This article states some rather grusome facts about domestic violence. Such as that by 1993 a murder resulted from domestic violence every eight days, but today in the United States it has sky-rocketed to four or five every day! Also, that nearly 51% of Canadian women have been physically abused and that most of the time it is by wmen with whom they are familiar with. Domestic violence is responsible for at least 25% of suicide attempts.
She also continues by saying that the abusers have a desire for control and power and that they have no consequences for their actions to put any fear into their minds.
The women in this situation need to take control as well. To forget the idea that you can help the men change and get out. They need to shrug off the title of passive or helplessand get out of the relationshipwhile they still can.
Jones, Ann. 1996. "Battering: Who's Going to Stop It?" In Kesselman et al. Women: Images and Realities: A Multicultural Anthology. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield. Pg 426-432.
Despite widespread recognition of domestic violence as a public health problem, many clinicians still have difficulty integrating routine interventation into their day-to-day practice. This is in part because domestic violence raises a distinct set of challenges for both providers and the institutions that shape clinical practice. Domestic violence is a complex social problem rather than a biomedical one; addressing it means asking clinicians to step beyond a traditional medical paradigm to confront the personal feelings and social beliefs that shape their responses to patients and to work in partnership with community groups committed to ending domestic violence. In addition, addressing domestic violence raises important challenges to the health care system itself to its theoretical models, to the nature of medical training, and to the rapidly changing structure of clinical practice. If we truly want to play a role in preventing domestic violence, rather than just treating its consequences, we must work together to transform both the individual and social conditions that create and support this kind of violence in the first place.
Warsaw, Carole MD. "Domestic Violence: Changing Theory, Changing Practice." Journal of the American Medical Women's Association. May/July 1996, Vol. 51 no. 3. Pg 3-8.
A woman, probably Asian, desdribes in detail the beatings she gets with a wooden sculpture by a man.She uses metaphores and powerful verbs to discuss the bruises and scars that the man has inflicted upon her. The sculpture is of a beautiful woman either from Japan or Hong Kong with the perfections of long black hair, slender legs, and graceful feet, clothed in an elegant kimono. At the same time she describes the bruises on her own freckeld, scarred a bruiesed body, caused by this beautiful sculpture. The sculpture is regulary placed on display with the rest or her batterer's treasures, a treasure that is responsible for her "camel bumps" and "red marks" all over her body. The poem ends with the women saving herself and the sculpture by leaving and taking the little wooden women in the kimono with her.
Yamada, Mitsuye. "The Club" In Kesselman et al. Women: Images and Realities: A Multicultural Anthology. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield. Pg 426.
"Women are like wheelbarrows; if not beaten for three days, they cannot be used." This is an old popular saying in Chinese society where physical abuse is condoned. It all begins with the patriarchal social structure of Chinese culture, where women are expected to be obedient to their fathers when ther are young, their husbands, when they are married, and their sons when they are widowed.
These abusive husbands defend themselves by saying the reason they are violent to their wives is because, "...the latter fail to live up to their prescribed roles and trespass cultural rules that require them to remain submissive and dependent." An example is wife abuse caused by jealousy, failure to bear sons, or improper conduct according to Chinese culture.
Studies were performed to prove that wife abuse in Chinese society has and will always occur.Verbal, physical, and severe violence against women is estimated to be around 75% in 1994. Because family matters are considered personal and intimate, few reports are filed, Chinese women do not speak of domestic abuse face-to-face, so most of this study was conducted by telephone. The only conclusion that they came to was that domestic violence varies in cultural, demographic, and social aspects, and when pertaing to the Chinese society it is a cultural issue. And because it is more of a cultural issue, it is more difficult to formulate stragaties to combat the problem and find a solution.
So-Kum Tang, Catherine. "Wife Abuse in Hong Kong Chinese Famalies." Journal of Family Violence. June 1999 vol., 14 no.2 pgs. 173-180.