I’m not a fan of golf (since
Tiger Woods left the stage) or tennis, but if you put a gun to my head, I’d
rather watch an LPGA or women’s tennis event, the reasons for which I won’t
explain here. But women’s basketball? If I had a choice between watching a WNBA
game, or watching paint dry for three hours, I would pick the latter, easy. It
is much less painful.
The WNBA also has another problem
besides inducing headaches for fans with non-political agendas, like watching
top quality athletic competition. It seems to have what gender victim advocates
would call an “epidemic” if male athletes were involved: players engaged in domestic violence—against
their same-sex partners. Here are
some recent “incidents” that CNN didn’t cover:
Deanna “Tweety” Nolan was arrested for beating her “wife” and pulling a
gun on her. Apparently Nolan didn’t feel any contrition for having an affair
with a Russian woman while she was playing basketball overseas, which was
discovered by her wife (who is Hispanic) and mother of their two children back
home in the States; this led to a one-sided “argument.” Nolan was also accused
of beating her first “wife,” Elaine Powell—although it should be noted that
Powell had a demonstrated propensity for violence as well, at least against
other players on the basketball court.
Chamique Holdsclaw was charged, convicted but sentenced to no jail time
for following an ex-girlfriend’s car to her new “partner’s” house, wrecking the
car with a baseball bat and firing a gun into the car while the ex was still inside.
Malika Willoughby, apparently unhappy that her lady love Rosalind Ross
was going to leave her for a coaching job in another state, shot her to death
outside a restaurant. Willoughby was found guilty of murder, but sentenced to
only 13 years in prison.
Brittney Griner—“famous” for punching out
Jordan Barncastle on the court when she was playing for Baylor University—and
fellow player and then domestic partner Glory Johnson, were involved in a
lengthy domestic violence event during which objects were thrown and various
physical markings were inflicted. Griner and Johnson later kissed and made-up,
even marrying—at least for a few days before they realized they really weren’t
made for each other, and the marriage was annulled. Griner is currently in
Russia playing on a professional team, reportedly to get away from unwanted
publicity. At least until she finds herself in another altercation event.
But women are not always the victims in these incidents. A
restraining order was placed on the 6-4 Jantel Lavender after she threatened to
kill her now ex-boyfriend, Adam Ashley. Ashley claimed that he had been in
hiding for fear of his life after she had pulled a knife on him—after she had
grabbed his head and slammed it against a wall. Before that, he claimed that
she tried to choke him in one incident, and kneed him in the groin in another,
causing a considerable “throbbing” pain in that particular area.
Thus a National Violence Against Women survey, perhaps
finding itself in pickle whether to record or ignore such incidents, somehow did
record this factoid, at least according to its low standards: 21.5 percent of
males in same-sex partnerships, and 35.4 percent of females in the same,
experienced domestic violence at some point in their lives at the hands of
their “intimate partner.” This does not
correlate well with their other finding, that 7.1 percent of males and 20.4
percent of females in heterosexual relationships experienced “intimate partner
violence.” Frankly, I would take this study with a grain of salt; it is at odds
with CDC report that showed nearly as many men claiming to be victims of
domestic violence as women—and 25 percent more often in the previous 12-month
survey period. Apparently the NVAW survey results had to be tampered with and
toned down of the usual wide definitions in order to find a way to make women
still seem more “victim” than perpetrator when being forced to include males.
The “survey” is also questionable because it makes no sense that if lesbian
women engaging in violence at nearly double the rate of gay men, then how did
they come up with such a dissimilar result with hetero rates without skewing
the data to fit the myth that the organization’s title perpetuates?
The updated CDC’s National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence
Survey in 2013, again showed a close to equal number of heterosexual men and
women claiming to be victims of domestic violence, but this time included those
respondents claiming same-sex, and this survey even more “alarming” than the
NVAW survey. It also showed that domestic violence was more prevalent in
non-heterosexual relationships than of the hetero variety. 43.8 percent of lesbians (compared to 26 percent of gay men) claimed to be victims
of intimate partner violence at some point in their relationships.
There have been various ways of explaining the
contradictory message in who is or isn’t the perpetrators of domestic violence,
tending towards one’s acceptance or not of victim mythology. Some “contributor”
to Wikipedia explained it all in not unexpectedly politically-correct fashion:
The issue of
domestic violence among lesbian couples is highly ignored due to the social
construction of gender roles that women are expected to play in society. The
social construction of women is characterized as passive, dependent, nurturing,
and highly emotional. Due to forms of discrimination, homophobia, and
heterosexism, and the belief that heterosexuality is normative within society,
domestic violence has been characterized as being between the male perpetrator
and the female victim. This contributes to the invisibility of the frequency of
domestic violence that constantly takes place within lesbian relationships.
Moreover, the fear of reinforcing negative stereotypes has led some community
members, activists, and victims to deny the extent of violence among lesbians. Social
service agencies are often unwilling to assist lesbian victims of domestic
violence. Victims of domestic violence in lesbian relationships are less likely
to have the case prosecuted within a legal system.”
This little tidbit is rife with the usual hypocrisies. It ignores the fact, for example, that the “social
construction” is the construct of gender victim advocacy, and blames the perpetration
of violence not on natural inclinations but on a bizarre claim of
self-victimization. Who has been claiming that males are the sole perpetrators of
domestic violence—males? Who is in denial about domestic violence perpetrated
by females, straight or lesbian? Again, it is not males, unless, of course, you
are Dr. Phil. Who has seen to it that females are much less accountable for
their actions than males are? Again, female victim advocates are victims of
their own myths when it comes to woman-to-woman intimate partner violence.
Someone named Beth Leventhal of some LGBQ/T support website
tells us that “Abuse is not about violence; it’s about control. You can be just
as controlling of someone if you are small — as if you’re large. It’s about
using violence or any other means of gaining and maintaining control.” I couldn’t
agree more, even though Leventhal is only trying to come to grips with the fact
that it is kind of hard to blame a male of domestic violence in a female/female
relationship. It is unfortunate, however, that the same understanding has no
place in male/female interactions.
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