Gender and domestic violence

[David]

[5 from the wing on debut]

Isn't the problem that men are just genetically hard wired to be more aggressive than women? There's no research that I have done on the topic, it's just my feeling.

I can give you one personal example, but there have been other similar instances. Yes, I know, it is only anecdotal, but it illustrates my point.

I am a long time weekend road cyclist and week day into the CBD cycling commuter. Not long before covid hit I was out riding solo one weekend. A quiet country road near home, maybe a car passing every 10 minutes, plenty of room to pass without waiting. I was keeping hard left, not in the way at all. Travelling at about 30kmh. I heard a car approaching from behind. As it came closer, it slowed, to the precise speed that I was doing. It moved to about 6 inches behind my rear wheel then the car horn started blaring. Constantly. I didn't slow at first as I didn't want to be hit by the car and there was nowhere to pull over to, with trees growing along the road. About 40m later I was able to pull over, and then the car stopped, all the time still leaning on the horn. My aggression kicked in and once my bike went down and I rushed at him the driver realised what was about to happen and took off. There were bends in the road but after a minute I could hear his horn again so I chased hard and it looked like when he saw me coming he took off again. As I got closer I realised what he had been doing. There was a female rider on the side of the road, in tears and completely terrified. He had done to her what he had done to me, but her reaction was very different.

That, in a nutshell, says a lot to me about the behaviour of men and women. It's very unlikely a female would have done what the driver did. On speaking to many other riders, the consensus was that my reaction was normal and so was the female cyclist's.

To finish off, I didn't report the matter to the police. Either did the female cyclist. We know through experience that it is a waste of time.

[David]

[stui magpie]

Testosterone vs Estrogen, but that's at best a contributory aspect not a causal one

[think positive]

Isn't the problem that men are just genetically hard wired to be more aggressive than women? There's no research that I have done on the topic, it's just my feeling.

I can give you one personal example, but there have been other similar instances. Yes, I know, it is only anecdotal, but it illustrates my point.

I am a long time weekend road cyclist and week day into the CBD cycling commuter. Not long before covid hit I was out riding solo one weekend. A quiet country road near home, maybe a car passing every 10 minutes, plenty of room to pass without waiting. I was keeping hard left, not in the way at all. Travelling at about 30kmh. I heard a car approaching from behind. As it came closer, it slowed, to the precise speed that I was doing. It moved to about 6 inches behind my rear wheel then the car horn started blaring. Constantly. I didn't slow at first as I didn't want to be hit by the car and there was nowhere to pull over to, with trees growing along the road. About 40m later I was able to pull over, and then the car stopped, all the time still leaning on the horn. My aggression kicked in and once my bike went down and I rushed at him the driver realised what was about to happen and took off. There were bends in the road but after a minute I could hear his horn again so I chased hard and it looked like when he saw me coming he took off again. As I got closer I realised what he had been doing. There was a female rider on the side of the road, in tears and completely terrified. He had done to her what he had done to me, but her reaction was very different.

That, in a nutshell, says a lot to me about the behaviour of men and women. It's very unlikely a female would have done what the driver did. On speaking to many other riders, the consensus was that my reaction was normal and so was the female cyclist's.

To finish off, I didn't report the matter to the police. Either did the female cyclist. We know through experience that it is a waste of time.

shame you didnt get his number plate, thats attempted murder, what an arsehole

[think positive]

[think positive]

Testosterone vs Estrogen, but that's at best a contributory aspect not a causal one

i actually think there is a lot to this, knowing a man on hormone treatments who was weaned off them, and the testosterone is coming back, and man it makes PMT look like a walk in the park

[stui magpie]

Testosterone vs Estrogen, but that's at best a contributory aspect not a causal one

i actually think there is a lot to this, knowing a man on hormone treatments who was weaned off them, and the testosterone is coming back, and man it makes PMT look like a walk in the park

As I said, it's at best a contributory aspect.

Testosterone enhances aggression.

Alcohol impairs judgement and reduces inhibitions

Being drunk may be a contributory reason why someone does something bad or dumb but it's not an excuse, being loaded with testosterone doesn't counteract you knowing it's wrong to belt someone but doing it anyway.

[stui magpie]

Just as a point of interest, I've been speaking recently with some senior people in the Family Violence space. The workload of support workers has increased massively in the past few years and certainly so in the past 12 months.

That could be that violence has increased or it could be that victims appetite to report it and seek help has increased or both. Dunno.

Giving credit where it's due, this is actually a good initiative from the state government, typical bureaucratic issues notwithstanding.

https://orangedoor.vic.gov.au/

[David]

[think positive]

cheers mate, I certainly push back when others dont, and it aint always easy, or beneficial to my mental stability, but I dont see me changing, and hopefully, my children at least, will see the reasons I continue to say no instead of joining in. cheers xx