Oprah

[Ed62]

I rarely watch TV, but my wife was watching Oprah this morning, and she had a woman guest who had been in an abusive marriage. I don't remember how long she was married, but she endured physical and emotional abuse for 10 years. The man forced her children to watch, and videotape the abuse, some of which was aired. Finally, she felt like she had to get out or she would be dead within the next week. Without going into a lot of detail, I'll only say that her husband got 38 years in prison. I actually felt like crying when I watched the program. They say that 1 out of 4 women are abused.

Ed

[LCHIEN]

...They say that 1 out of 4 women are abused.

Ed

I must not be doing my 25%.

Seriously, I wonder how many woman put themselves in this situation. Not to blame them but is there some pyschological component that allows this?

All the plots I see on TV show clingy women who hang and make excuses for their miserbale excuse for a SO despite abuse. Is this a true thing or do the TV Shows (yes, I know) exaggerate?

[Ed62]

My wife is a retired registered nurse, and she has seen this in the hospital. She took care of one woman whose husband had shot her several times in the back. When she was recovering after surgery, my wife asked her why she didn't leave the situation. Her reply was "If I only knew what I was doing wrong...". Her husband picked her up from the hospital when she was released.

It seems that a lot of the battered women (most?) actually think it's their fault.

Ed

[cgallery]

I am a fan of the show Cops. I've often noticed when the police are responding to domestic violence calls that both the man and woman were having heated words. That is, there are a certain # of women that give as much as they take, up to the point that fists start flying (in which case they are no match for the size and strength of a man).

I think a large percentage of those women tend to take some responsibility for their own actions and don't lay all the blame at the feet of their husband/boyfriend. So I'm not entirely surprised they go back. And I'm not surprised it happens again and again.

OTOH, there are men that will lay a beating on a woman if the mash potatoes came from a box. In many of those cases I think the women that stay in that relationship honestly see few alternatives.

Unfortunate in either regard, as the violence is often witnessed by young children (not to mention that beatings hurt).

[LCHIEN]

My wife is a retired registered nurse, and she has seen this in the hospital. She took care of one woman whose husband had shot her several times in the back. When she was recovering after surgery, my wife asked her why she didn't leave the situation. Her reply was "If I only knew what I was doing wrong...". Her husband picked her up from the hospital when she was released.

It seems that a lot of the battered women (most?) actually think it's their fault.

Ed

i think maybe that's part of the problem - the battered women have very low self-esteem.