Gender Equality vs. Battle of the Sexes

Re “A Thousand Proverbs Later, It’s Still a Brutality,” Commentary, April 20: Mineke Schipper, albeit good with proverbs, is unfortunately quite ignorant about domestic violence. After quoting old proverbs about women, she says “the threat of violence against women still looms large.” But she neglects to mention that women initiate domestic violence about as often as men do.

Cal State Long Beach maintains a bibliography that summarizes 150 scholarly investigations, with an aggregate sample size exceeding 100,000, consistently finding that “women are as physically aggressive, or more aggressive, than men in their relationships with their spouses or male partners.”

Domestic violence is a human problem, not a gender problem. And as long as we rely on proverbs, myths and stereotypes instead of serious research to address it, we will only continue to mislead the public about a serious social problem and will never reach real solutions toward ending it.

Marc Angelucci

President, National Coalition of Free Men

Los Angeles

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Schipper neglected to quote these selections from the Book of Proverbs, which every observant Jewish husband reads to his wife on Friday evening:

“A woman of valor, who can find? Her price is far above rubies. The heart of her husband trusts in her ... she will do him good and not evil, all the days of her life ... she stretches forth her hands to the poor, and reaches out to the needy ... strength and honor are her clothing and she shall rejoice in time to come ... she opens her mouth with wisdom and in her tongue is the law of kindness ... her children rise up and call her blessed and her husband also; he praises her” (Proverbs 31:10-31, selected).

I guess this makes the Bible a radical feminist document.

Rabbi Ronald Levine

Van Nuys

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Not until women stop seeing themselves, and their self-worth, through men’s eyes will the cycle of abuse and violence stop. Not until girls stop exposing their bodies to offer themselves to men’s basest instincts will the cycle of violence and abuse stop.

Accepting the gender differences without competition will go a long way toward a self-confidence that will not rely on a battle for superiority.

Stephany Yablow

North Hollywood