Street Roots • April 7-13, 2017
News
Page 9
ownership of a gun is a huge risk factor
lethal forms of intimate partner violence.”
Devaluing of women
Rebecca Nickels, executive director of
Call to Safety, formerly the Portland Women’s
Crisis Line, has been working with survivors
for over 20 years. Why domestic and sexual
violence happens is a question she’s been
thinking about for a long time - and she
believes the answer explains mass violence as
well.
“It happens because people think it’s OK to
hurt women and marginalized people, and
hat there’s less value on their lives,” Nickels
¡aid. “And so when I think about this
:onnection between mass shootings and
perpetrating domestic violence, it’s again,
vhen you have people who think that other
ives are less valuable, then you’re going to
lave violence. So anytime that we can see
:ommon factors of these people who have
committed this violence, I think we should be
really paying attention.”
This idea of devaluing the lives of women is
one that Nickels, Mankowski and Huffine,
three people working professionally against
domestic violence in different ways, agree is
rooted in what they call “toxic masculinity.
“It’s fairly widely accepted that the
significant driving cause of violence in general
and domestic violence in particular is
masculinity; it’s male socialization, Huffine
said. “You’re not born this way; you’re made
this way.”
Some of the most recognized aspects of
what is called toxic masculinity — dominance,
aggression, control — were apparent in
Carsen’s abuser.
“He had a thing where if I seemed a little
bit smarter than him or seemed a little more
inquisitive or something, he didn t like that,
she said. “He had to be in control of
everything. Not only of me, but even if I were
to correct him for something, in front of
people, or even correct him by ourselves.
Domestic violence can look very different
than the most stereotypical images of it.
Domestic violence occurs outside of
heterosexual relationships, and men can be
victims of this violence too. Yet,
Mankowski said it is vital not to leave the
gendered aspect of domestic violence by the
wayside. ,
“As women have broken through those
glass ceilings more, there’s a sense in which,
‘Well, there isn’t that much male power,
right? We’re all equal and gendered violence
is more equal. Men do it against women;
women do it against men,”’ he said. “If we
look at the impact of that violence and the
fear that people feel, and the injuries they
have, the violence against women is much
more severe.”
When people talk about ‘toxic masculinity,’
it might seem like something that men need
to fix in order to benefit women. While that s
a huge part of it, Mankowski said that toxic
masculinity is also harmful for men, who are
more likely to commit suicide, abuse
substances and die younger than women,
among other issues. Chipping away at this is
liberating for men as well as women, he said,
and the result would reduce interpersonal
violence and increase men’s health and well
being.
“If we could get outside of this confining,
very harmful box that we put ourselves in, of
(acting) dominant, powerful, stoic,
unemotional, nothing like a girl, don’t throw
like a girl, don’t act like a girl, don’t cry like a
girl, grow a pair, etc. — men have a lot to gain
by that,” Mankowski said.
■
■: i:' ? -
paperwork.
“The
woman at the
office asked what
happened,” Carsen said. “I
said, ‘Help me.’”
The woman got a car to come
around the back, took her out a different
entrance, and drove her to a safe house in a
different town. That afternoon she was on a
bus to Portland.
Carsen credits her escape to that woman at
the dry cleaners who saw the evidence of
abuse and reached out to help her. It was
someone in a workplace - not a service
provider or domestic violence advocate - who
was able to help Carsen finally escape her
abuser.
The workplace is one of the places that is
well-situated to provide support to survivors,
Mankowski said. He collaborated on an
Oregon Health and Science University study
that worked with employers in service
industries to raise their awareness and skills
in order to recognize and address domestic
violence that their employees may be
experiencing.
They worked with employers to develop
buy-in for this effort, focusing on everything
from relationships at work to their profit
What can we do?
margin, when they found that workplace time
Carsen’s abuser decided that he wanted
and resources were affected by domestic
her to get a job. She had been living with him
violence. For example, they found that
for almost four months when she got a call for
workplace vehicles were sometimes used by
an interview from a dry cleaning business.
abusers to surveil their partners, or abusers
He sent her to the interview under the
uncomfortable with their partner working
watchful eye of his ex-wife. He had split
would lie or coerce them in order to keep
Carsen’s lip with a boxcutter and beaten her
them away from work.
face so badly she said she was unrecognizable.
There have been many improvements, such
When she arrived for the interview, the
woman at the business asked Carsen to come
See VIOLENCE, page 13
upstairs to the office to go over the
CALL TO SAFETY
Offers “crisis intervention, emotional
support, information and referrals to other
services,” according to its website.
calltosafety.org
888-235-5333
ALLIES IN CHANGE
Offers “individual counseling, couples
counseling, and group counseling for men
and women struggling with a variety of
issues, including relationship issues,
rebuilding trust, anger, depression, stress,
anxiety, significant life transitions, PTSD,
as well as many other issues,” according to
its website.
alliesinchange.org
503-297-7979