one out of four
In a recent class discussion about homophobia, a man informed the classroom that women who identify as queer or lesbian do so as a result of being abused by a man at some point in their lives. He said that these bad experiences with men pushed women over some well-defined edge into a world where men were no longer significant or prevalent.
It made me think about all of the women in my life, queer or not. I was hard-pressed to think of any woman who had never been abused. Only a small percentage of those women are queer.
The statistic many cling to is that one out of four women are abused at some point in their lives, but I’d be willing to bet money that 2 of the remaining 3 are too afraid to admit that it happened to them too.
May 14, 2009 at 1:13 am
i’ve been trying to compose a comment for the past ten minutes, but i’m having trouble figuring out what to say… except that i thank you for sharing this, cuz it’s something that i think about a lot.
yes, most of my queer friends have been abused by men. also, most of my straight friends have been abused by men: like you said.
aside from the usual “you don’t look queer” comments, people tell me that i’m not really queer because i don’t have any huge history of violence at the hands of men. ha! the funny thing is, if anything pushed me over “into a world where men were no longer significant or prevalent”, it was the loving feminist father who told me i could do anything i wanted!
great post.
September 29, 2009 at 12:12 am
It’s funny…that he’s just a dick cause he was born that way.