Woman abuse - entertainment or just the heterosexual system?

Big Brother Africa:
Man finally expelled for punching woman after activist pressure: www.bbc.co.uk...
(Note - some material may offend.)
Australia: www.metacafe.com...

In the latest Big Brother Africa a woman was beaten before the camera, and it took major protests by women's groups to get the culprit expelled.
Even then, some fans expressed their sympathy for the male abuser, arguing that in Uganda it is OK to beat a woman "gently".
In the West it was historically OK to beat a woman in areas, if the stick was no thicker than your thumb.
Arguably the Koran and other books allow a "disloyal" female to be admonished and beaten.

So, has heterosexuality radically changed, or is it still OK?
It's never been OK for some people, but that message is very diluted.

I think that you should mention that in the Australia link there is a brief video of possible sexual abuse, for those that might be sensitive to viewing that.

Peace, NRE.

Explanation: S&F!

Personel Disclosure: I too have heard that tale that its OK to beat your wife/women with a stick no bigger than your thumb... and that is the actually term used I believe [I could be wrong... please educate me if so.] and to me that means no thicker and NO LONGER than your thumb.

P.S. I'm sourcing more data and evidence to post here on the morality of this [IMO], but I just had to ask and see if my poorly informed concept is correct. Is it???

reply to post by halfoldman


I think it's just culturally more acceptable in some parts of the world.

From what I've read about various social issues, it seems that many African countries have cultural attitudes that were similar to the Western ones of around 50-100 years ago.

In some of the older Hollywood films, you will often see portrayals of casual violence towards women ( such as a man slapping a woman on the face ). I can only assume that this sort of behaviour was more common in the 1940s or 1950s.


I think that while attitudes in the West may have changed, some of the former colonies just continue with the cultural attitudes that were encouraged by their colonists.

reply to post by Sherlock Holmes

I'm not sure it's fair to pinpoint Africa.
I hear and see a lot of US and Western media on woman abuse.

Hannington Kuteesa punches a female contestant on big Brother.
Just reviewing some material, and what a punch it was:
www.jamiiforums.com...

Well Uganda made its feelings known on gender and especially homosexuals, and the DRC are doing the same - and misogynist, homophobic US pastors are having a field day in Africa.

But the tide will turn one day, and we we will rise against injustice.

reply to post by halfoldman

Something from the West: www.youtube.com...
Can it still be?
I had hoped that ended in the 1980s.

reply to post by halfoldman

In the West it was historically OK to beat a woman in areas, if the stick was no thicker than your thumb. Arguably the Koran and other books allow a "disloyal" female to be admonished and beaten. So, has heterosexuality radically changed, or is it still OK? It's never been OK for some people, but that message is very diluted.

Unfortunately, it looks as though you are using a very sad and unfortunate incident to further some point... though it escapes me as to what that may be.

People are cruel... people of all genders, all races, all political slants and all sexual preferences. It is part of the human condition and is not limited to any one sector thereof. Females can be quite cruel but because of the massive difference in physical strength, it is the male who has the greater opportunity to be noticed doing something inherent to the entire species.

Stereotyping does no one a bit of good.

Originally posted by halfoldman
I'm not sure it's fair to pinpoint Africa.
I hear and see a lot of US and Western media on woman abuse.

I wasn't really pointing a finger at Africa, I was just commenting, that from what I've read, many of the cultural attitudes in former colonies seem to be similar to those of their colonial powers about 50-100 years ago.

My comment wasn't intended to necessarily be a criticism, just an observation.

The difference between the levels of abuse towards women in the West, is that it's generally frowned upon by society at large, whereas from what you've said about this incident in the South African big brother house, it seems that there had to be quite a fight to have something done about this.

Originally posted by halfoldman
Well Uganda made its feelings known on gender and especially homosexuals, and the DRC are doing the same - and misogynist, homophobic US pastors are having a field day in Africa.

But the tide will turn one day, and we we will rise against injustice.

Yes, I was also thinking of strong anti-homosexual feeling in some of these countries, that is similar to that seen in the West a few decades ago.

reply to post by redoubt

I'd say it is some males getting away with it because of the whole gender set-up.
How often do families close ranks and protect the male abusers?
Yeah, and so what, I do have a vantage point, maybe even an agenda.
Like you don't.

reply to post by Sherlock Holmes

I hear you.
But are you saying woman abuse in the West stopped 100 years ago?
But yeah what is going on here does seem stronger by degree, although I'm not sure.
I'd like to think anti-woman violence is at least less brazen in the US - but then I see Mel Gibson.

not too be a jerk, but who cares...I didn't even know that show was still on.
2nd line

reply to post by Target Earth

That reiterates the problem.
As a global family we surely should care.
And exporting human rights and democracy should matter, and not just exporting pastors preaching minority forms of religion that are rejected in their own countries.
What happened to the dream of equality for all?

reply to post by redoubt

You raise some points on the issue, and thanks!
However, I wonder:

People are cruel... people of all genders, all races, all political slants and all sexual preferences. It is part of the human condition and is not limited to any one sector thereof. Females can be quite cruel but because of the massive difference in physical strength, it is the male who has the greater opportunity to be noticed doing something inherent to the entire species. Stereotyping does no one a bit of good.

