This article illustrates the "triad of men's violence" and explores the relationship between men's violence against women, men's violence against other men, and the internalization of violence by men. Kaufman describes these acts of violence as ritualized acts in relation to social power: dominant vs. the weaker, powerful and the powerless, the active and the passive, the masculine and the feminine. (pg 554) As we have learned in this course, Marxism advocated that social problems shape how social structures interact and how dominant class is determinant of those who are in power. In this instance, that power belongs to men. The important question to address is not where men are predisposed to violence, but what society does with this violence.…show more content… (pg 559) We live in a male dominant society, where men make more money and have better jobs than women and yet men still feel the need to show their superiority in acts of violence. Unfortunately, violence against women at the hands of men are common in today's society in the form of rape, battery, pornography, and sexual harassment. In the work place men feel powerless and so they attempt to regain that power by acting in violence against women in their own home where they feel safe and almost untouchable and so the violence pours from these men onto their wives and children. (pg 560) It is a vicous cycle that…show more content… Although I have never been a victim of physical abuse, I have been exposed to emotional and verbal abuse from a man in my past as well as from my own father. My grandfather fell to the sexual and verbal abuse from his own mother, which then lead to the search for his own masculinity and resulted in the physical abuse inflicted on my father. My father then acted in violence by abusing my mother and every other woman he has had a relationship with. Perhaps it was my inner strength that was ingrained into me by my own mother, she taught me to never let a man treat me this way. She left the marriage. She taught her three daughters that we are not inferior to any man or anyone for any reason. And so, when I found myself in a relationship that was beginning to become verbally abusive, I ran for the hills. My cycle did not continue. I'm not making excuses when I speak of my own cycle, but I am fully aware of how our past shapes us as individuals in society and the cycle of violence in our lives. The Seven P's of Men's Violence, also written by Kaufman, states that past experiences are a factor in violence against women, but the "learned response" may be too simplistic when attempting to create a reasoning for this abuse. Personal experiences cause deep patterns of confusion and frustration when boys learn the from the outbursts of hurting someone they love and
