Oh dear, Pericles, talk about "generalising from the particular". Sounds to me as though you have some unresolved issues with your brother.

Never mind, I'm sure you'd never let anything like personal experience affect your views...

Men Bash Women slap?
I want to be rude, include a true story again.
Small village three women too unwed one wed.
All rather friendly, nice looking well presented but well friendly.
Overly so, Husband? hand picked good in come fair home he owned and easy to control.
He was bashed, no not hit, often.
And made to go for long walks if the three girls wanted to entertain.
The happy trio broke up in time Husband lost his home to wife, but is not bashed any more, one of the singles found a man like her Friend moved away, wounder if she owns his house now?
Other two, time has not been kind.
Seems I must be stretching it, woman do not do things like that ask Queen Victoria.

"and anyway you're older, you should know better"

and that's one of the clinchers in this. Not just about size but there is a degree of paternalism in the issue where men are considered to "know better". In some minds women are considered less able to control their emotions and responses.

"Amazingly, he never got around to forming an Older Brother Victims Unit, where he could forever compare notes with other tormented big brothers, and where they would all whinge to their heart's content about how terribly unfair it was."

Perhaps if Pericles had ever been in the situation of having a physically violent spouse and seen how difficult it is to get support in getting the violence stopped or to leave and keep some of his life together he might be somewhat more understanding.

This isn't about kid's thinking the other gets a better deal, it's a very real situation where both parties are treated very differently, not just in minor issues but with significant consequences.

R0bert

Wrong way round as usual, Antiseptic.

>>Sounds to me as though you have some unresolved issues with your brother.<<

It is he who has the problem, not me. As you would expect, under the circumstances.

>>Never mind, I'm sure you'd never let anything like personal experience affect your views<<

Well you see, that's where you are wrong. The views I have expressed on this thread entirely reflect my personal experience. But I don't take one instance, one event, one issue, and use it to brand the entire category, as you have.

PERICLES I very much differ with you here, like or despise me I find you balanced poster, not on this subject however.
I am aware in other threads anti has been out there, but too that his style changed quite a bit.
In this thread he has sinned by? telling the truth.
Looking back at this thread in say 30 years some will look in wounder.
From about 1960 Male Female relationships have been in constant change.
The standard issue Australian working class family of that year no longer exists.
Husband out with the boys wife at home with the kids.
Women increasingly are leading the relation ships, a story told by one of Pauline Hanson's past husbands tells in part of that.
Thinking he was in a two way loving relation ship he came home and found her written plans to leave him, and just how much of his money she expected to take.
Your world may be different than mine, but it is far from rare in some rural areas,can it always be the man.
Men, hand picked as controllable, second husbands often, get bashed, not slapped bashed,sticks any tool at hand, for some a tool bought and kept for that reason.
Police, sometimes in the bush being entertained by the aggressor, act far less in women vs man assaults.
We today, are at the very start of a time we in this country must confront a growing concern, if in that 30 years as I hope and believe we will we are to see this real issue and resolve it.
In this country today a woman will win 2 out of 3 children's court battles even if it was them, not the man who is at fault.
Headlong race for feminism victory over men, not equality will back fire in time.

Pericles:"It is he who has the problem, not me."

Of course it is...

Pericles:"I don't take one instance, one event, one issue, and use it to brand the entire category"

Oh dear, and you probably won't even see the contradiction in your own comment. Never mind, at least Mum loves you more than your brother, eh? Or something like that. What exactly does your brother have to do with the topic again?

R0bert: "there is a degree of paternalism in the issue "

I'd say that there's a whole lot of paternalism. Or perhaps it's maternalism in some cases, such as Pericles's whine about his brother.

R0bert:"In some minds women are considered less able to control their emotions and responses."

That is the nub of the matter. Men are expected to act like adults, while women are allowed to behave like children with little consequence for the bad outcomes that behaviour may produce, secure in the knowledge that if there's a man involved, he's likely to be the one to bear any blame.