Carolyn N. Kinder
Among chimpanzees every adult male is dominant to every adult female, and he enjoys his dominance. The female chimpanzee moves out of the male chimp’s way and acknowledges him with the appropriate gesture or risks punishment. For a lack of acknowledgement, a female chimp may be chased up a tree. If she is on the ground, she might be pulled, kicked, hit, and dragged. This is just to remind her that she has to respect the males the next time.
Male violence and male dominance over females have long been a part of our history and is also seen among chimpanzees. Chimpanzees fight each other to become alpha males, because alpha males have access to female at their most fertile time. Females advertise their estrous period with genital swelling, seeing this; males congregate and compete intensely for copulation at that time. 6
When a female chimpanzee has her monthly sexual swelling, she is subject to being herded and attacked by males. She has to dodge the noisy, dangerous fights of males challenging each other. She looks emotionally stressed, spends little time eating and suffers many wounds. She is vulnerable to male power, and pays a high price for advertising her fertility. 7 But through the fighting, her children will probably be fathered by the dominant males thus inheriting good genes.
Male violence and male abuse of power are undeniable facts of our lives. Their effects are felt by women and children worldwide. However, in human group affairs, males who dominate females and this often manifests itself as violence against females, traditionally has been resolved in favor of men. This happens because males are able to control power so effectively over females. . Male battering of women is one of the most devastating forms of violence, but not the only form. Most experts agree that a battered woman is one whose life is thoroughly, extensively, and completely controlled by a man and her behavior is changed to suit a man’s desires while they have a relationship with each other.
More devastating than battering is rape. For example, rape involves the total violation of a woman’s body, mind and spirit, when we listen to women and take them seriously, the effects of rape is demoralizing. However, battering is more common than rape and is accepted as normal in many societies. Battering, rape and other forms of violence are debilitating long after the act itself. Moreover, what is almost as horrifying as battering and rape is how common it is in our culture. One in 2.5 women is a victim of sexual assault in her lifetime. One in three females is sexually abused before age eighteen.
In the past few years, there has been an increased awareness of the violent acts that have been committed against women and are still taking place today. Men batter women because, in the short term, it works; i.e., the violence temporarily stops a woman from doing what threatens or challenges men’s authority. Men batter women because they can get away with it. Until recently, men could batter women without experiencing consequences, such as her leaving or their arrest, prosecution, conviction and sentencing. Most men know that no matter who starts the fight, they can generally overpower a woman. And finally, men have been socialized to believe they have the right and the privilege to dominate and control women. Physical force (battering and rape) are the extremes to which men resort, if necessary to maintain that control. When it is said men batter because they can get away with it and it “works,” this is describing some of the workings of patriarchy, a system of male control over women, and a system of male privilege.
To talk about male privilege, it means talking about ones self from the perspective of the other. Male privilege is a reality for the male in terms of it is just the way things are. Boys in particular may feel a socio-cultural pressure to act tough and not express their feelings in a calm way. Men often don’t even realize that they are acting in an unjust or damaging way. Males often take their dominance for granted and their use of violence as natural.