February 27, 2013

Lesbians and domestic disputes

Lesbian-feminists have long made an industry out of leading women's Fight against Domestic Violence, but you also seem to stumble across police blotter items like this fairly often:

From the AP:
Holdsclaw Indicted on Aggravated Assault Charge

ATLANTA (AP) — Prosecutors say former WNBA player and Olympic gold medalist Chamique (shuh-MEE'-kwuh) Holdsclaw is being indicted in a November 2012 shooting. 
Fulton County District Attorney's spokeswoman Yvette Jones said Wednesday that a six-count indictment charges the 35-year-old with aggravated assault, criminal damage and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. 
Holdsclaw was arrested after an argument with former Tulsa Shock player Jennifer Lacy, who told police she was Holdsclaw's ex-girlfriend. The two were also Atlanta Dream teammates in 2009. Police say Holdsclaw broke the windows to Lacy's car and shot at it. No one was injured. 

Is there much quantitative evidence for this impression that the cops get called in disproportionately over lesbian domestic disputes? And, if there is, why?

43 comments:

  1. Tessa Hadley's bitchin' first lit fiction novel "Accidents in the Home" throws in a little gratuitous lesbian domestic abuse for the spice.

    The main storyline is a superb psychological portrait of an hypergamous trainwreck. If she were a man, she'd get roasted for writing this stuff.

    I've read her first three of now four novels, and the first of two short story collections. I'm not sure she'll create a true masterpiece (her long form method seems to be skewing against dramatic closure, a brilliant but infuriating sort of tease as in her second novel, "Everything Will Be All Right"), but she's worth making the investment.

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  2. (shuh-MEE'-kwuh)


    lulz

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  3. I don't have the link, but it's long been known that the rate of partner abuse in lesbian relationships is roughly the same as the rate in heterosexual relationships.

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  4. I'm sure I've read somewhere about how domestic physical abuse isn't rare among lesbian couples. But where? ...

    FWIW, I've definitely heard about it from lesbian and gay friends in NYC.

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  5. "Is there much quantitative evidence for this impression that the cops get called in disproportionately over lesbian domestic disputes? And, if there is, why?"

    Lesbians have elevated testosterone which makes them aggressive.

    This post reminds me of the three lesbians in the Confederacy of Dunces. They assault a police officer at the beginning of the story. Later on, they roughly hustle Ignatius out of a gay meeting when he becomes boring, and start a street brawl in the French quarter at the climax of the novel.

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  6. "Chamique (shuh-MEE'-kwuh) Holdsclaw"

    Holdsclaw? You can't make this stuff up.

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  7. "This post reminds me of the three lesbians in the Confederacy of Dunces."

    While the gays are in the living room dancing to Judy Garland records, the lesbians are in the kitchen crumpling (old fashioned steel) beer cans and other feats of strength.

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  8. Lesbians will not settle for anything less than full equality.

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  9. I swear to God I read Lucius's comment about "Tessa Hadley's bitchin' first lit fiction novel" as being about her bitchin' *fist* lit novel. Like Chick Lit but with more plaid flannel, I briefly supposed.

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  10. @Ray Sawhill: "I've definitely heard about it from lesbian and gay friends in NYC."

    I don't have any lesbian or gay friends.

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  11. Simon in London2/27/13, 3:16 PM

    My wife's tales of her half-lesbian Rugby team are not that different from what you'd expect a gang of young straight sportsmen to be like. Fractionally less violent - lesbian behaviour doesn't ever look much like the far right of the male violence bell curve, probably because even lesbian Rugby players are less muscular; but it seems to sit pretty close to the middle.

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  12. From the Medical University of South Carolina

    http://www.musc.edu/vawprevention/lesbianrx/factsheet.shtml

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  13. In 2003 here in Atlanta, Superior Court Judge Cynthia Wright was shot by her lesbian girlfriend after the Hon. Judge ended the relationship (she survived).

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  14. Ruh-roh, check out the latest from iSteve favorite, Courtland Milloy:

    It’s time for first lady Michelle Obama to raise her game.

    Nothing wrong with telling kids to eat their peas or showing them how to Hula-Hoop. But after four years of focusing on the body, she’d do well to spend these next four on building strong minds...

    booty shaking with Fallon and participating in the Academy Awards were frivolities unbecoming to both Michelle Obama and her position as first lady...

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  15. The Santa Fe Rape Crisis and Trauma Treatment Center estimates 1 in 3 lesbians is raped by another woman. Seeing how they claim most of these go unreported because of trauma, hurdles, and such, I take them with a grain of salt much like typical rape epidemic statistics.

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  16. Wouldn't be surprising, Butch lesbians often possess a lot of traits like envy, jealously, and possessiveness of their girly partners bordering on paranoia, similar to teenaged males. Used to work at a grocery store/video store that was popular with gays and lesbians, particularly the latter. I lost count of how many green eyed monster looks I got from the "male" lesbian when I was talking her "female" partner. Most Butch lesbians act like 16 year old guys whenever "their" girl is talking to a member of the opposite sex. Just for clarification the Ellen DeGeneres types are possessive of the Anne Heche/Portia de Rossi types.

