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In Reply to: Re: reeling still, too posted by romantic reflections on March 03, 2003 at 10:16:03:
As long as a person keeps an open mind and not discounting other possibilities, there is learning, otherwise there is blindness. A good exercise to avoide this situation is to look at other possibilities and work at them to see if they are so - in this case, some rival hypothesis to yours that gender differences will explain abuse.
I wouldn't dispute that the family there was a patriarchal society where males and male-like figures had the upper hand (hey! it is almost biblical) but for the case at hand of looking at the effects of perverse doctrines of abuse, desire of power is not confined to one gender alone. So what expplains better then? Testosterone levels, brain power, survival instincts, etc. These are difficult to measure and possibly even related to gender lines but still something that needs demonstration other than just the easy answer that "males are more agressive than females". If we knew the answer to what the best descriptors are we wouldn't be having this conversation, which points to the fact that it is an open question. As the passanger told the communist driver who insisted to drive the car on the left-side of the road in Interstate 10: "Let's not be guided by ideology but by facts".
