This can also be a response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “A House Divided.” Pick a divisive issue currently in the news. Write a two-part post in which you take on two personas and approach the topic from both sides.
Hitting a woman is considered taboo, but hitting a man still isn’t. What do you think about that and the video above?
If the woman had been the one provoking the man to hit her, then he did so, only to be punched back by that same woman — would you have reacted the same way?
~*~
DEBATE TRANSCRIPT
M: If you’re okay with women hitting men — and I’m not talking about playing around — then you should be okay with men hitting women. It’s their right to defend themselves.
W: Self-defense? Seriously? Most men are physically stronger! There are plenty of other ways they can restrain those women from hurting them.
M: Not all women are physically inferior. Isn’t that sexist?
W: That’s stating facts. Look at me. I’m taller and bulkier than a lot of women I know, but when I got into an altercation with my ex-husband, the fight wasn’t fair. He tried to use the equality card, too, but there was nothing physically equal in that. And this is just one example. There’s no excuse to beat a woman senseless.
M: There’s no reason to beat anyone senseless. Violence is violence. If you hit someone, you open that door to be hit back. Now, how far you take that is a whole nother story.
~*~
Here’s a reblog of “Chris Norris on a relationship trend that’s more common — and serious — than you think.”
I REMEMBER THE FIRST TIME I GOT punched by a girlfriend. It was during a fight on a New York City street corner, over a subject I’ve long since forgotten. But the punch — thrown as I leaned in to make a point, thrown reflexively, out of unchecked rage — stayed with me. It didn’t hurt that much, tagging me just below the left ear. But it caused serious damage.
I didn’t hit back, cry, or scream “You monster!” But my reaction was probably not what she might have hoped for. It was not: a) She must be really angry!, b) How could I have been so insensitive?, or c) What a feisty woman I have!, but, sadly, d) This bitch crazy. And by the next morning, our future had clouded over.
According to a Penn professor who studies these things, every American man has about a 28 percent chance of being struck by a woman at some point in his life (in related news, the number of girls ages 10 to 17 arrested for aggravated assault has doubled in the last 20 years). And yet no one seems to take the phenomenon that seriously. Maybe it’s because men, generally speaking, are bigger and stronger, and we assume there’s a real limit to the physical damage women could actually inflict. We don’t picture these scuffles resulting in bloody noses and black eyes or a trip to the station house. Furthermore, pop culture has made the idea of a pretty girl whaling on a guy a wacky comedy staple — Angelina Jolie smashing wine bottles over Brad Pitt’s head in Mr. & Mrs. Smith and Cameron Diaz coldcocking Edward Burns in The Holiday were both played for laughs. But the reality of getting hit by your girlfriend isn’t so sexy or hilarious.
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Isabelle-grabs-life 
The indignity of it all is still raw years later. I still cringe in embarrassment at what was done to me in public, in front of children. I never believed I could be so despised and hated as I was. I know I was in part to blame, I am not so that I absolve myself from my own responsibility.
But the videos do raise a valid point about the perception we have of the roles of males and females. My daughter was recently abused by her husband in a crowded restaurant. He walked out leaving her sitting in front of an audience of strangers. Many of them came up to her to offer support and comfort her which was wonderful they did. But I doubt if the shoe was on the other foot they would have done the same him. I certainly found that the case. People I think feel a sense of shame and embarrassment seeing a man hit by a woman. The old medieval sense of the cuckold comes into play.
Thankfully I am well away from those situations now days.
Obviously your post, Izzy, gave me much to think about.
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I appreciate you for taking the time out to share your thoughts and experiences. Violence towards anyone and everyone is a serious issue. I wish both of us could be 100% wrong in thinking that the average man wouldn’t receive the same help as a woman being hit by a man, if the roles were reversed — but that’s not the case. To add onto your great point of bystanders feeling ashamed and embarrassed at seeing a man being hit, I also think that there’s a sick thrill about it. Like some sort of twisted show of the “underdog rising on top” or a kick to the whole patriarchal system.
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[…] A big thanks to Rochelle Wisoff-Fields and David Stewart for this photo prompted challenge for Friday Fictioneers (100 words or less). This is my first post into the weekly event, so I’m excited to merge this flash fiction with my own Friday feature (Speak Up! Friday Quotes) where I bring up topics that I believe need to be discussed (e.g., microaggressions — wanting to be happy — truth being stranger than fiction — sexism and violence against men). […]
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