Oprah’s cry from the wilderness

This sounds a lot like blaming ourselves, again. Blaming women for keeping “the lid” on domestic violence. I think men and women have reasons for not talking about it, reasons that are probably different from each other, but we both are responsible for neglecting to talk about this problem.

But, I see what you mean, Meagan, as far as your reason for why women don’t talk about DV. It seems women’s rights, and any movement, fails when it doesn’t account for the complicatedness of life. The issue of equal rights is not that we are all the same. And any movement for equal rights that fails to account for this fact, will experience failure. Men are generally physically stronger than women. And women generally have bodies that reproduce and birth children. Equal rights does not assert that everyone is the same, but that differences do exist, and despite these, we all have the right to not be abused, or to be educated, or to get a job. Yet how to recognize and celebrate differences without putting them in a hierarchy?

In order to uphold these rights, women may need extra support and protection because they are more vulnerable to this right being violated. And we need strong voices like Oprah’s to stand up for this issue. So kudos to Oprah. It’s surprising to me that her ‘opinion’ is not general knowledge. There needs to be STRONG social pressure against DV.