In that case we might as well accept abuse and torture.
Hey, maybe it's part of the culture and we shouldn't stereotype.

Sometimes it seems to me in the past decades of my life the excuse was "I only did what I was told".
Nowadays the excuse is: "It's my culture, so don't stereotype me".

THe world went to hell in a handbasket once women got the vote. That's why so many FAGGS are now in positions of power & we have to put up with there wimpy soft-cock BS.

Originally posted by halfoldman
I hear you.
But are you saying woman abuse in the West stopped 100 years ago?

No, I don't think that abuse towards women has stopped in the West, it's just that it's not considered to be generally acceptable today.

A typical sort of scene you might see in an older film, is a female character getting upset or hysterical, so the man slaps her on the face to make her ''snap out of it'' !

These sort of scenes make me wince when I see them, yet considering how censored films were a few decades ago, I can only assume that this sort of behaviour was deemed to be appropriate not too long ago.

Originally posted by halfoldman
But yeah what is going on here does seem stronger by degree, although I'm not sure.
I'd like to think anti-woman violence is at least less brazen in the US - but then I see Mel Gibson.

The violence against women in the US may well be on the same level as it is in some African countries, but I think the difference is the general attitude that society has towards it.

In the West, wife-beaters are usually thought of quite lowly, and if a ''celebrity'' is caught hitting his wife or girlfriend, then it makes negative news headlines.

Of course, I'm not saying that everyone in Africa approves of violence against women, but the fact of the matter is that people are hugely influenced by the prevalent social attitudes that were around when they were growing up.

reply to post by acrux

Yeah, I bet your type just wants to knock some sense into us women and "Faggs".
Are you actually proud of posting something like that?

reply to post by Sherlock Holmes

Thanks Sherlock Holmes, always a pleasure reading your posts.
We could nit-pick a bit more here, but I'm so upset by a previous post that methinks there are real pigs to fry.

Especially with cultural relativity and all it is hard to compare Africa and other places, and it is indeed difficult, because there are horror stories everywhere.
Even hardcore feminists are divided or very cautious on how they approach African gender rights, or issues like female circumcision.
Just to mention, in my OP I had a clip on Big Brother in Australia (in a Western setting), and that seems to attract no interest. Not sure if it's true, but I sometimes feel Western people would rather displace gender problems on Africa (at least subconsciously) - perhaps a form of denial?
Africa is not moving from a traditional to a postmodern milieu in most cases, there is a lot of interference.

reply to post by halfoldman


It's pathetic that it took activist pressure for the hand to come down on the guy doing the abuse.

I have absolutely NO sympathy for him. I do not care if your culture condones it. This is one of the reasons how culture can be negative and detrimental to human development. When the culture refuses to evolve, then it becomes a crutch.

Originally posted by Sherlock Holmes

No, I don't think that abuse towards women has stopped in the West, it's just that it's not considered to be generally acceptable today.

A typical sort of scene you might see in an older film, is a female character getting upset or hysterical, so the man slaps her on the face to make her ''snap out of it'' !

These sort of scenes make me wince when I see them, yet considering how censored films were a few decades ago, I can only assume that this sort of behavior was deemed to be appropriate not too long ago.

And what do you see in films today? Women slapping men for little to no reason. Something that would appaul the general population in the East. We've evolved so much over here in the West .

It's like the Atlantic Ocean is the gender-equality centerpoint that everyone touts but nobody can seem to achieve.

Originally posted by halfoldman
We could nit-pick a bit more here, but I'm so upset by a previous post that methinks there are real pigs to fry.

My personal view is to ignore those kind of posters and don't let them bother me - they usually go away.

Originally posted by halfoldman
Just to mention, in my OP I had a clip on Big Brother in Australia (in a Western setting), and that seems to attract no interest. Not sure if it's true, but I sometimes feel Western people would rather displace gender problems on Africa (at least subconsciously) - perhaps a form of denial?
Africa is not moving from a traditional to a postmodern milieu in most cases, there is a lot of interference.

I think you may be right on this.

There's a general attitude that insidiously permeates in the West, whereby people will criticise certain things that go on in other countries, but don't like to accept that similar things go on in their own country, or in the West, as a hole.