Exactly. I cannot push back against a redpill narrative with credibility if I ignore what the research says. For me it was important to highlight just how statistics can be abused to present a twisted narrative of who is violent. Just counting slaps and hits give a very wrong idea of the nature of violence as I discussed in the article and you highlighted as well.
Very good point about access to weapons and tools which should give any women interested in sever physical damage plenty of options. Yet they generally don't take advantage of that.
I do think for simple evolutionary reasons us men will always be a lot more violent than women. However there are ways of channeling that propensity in health ways. That is where cultural condition plays a role.
For instance I am a typical male in that I love violent video games. My favorite activity as a child was play fighting (essentially wrestling). I also love guns and competitive board games. Here in Norway I think feminism early on made the mistake of trying to change this aspect about men. I don't think the right approach is to somehow try to change men into women. We are not wired that way.
I got a son that love toy guns and shooting games. Just as I did. What I think is essentially is teaching empathy of others. I never hurt anyone physically out of anger. I feel physically ill seeing other people get hurt. Real people. Not video game characters.
And you see this with many people who used to be violent towards others like Mike Tyson. They got him into boxing and helped him control it. So you see how they didn't stop him from channeling physical aggression but they taught him to manage it and use it productively.
This is my belief in how to tackle male aggression and propensity for violence. Have society focus on building empathy among men and get men to channel their need for aggression into sports and competitions rather than hurting people for real.
To reduce violence against women, I think you need to teach men to humanize women. I strongly believe that is a lot about getting men to interact more with women and know them better.
In the Norwegian military we do something that sounds crazy. Men and women share rooms. You would think that would increase sexual violence, but it actually reduced it. By being around and working with women regularly they develop are relationship that feels more like brothers and sisters. And men will protect their sisters against others trying to do things against them.
Our system does still fail. I have seen sexual assault problems not taken serious enough in our military. But when I read about the US military it seems so much worse there.
Anyway I thin there is something to this thinking. Creating arenas for men and women to interact and get to know each other better. Place value on empathy as a virtue. Today I think people have too much pride in their cynicism.
The redpill push to make sure women and men aren't friends is so toxic. More friendships should be the key to less conflict. At least that is my belief.
