Mary Kay Cosmetics Company, a highly visible supporter of stopping domestic abuse, but only against women, has released information allegedly “directly linking” a rise in domestic “abuse” against women on the financial crisis.
The company’s source? A self-serving “survey” of domestic violence shelters who undoubtedly only serve women.
From the article:
The survey, which included 634 shelters nationwide, found that about 75 percent of shelters reported a rise in women seeking help from domestic abuse. Of those, 73 percent attributed the rise to “financial issues.”
Aside from the fact that there are now hundreds of reputable studies which show that women are just as likely as men to initiate domestic violence (in some instances, moreso) and that men suffer fully 1/3 of all injuries from domestic violence requiring documented medical attention, this is simply another highly visible entity continuing to perpetuate the myths and stereotypes surrounding the domestic violence problem.
Men and women are both victims of domestic violence. They are victims too often. Unfortunately, resource availability for male victims is very scarce while the same for women is rather plentiful. Mary Kay doesn’t seem to subscribe to that reality.
Reading further into the article you’ll find this:
One form of abuse to look out for in this downturn is economic abuse, which happens when a person in a relationship tries to domineer the spending or tightly regulate the couple’s cash flow.
Someone might, for instance, give a restrictive allowance or forbid opening a bank account.
This is one of too many examples of the ever-expanding definition of “abuse” in order to keep the reported numbers of “victims” as high as possible. In an economy as abysmal as this one, a reasonable person might define what is described above as “abuse” – as nothing more than budgeting.
Ask a woman that has allegedly been abused by a spouse or intimate partner if they were given a “restrictive” allowance in any economy, let alone one as pitiful as ours currently is – if they answer “yes” – they are now a victim of abuse. They are now a victim of “domestic violence.” They are now a victim of “economic abuse.”
Until situations and information such as is proffered in this article and disseminated by organizations like Mary Kay are objected to, vociferously and publicly, serious attention to domestic violence issues that affect all people, regardless of gender, will continue to fail.
For Full Article: Mary Kay Survey Alleges Link in Financial Problems & Domestic Abuse
