Insight: There is no excuse for hitting a woman

The reason I brought this up is not only because it needs to be addressed but also because I once saw a man hit the daylights out of his woman in public—considering the size of the guy, there was not a thing I could do but look at other people for help! In my honest opinion it is cowardice to beat a woman or beat anyone who does not share that kind of strength. What kind of man raises his fist to a woman anyway? I don’t care how nagging a woman can be or what buttons she pushed to send a man to that point; it is simply not done. Ever heard of walking away? Women can be unfeasible; everybody knows that and that is why I don’t understand polygamists. It is tough enough to cope with one woman but more than three women is enough to drive any sane man to his limits! However, that doesn’t justify why any man would lay a finger on a woman. I don’t mean to stereotype but there is almost something dangerously wrong about men with too much charm. There is an increasing number of cases on the internet of women fooled into meeting up with Prince Charming only to discover that the handsome 30-year-old gentleman they met is a serial batterer with a desire to presume she’s a punching bag every chance he gets. Are women really that gullible? The sorry queues of subjugated women all over the world seem to support that idea. I don’t know if it’s the relentless gnawing away at our ego from the moment we pop out of the womb or the dedicated lifelong pandering of many mothers to the male ego, even enshrined in the law of some cultures, which happens as soon as men make an appearance? What I do know is that women beaters do it with some sort of ‘it is my right to do this’ attitude. Legendary singer Tina Turner’s true story of her rise to fame in the movie What’s Love Got To Do With It, I thought was the most appalling thing I’d ever seen. It was so ugly that I ended up hating the actor who played her husband Ike Turner, Academy Award nominee for that exact role, Lawrence Fishburne. This woman suffered not only the depression of being married to a cocaine addict, but also the near death battering and actual rape that he would inflict on her. I never even thought it possible for a man to rape his own wife! He was not an animal but a monster at its purest evil! The last fight took a deathly turn when she decided she had had enough and wasn’t going to be a punching bag no more. She was done with the public humiliation he put her through simply because he’s ego had been tramped on ever since he helped her rise to fame then watch her soar; making him look like a karaoke case! Had she not broken free when she did, we probably would have never enjoyed the great work she has done over the years. Breaking free from an abusive partner is not exactly easy but it is so worth the trouble if we want to avoid a situation where spouses are killing each other. Real men do not hit women. It is simply the way it is and the way it should always be. What women need is some realistic, down-to-earth, hard-hitting education. We need a few classes to teach us the realities of relationships and bringing up children, well before we find ourselves in the kitchen with an irritated screaming baby banging its fists on its high chair and an even more irritated screaming husband banging his fists on us. rachelgaruka@yahoo.co.uk