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  17. Anecdotally, based on my own aquaintances, lesbian domestic violence is way higher than hetero domestic violence.

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  18. Years ago, a friend who worked at Vancouver's communist Spartacus Books told me the stuff that flew off the shelves was lesbian S&M, ie, torture porn. The only "free speech" case in Canada ever backed by the left was about the right of another Vancouver bookstore, Little Sister's, to import and sell lesbian torture porn.

    Lesbians are seemingly obsessed with the who-whom of dominance and submission. Again, years ago, when I lived in Vancouver's lesbian stronghold, the Commercial Drive area, I saw a woman on a bus reading a book called Sapphistry. It explained that lesbians who are not irreducibly "top" or "bottom" are called "switchables" or "duals" and that this kind of behaviour is frowned upon by the "community."

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  19. Years ago, a friend who worked at Vancouver's communist Spartacus Books told me the stuff that flew off the shelves was lesbian S&M, ie, torture porn. The only "free speech" case in Canada ever backed by the left was about the right of another Vancouver bookstore, Little Sister's, to import and sell lesbian torture porn.

    Exactly - see "Princess Donna" and "kink.com", as above.

    Lesbians are seemingly obsessed with the who-whom of dominance and submission. Again, years ago, when I lived in Vancouver's lesbian stronghold, the Commercial Drive area, I saw a woman on a bus reading a book called Sapphistry. It explained that lesbians who are not irreducibly "top" or "bottom" are called "switchables" or "duals" and that this kind of behaviour is frowned upon by the "community."

    Makes you wonder who's the top and who's the bottom between Hillary and Huma.

    Wouldn't be surprising, Butch lesbians often possess a lot of traits like envy, jealously, and possessiveness of their girly partners bordering on paranoia, similar to teenaged males. Used to work at a grocery store/video store that was popular with gays and lesbians, particularly the latter. I lost count of how many green eyed monster looks I got from the "male" lesbian when I was talking her "female" partner. Most Butch lesbians act like 16 year old guys whenever "their" girl is talking to a member of the opposite sex. Just for clarification the Ellen DeGeneres types are possessive of the Anne Heche/Portia de Rossi types.

    Well somehow Huma and Anthony "Weiner" Weiner managed to push out a baby between them [Hillary's green eyes notwithstanding].

    But whaddup wit Chelsea and that Mezvinsky boy?

    If press reports are to be believed, they never even spend any time together.

    I tell you, if Chelsea doesn't get busy pushing out a few babies, then that Clinton/Rodham* line is about to go extinct.



    *Hubbell?

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  20. Anecdotes. Note necessarily untrue, but hard to quantify.

    Additional bit of info. There are lost souls with personality disorders, especially borderline, that are essentially omnisexual. They often identify as lesbian, but it's a mixed picture. Abused by male relatives when young and seemingly congenitally angry, theirs is a lesbianism that may not fit the standard mold.

    Or may be a large percentage. I think lesbianism is much more varied in cause and expression than male homosexuality. Lesbians are far more willing to admit that only a percentage of them were born that way, and other were made so by life experiences.

    But the PD types have a high rate of violence and will raise the average for the group.

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  21. Homosexual couples are closer in size and strength than heterosexual so fights are probably nastier, or perhaps more likely to get nasty as neither party will feel compelled to back down. Women may be more likely to call the cops.

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  22. "I lost count of how many green eyed monster looks I got from the "male" lesbian when I was talking her "female" partner."

    Although I've never seen The Kids Are All Right, your post reminded me of a post of Steve's about the time that movie was in theaters. IIRC Mark Ruffalo said after the movie came out that butches were coming up to him on the street saying "Stay away from our women!" or something to that effect.

    I don't know any gays or lesbians so I can't speak with much knowledge, but lesbians seem to be more fluid in their sexuality.... moving from lez to bi or lez to bi to straight (or vice-versa) than gay men.

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  23. But the PD types have a high rate of violence and will raise the average for the group.

    I heard a rumor that they're removing the PDs from the next edition of the DSM.

    You know, it wasn't all that long ago that they removed the concept of "homosexuality", so maybe even just the possibility of the existence of a PD cuts a little too close to the bone for that crowd.



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  24. Holdsclaw? You can't make this stuff up.

    It's an Anglicized or Ebonicized version of Holtzclaw, which is an Anglicized version of Holzklau. Holtzclaw is a Southern name.

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  25. hard to say for sure. it always *felt* like it was worse - as a percentage if not in terms of damage because of differences in physical strength - but that may be a distortion caused by the "women don't do that" initial surprise factor.

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  26. "It’s time for first lady Michelle Obama to raise her game.

    Nothing wrong with telling kids to eat their peas or showing them how to Hula-Hoop. But after four years of focusing on the body, she’d do well to spend these next four on building strong minds...

    booty shaking with Fallon and participating in the Academy Awards were frivolities unbecoming to both Michelle Obama and her position as first lady..."

    ________________________________

    Yeah, see, Michelle O,

    It's not a bad think you're trying to do, talking healthy eating and all, but as a spokesperson, the thing is, most females don't aspire to have a body, a figure, that _looks_ like_ yours.

