a lot of cases reported of violence against women. I feel ashamed of being a man each and every time I hear a single case of a woman hit or even killed by her husband. However I think some of you are getting the wrong picture. In Spain there are not more cases than in other european and american countries, just as Pippo's article showed. There is a strong social repulse against all this cases. Laws are being changed, sometimes "too much". For example, if a man is accused of attacking a woman that man has to demonstrate his innocence. If the woman attacks the man, it is the woman's culpability which has to be demonstrated.... I really hope we live to see the day not even one woman has to suffer attacks or live threatened by those animals.