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Sounds like that book takes the heteronormative approach that abusers are always men and victims always women. That's problematic because it erases gay victims,
by klipt 7y ago
Sounds like that book takes the heteronormative approach that abusers are always men and victims always women. That's problematic because it erases gay victims, lesbian victims, and straight male victims, all of whom already have even less cultural and legal support as victims than straight female victims do.
- wpietri 7y agoThe book in fact addresses that point. The author was a DV counselor in court-ordered programs. The vast majority of the people he saw were straight men, so he wrote what he knew. He's not erasing anything.
- klipt 7y agoI doubt many lesbian or straight male victims would assume they'd be helped by a book called "why does he do that" when they were abused by shes.
- wpietri 7y agoSure. That's good because they shouldn't assume that. The author isn't assuming that either; as I said, he wrote what he knew and was clear on that. I'm sure he'd be thrilled if other people wrote books covering the things he didn't know enough to cover. That said, some GLBT people have said they find the book valuable. Even as a straight man, I found it very useful, and not just domestically. Abuser psychology doesn't just come out in romantic relationships; for example, it was great in helping me see what was going on with an abusive boss. I walked out of a terrible meeting saying, "What the hell just happened?" Later I had an inkling, so I opened up to the chapter on abuser types. In one meeting, the boss hit 80% of the characteristics of the "Mr Right" type.