Abstract
The Straus “reanalysis” appears to dismiss or simply ignore the possibility of “violent resistance” among women, a concept that is illustrated in the Gondolf article. The resistance is something more than just self-defense. More broadly, it is a response to oppression—an unjust, burdensome, and often cruel exercise of power. The fact that women, and other groups in society, directly or indirectly experience oppression is not merely a feminist position but also a sociological realization. The Straus “camp” seems narrowly fixed on the tactics of women as somehow independent from this larger context of meaning, motivation and purpose.
What I would call a “liberal” approach to understanding the dynamics of women’s violence would acknowledge it as an attempt to “get it (the man’s violence) over with,” self-defense, or protecting the children. But from my point of view, this approach puts forward some, but not all, of the dimensions of women’s resistance. Some victim/survivors also lash out physically to punish or attempt to punish their oppressors, retaliating for prior and ongoing oppression. This behavior is sometimes constructed as “less admirable” by those who do not fully appreciate what it means to be subjected to oppression. And battered women themselves are not always comfortable referencing these allegedly less admirable motives for fear of being blamed for this behavior.
We can see how this is playing out in terms of the Ferguson, Missouri, protests and debate. What are the choices for an African American man who is being hassled on the street by police? I can easily understand a pragmatic position that he should not “fight back,” because it is highly likely the police will respond with more violence and that his criminal charges will be more severe. However, even though I strongly favor nonviolent resistance in general, I am not willing to simply rule out the use of force by that individual man.
I would take, as we should with battered women, the specific context of that incident, and the broader context of interactions between African Americans and the police, into account in determining what “justice” should look like.