Thursday, February 12, 2015

You can't beat a pregnant woman

The other day in class, Iris mentioned something about the societal thought that you can't hit a pregnant woman. That idea rubs me the wrong way because, as usual, it shows that in our society an unborn baby's life is valued way more than a woman is. Shouldn't we just not hit a woman simply because SHE'S A PERSON? Why do we have to wait until she's pregnant to get all bent out of shape about beating her?

7 comments:

Unknown said...

Okay, yesterday in class I personally got kinda confused about this too. Like "there's a fine line where beating your wife is unacceptable" seems completely ridiculous to me. A husband shouldn't beat a wife, and a wife shouldn't beat a husband. It's as simple as that. I know that there will be instances when a shove or something will be thrown by either partner; however, this is very different from beating each other as well. I also think that the pregnancy simply makes it worse, it isn't saying that beating the wife is okay, it just makes it even worse since there is a completely innocent life on the line (see scenario that unfolded in Gone Girl). However, people probably should just avoid abuse in general.

Unknown said...

I agree with both of y'all that beating anyone is bad. All I was trying to say is that there is a difference between one adult beating another adult and one adult beating another adult who happens to be carrying an innocent human being in her body. Both cases are instances of great evil. The difference is the degree of evil. Different degrees of infinity.

Sri Korrapati said...

Society is really bad about this. They say you should never hit a girl but society seems to be okay with hitting a guy. Why is this not equal? But hitting a pregnant women is the worse but you could possibly be murdering a baby

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

Agreed, Mrs. Quinet even mentioned in class that there are two lives at stake.The baby, however, cannot protect himself. I think that's why people get bent out of shape about it. The pregnant woman can, hypothetically, defend herself if she was attacked. A baby, however, cannot and must rely on someone else to protect him/her. I'm not saying it's right, and I do agree with y'all that all lives matter. Hitting someone who can't defend themselves seems more terrible than hitting someone who can, which is why hitting a pregnant woman is terrible and hitting a woman in general might appear less severe. I don't agree with it, but perhaps this is how society sees it in a backwards way.

Unknown said...

I think we can all agree that abusing a pregnant woman is a terrible thing to do. As is abusing anything, not just people. That said, I don't look at this at all as a sex/sexism issue, just like Sri. Women can and do get arrested for domestic abuse, as 24% of all reported domestic abuse cases are initiated by the wife. Men, comprising the lion's share of that percentage, do tend to be aggressive, stubborn, and therefore more likely to take unfair advantage of their (on average) physiogically larger stature. Pregnancy clearly makes the matter that much more awful due to the fact that two lives, one entirely defenseless, are at risk. Regardless of how you view it, abuse is abuse and should not be committed against man or any animal.

Unknown said...

I agree with what Joe is saying. While females definitely can be abusers, in the great majority of cases the perpetrators are men. The reason there is such a stigma on beating women is not only because of their role as mothers but also because (in the past especially) women are often brought up to be dependent on men and are often physically weaker. Thus women are often grouped with other vulnerable groups, such as the elderly, the sick, and children. Hurting any of these groups is especially terrible because they are at such a huge disadvantage when fighting back.