No real success with VAWA?
Once again I agree with Wendy McElroy, and I can see where she’s coming from, because I’ve seen what’s happening too.
I no longer dismiss the possibility that a new class of victim is being created, along with new cries for "gender justice" and appeals to government for even more legislation. For example, I never seem to hear a call to repeal laws from the men's movement. Even when the Violence Against Women Act was being hotly contested, I had little company in calling for its defeat. Most men's rights advocates called instead for the inclusion of the word "male" into that terrible and fundamentally unjust piece of legislation.
I was one of those who insisted on abolishing VAWA, not just tinkering with it. The whole premise is wrong, based on a naive, knee-jerk reaction to domestic violence, which unfortunately has lingered for three decades. It causes more problems that it solves. If indeed, it solves any problem at all, beyond the need for jobs for women’s studies graduates.
Another law that needs to be done away with is the Bradley amendment, as suggested not long ago by Phyllis Schlafly, another activist with whom I often agree. The Bradley amendment is at the heart of the problems we’re seeing men having with divorce and child custody.
Taken together, the removal of these bits of legislation that have been so damaging to people and their families would go a long way to restoring balance and promoting real equity for all under the law. Neither of them have anything to do with correcting any injustice; rather, they seem to be based more on concepts of revenge and retribution than anything else.
While it is true that both laws have established enormous amounts of bureaucracy, and prompted the establishment of an industry in the private sector correspondent in size, it doesn’t mean it has to be permanent. I’m sure the opponents of Prohibition thought it would be an impossible task to repeal that, especially since it came about as a Constitutional amendment.
Yet somehow, the idea of entirely removing these negative influences from the American landscape seems an impossible task to some. It is as if they believe that government intrusion in private life is to be expected, and can only be modified or redirected.
There’s also the question if those who simply refuse to give up; to let go of their initial complaint and move on to something else. We can see clearly in radical feminism there are those who will not ever be satisfied, no matter what changes in society transpire. This inability to accept success is evident in any kind of activism. I think people sometimes allow their activism to take over their lives, becoming an intrinsic part of their nature. Once the actual subject is dealt with, it’s too hard to break away from that and possibly face the thing that got them into their advocacy in the first place.
It’s as if without the fight, they have nothing else to live for.
I would hope there aren’t that many cases of this in the men’s movement; when I expressed my lack of enthusiasm for the new VAWA, all the e-mails I got agreed with me. Still, I think Wendy is right to be concerned. It seems to me that this initial success for the men’s movement is the wrong one.
If we start off being mollified with crumbs, maybe that will make it all the harder for the next round. Only time will tell.