This is a blog by Keith Davis published by the AIM Network on August 17, 2019. I read it today, and I also read the 32 replies that were published by the AIM Network.
Keith Davis wants “equality, and an end to violence against women in our society!”
Among other things Keith asks: “Who, on average, kills one Australian woman each and every week of each and every year of each and every decade?”
These killings of course are a terrible crime. So, we know, these killings are mostly done by men. But what actually drives some men to commit murder? Is it a power game? Do they want to show that they have more power than a woman by resorting to killing or to some kind of abuse? In what cases do women have the power to defend themselves?
Is it a matter of feelings, of not being able to cope with angry feelings? But then, what makes such men feel so much anger?
Do men in general feel a need to show dominance over a woman? In our day and age, where women rightly strive for equality between the sexes, can some men just find it too hard to grant a woman ‘equal’ rights?
Many different circumstances may result in violance against women in our society. Apart from violent behaviour, which on the whole might be the exception, I ask myself, where, oh where, do we find an understanding between men and women? My experience tells me, it does exist. In some cases maybe it does not exist permanently. Divorces in our society are quite common, aren’t they? I reckon a vast number of reasons may lead to divorce. On top of it maybe a significant number of women these days do not want to commit themselves to marriage because they aim for absolute indepedence.
This gender equality thing, does it lead some women to want to be so independent that any relationship apart from a ‘platonic’ relationship is out of the question? Maybre some of these women prefer to become lesbians? But even in a lesbian relationship one of the partners would have to become more or less dominant, or not?
Maybe a sexual relationship can be over-valued. I mean it is beautiful when it happens and when it is mutually satifying. But for people with this strive for independence and no inclination to want to raise children, maybe they are better off without a sexual relationship or possibly a very casual relationship if you can rely on the partner to be right with this. If not, it may lead to a lot of complications or a break-up of a great friendship!
AuntyUta 
Uta…I have left a reply on that article.. On empathy and sympathy.
In these days of the news of so much brutality in many places in the world, of domestic violence, military massacres or social collapse in far away places or here in our own backyard, it may appear self-indulgent and facile to shed a tear or two for the loss of a domestic pet when we can but turn our gaze away from the hurt of humanity. An indulgence of sympathy some would say.
But there is the thing about a knowledge of love and affection. I believe we as humans are born with the innocence of love already in our self, while affection is a thing that can grow in our hearts..There is the interpretation that affection can be a stepping stone toward love..which is true, I’d say, but love is not a learned thing but a indelible emotion of the human spirit..to be capable of love is to be human.
The same with empathy and sympathy..With all those suffering peoples we see every day on the news, there is both empathy and sympathy..I would say that the combination of those emotions as between the separation of those emotions is the major difference between the Right and the Left persuasions of societies…:
“To sum up the differences between the most commonly used meanings of these two terms: sympathy is feeling compassion, sorrow, or pity for the hardships that another person encounters, while empathy is putting yourself in the shoes of another.”
I recently finished a project I have been working on in fits and starts for many a year…the result gives little evidence of that time..and perhaps the quality of the finished product may be viewed as a wasted effort on my part!…But it had to be written..and some of you have read it to which I am very grateful…after all, it was directed to be read.
It is the story of the Italians interned in the 2nd. WWar to cut and burn mallee here near the Murray River..and the “play”..which I called a “reading opera” …”A Ukulele Opera” ..: https://freefall852.wordpress.com/ describes a microcosm of their situation in those camps…The “opera” starts and finishes with a character named “Gemano” who is lamenting for his fiancé who he left behind in Italy when he came to Australia (with my father) to start a new life and then to go and marry the lady and bring her to Oz to start a family…It was a true event..But the war broke out and he heard nothing of her…whether she be alive or like so many millions more..dead..what were the odds?…Yet he held out with a belief and conviction that she lives…for five years!..five years of despair and internment…and then came the letter of joy…
In these days of “instant gratification”, how many can hold onto a desire or a commitment a person to love or hold affection with for more than a “clickbait” moment?….We seem to live in a time more of “want” than desire…
Which brings us to the love of our pets and the loss felt at their parting. With the death of a pet, in most cases we are there at the dying, we touch the body and witness the fading life and say a gentle goodbye with the stroke of the fur..or a gentle twist of the pet’s ear or some other favourite touch or word..I would think, in that moment of death, we are MORE in sympathy to that loss of mute, innocent love with the parting than with the empathy of the loved one. But once we are parted from that unconditional continuity of mutual company and aware of that loss of mutual confederacy between two close companions…I believe we then feel the sympathy of camaraderie so much that the weld of empathy to sympathy can become seamless, a stepping stone from affection to love is complete and that knowledge learned through the companionship of our love toward a pet takes over as instinctive behaviour into our adult relationships between fellow citizens, is what guides decent and civilized attitudes toward our fellow humans no matter WHAT their circumstances. And it is fairly said that one can judge a person by their treatment of their pets or animals. It is a pity our leadership cannot seem to travel far enough down this route to become civilized barbarians!
“empathy is putting yourself in the shoes of another”
Joe, thanks for your comment. I went to The AIMN to make a comment about this . . . .
I saw and replied..
Uta…any suggestions as to whom on The AIMN this may portray?
“Patrick White saw through all of our empty social kindness decades ago. His 1963 play *A Cheery Soul*, set in a fictional 1950s Sydney suburb that’s all repression and politeness, blows up all the myths we might have then possessed – and still possess even now – about the ways we treat each other.
Miss Docker shuffles around Sarsaparilla with her sticky beak and overbearing opinions,always the first to put her hand up to help. In the play, the phrase “she’s such a cheery soul” has the razorblade shape backhand of a “bless your heart”: Miss Docker is suffocating her fellow residents with her helpfulness, smothering them with her suggestions, and has a habit of leaving a trail of distressed people in her wake.”
regs…J.
This is great drama, “leaving a trail of distressed people”, isn’t it?
Yes, there are people with “a sticky beak and overbearing opinions.”
I am sorry that my diary of last night turned out to be full of ‘typos’.
“any suggestions as to whom on The AIMN this may portray?”
Sorry, Joe, I couldn’t say.
Yes…it bedevils me as well!
Joe, right now I came across one of your comments you made some three months ago:
“And I can make a passing observation that in the stakes of dominance, while we males have this bastard group of what are called “Alpha Males” giving the gender such a bad name with their self-opionated hegemony over gender behaviour, we also have a certain amount (if not yet equal) of “Alpha Females” who would like to dominate their gender and steer them in equal viciousness alongside and in competition with their male counterparts.”
This subject interests me, Joe. Sure, there is this group of Alphas ( either male or female) who do give Alphas a bad name. I think, what we do need, is Alpha people that are honest and fair leaders! Wouldn’t you agree? 🙂
Reblogged this on AuntyUta and commented:
I, Uta, just read this blog again as well as all the comments! 🙂
I find, it is such an interesting subject. This is why I want to reblog it now! 🙂