The Face Slap – Our Unspoken Tolerance Of Violence and Sexism

[MadrasT]

87. I don't think people should hit other people.

Last edited Sat Mar 16, 2013, 10:30 AM - Edit history (1)

I just finished watching all 9 seasons of All in the Family on DVD. There are numerous scenes where Gloria gets worked up and smacks or pinches Archie or Mike and the audience bursts into laughter. It isn't funny to me and I don't like other similar depictions of it on TV and in movies.

I have never seen anyone get hit in real life* (except myself, I got slapped across the face by a boyfriend a couple times years ago).

From that experience, I can tell you that my upset did not come from the pain of the (fairly mild) slap across the face. My upset came from knowing that he was willing to cross the line into physical violence, and being 6'1" and outweighing me by 100 lbs, he could KILL me if he chose to take the physical violence up a notch.

Of course, that was his "message" when he did it.

A woman slapping a man doesn't come with the delivery of that extra "message": "Fall into line or I will seriously hurt or kill you."

People shouldn't hit other people anyway.

It isn't funny.



*Edit to add... there was that one time my husband slugged the neighbor guy... or the neighbor guy slugged him... over some stupid neighbor dispute... I can't remember, but they both seemed to know instantly after the first punch that shouldn't have happened and it didn't escalate. Other than the incidents I described here, I am just not around people who think physical violence is ever OK.