Watch before reading or posting any comments please. :D
If video doesn't work here is the link:
This video was a pretty interesting social experiment. To summarize what basically happened was; a male actor was made to abuse a female actor, and when people saw this they immediately reacted and came to the aid of the female. But when the roles were reversed and the female was the one abusing and assaulting the male nobody really seemed to care anymore. This shows that we tend to believe that when a man is abusing a women its immediately wrong, but when a women is abusing a male, well it's probably the males fault any ways, he deserves it, right? About 163 people walked by the abusive women before anybody actually reacted. Even a police officer even walked by without doing anything, he simply said that they were having a little "pip"(I think), and it was nothing to be worried about.A plausible reason for this is that we are conditioned by the media, and even our literature to assume that when
a women hits a man, she has a just reason for it and thus it is acceptable. For instance in Pirates of the Caribbean, Captain Jack Sparrow is slapped but for a very good reason, so we the viewers immediately consider it OK and even consider it empowering and a good dead done on the females behalf, seeing as she was able to extract her revenge. Also we are raised never to hit a women, and as a result when we see women hitting men, we act passive towards them and don't see the situation for what it really is.Unfortunately in this country, women abusing men is a serious problem, especially with the stereotypes that exist for both males and females. A abused male may be afraid of even admitting to anybody that his wife/girlfriend is abusing him in fear of being considered weak and a wimp. Also people would be very resistant to immediately believe him seeing as its strange in our society to think that a women is abusing a male. Its generally the other way around.
In the video a lady's reaction went as far as to even cheer silently for the women. When later asked why she cheered the lady responded "good for her, you go girl" supporting and even encouraging her violent behavior because of the assumption that the women had caught the male doing something like cheating. The problem with this is that female aggression, in our current society is stereotyped as harmless, and nothing to react to, but it could possibly be very harmful, to both the male and the female in the relationship. Though unfortunately as a result, many violent acts are committed by females, and encouraged rather than being taken seriously for what they are. Violent actions should never be encouraged regardless of whether there is a good reason for it or not. "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind".
Points to Discuss:
1) Do you think our society justly treats the problem of abusive females, or are they given a
lesser penalty seeing as they are females?
2) If you saw a female abusing a male, how would you react?
3)Why do you think we assume that the male is responsible when we see a women abusing a
male?
