What the hell, people?

[lliira]

CN: interfamilial violence, celebrity gossip

So Solange Knowles physically attacked her brother-in-law in an elevator. That's not what I'm going to talk about exactly, though. I'm going to talk about the comments about it on gossip sites.

What is with all these women saying that it's justified because Jay-Z cheats on Beyonce? I don't know if he does or doesn't, but cheating does not carry a "get your ass beat" penalty! 

I get to add this to my ever-growing collection of anecdotes that shows that feminists hold women to higher standards than anti-feminists do, though. There is a terrifying "you go girl!" strain in about half the comments I've seen, and none of them are from commenters I know are feminists. Jay-Z was not being physically violent. He's not holding his wife or her sister hostage -- unlike many victims of domestic violence, they could easily escape if they wanted to, assuming he was hurting them, and I have seen no evidence of that anyway. 

I'm not completely anti-violence. It is sometimes the best possible option out of a short list of terrible options. But I am absolutely anti-pointless violence. Being violent against your brother-in-law on a public elevator while his bodyguard and your sister are standing there is entirely pointless.

Many people are saying "what if the genders were reversed?" This is not an argument I usually like, as things are usually much more complicated than that. But in this instance, I'll take it.

Comments

[silveradept]

I think there's a strain that justifies the violence because they disapprove of the double standard that rains opprobrium on women if they are exposed as unfaithful but will let men be unfaithful without consequence. Therefore, any physical violence visited on a man from a woman over even the allegation of cheating is justified, because he would otherwise receive no punishment for his actions.