    Hate to say it, but your using yourself as the example of fitness and female attractiveness and all is like dentists using Mike Tyson to promote the benefits of an attractive smile.

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  27. Gay males are known for domestic fights.

    So, lesbians, gays....nah, nothin' wrong with their brains at all, nooo,no, nah, uh uh. Can't be. Nope.

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  28. There's a whole debate in the DV community about whether the "patriarchal" or "psychological" (I think it's called something else now) explanation is the best model. In a sane world, this wouldn't be a debate, of course.

    Donald Dutton, major player in DV, has said that lesbian DV is more prevalent than in straight couples. http://lab.drdondutton.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/CORVO-K.-DUTTON-D.G-CHEN-W.Y.-2008-TOWARDS-EVIDENCE-BASED-PRACTICE-WITH-DOMESTIC-VIOLENCE-PERPETRATORS.pdf

    I remember reading somewhere that lesbian stalkers are also disproportionately represented. Lesbians seem a tad twitchy, in comparison with gay men.

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  29. I spent a week video taping a US college team vs Oxford women's rugby tournament. The US team was typically butch and sullen, the Oxford team fem and very clearly heterosexual. It was satisfying to see the Brits whip them. The brutality of the play was surprising.
    Working at a car lot we got lesbo couples and the male half usually treated the fem half roughly. It reminds me of the pre-1970 style hetero relationships. Several of the fems were moms with kids from a hetero relationship or marriage. The male half made them submit in no uncertain terms.

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  30. Kevin Michael Grace said...

    Years ago, a friend who worked at Vancouver's communist Spartacus Books told me the stuff that flew off the shelves was lesbian S&M, ie, torture porn. The only "free speech" case in Canada ever backed by the left was about the right of another Vancouver bookstore, Little Sister's, to import and sell lesbian torture porn.

    This is the same community that wants to censor ordinary hetero porn as being "violent" and "degrading" toward women.

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  31. Additional bit of info. There are lost souls with personality disorders, especially borderline, that are essentially omnisexual. They often identify as lesbian, but it's a mixed picture. Abused by male relatives when young and seemingly congenitally angry, theirs is a lesbianism that may not fit the standard mold.

    You may have hit the nail on the head with "abused by male relatives when young" as the key factor. Hateful toward men, yet having many male traits, chronically angry, paranoid about being raped or otherwise abused by males, paranoid about The White Male Patriarchy but yearning for a fembo-fascist police state ... those are lesbians all right.

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  32. there was a low-budget documentary about rape in lesbian relationships and how it goes unreported.
    Unfortunately it turned out like a low-budget porno

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  33. After watching unhealthy amounts of the show "Cops", I noticed a high amount of lesbian domestic violence. When the cops arrested the guilty party, the stupid b#@ch who called the cops always cries in regret. Domestic violence laws are way too stringent.

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  34. When I was in college I knew a (college aged) lesbian couple that several times had police intervene for domestic violence. And they were both Women's Studies majors...

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  35. One has to really feel sorry for those kids who are forced to grow up in a lesbian household.

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  36. "Oh, Fortuna, blind, heedless goddess, I am strapped to your wheel,' Ignatius belched, 'Do not crush me beneath your spokes. Raise me on high, divinity. . . . When my brain begins to reel from my literary labors, I make an occasional cheese dip."

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  37. The Zeitgeist of Chateau Heartiste2/28/13, 12:03 PM

    there was a low-budget documentary about rape in lesbian relationships and how it goes unreported. Unfortunately it turned out like a low-budget porno

    This word "unfortunately" - I do not think it means what you think it means.

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  38. "there was a low-budget documentary about rape in lesbian relationships and how it goes unreported."



    Where links ?

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  39. Lesbians are violent like men but they also have the female sense of entitlement to physically assault others because they think they won't get in as much trouble as man will or that it's somehow not as bad.

    The comment about them being extremely possessive is right on the mark.

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  40. Chicago said...

    "One has to really feel sorry for those kids who are forced to grow up in a Lesbian household."

    So true. I knew a kid from that environment. He was subject to taunts as a child, and was always regarded by his peers as something of a freak. When it was meet the parents night at school his "two moms" would be there to see the teacher. This always raised eyebrows among the parents of all the other kids. He had trouble in high school and girls shied away from him. Or in one case the girl's parents sabotaged a relationship he might have had. His "two moms" cause him to be marked as someone to avoid. I feel lesbians who have children and subject them to this type of stigma are being extremely selfish. Children are the natural product of a normal heterosexual relationship. Causing innocent children to be placed in a situation where they will be marginialized and stigmatized is child abuse in my opinion.

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  41. "..that green-eyed monster look from the butch lesbians when I talked to their partners.."

    There is a great scene in the movie Kolchak the night strangler where Carl interviews one of the belly dancers (Charisma Beauty) and he gets this in spades from her butch partner. This was all the more surprising to me because it was a made for tv, movie of the week type, all the way back in 1973. That was rather daring for that time.

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  42. "there was a low-budget documentary about rape in lesbian relationships and how it goes unreported.
    Unfortunately it turned out like a low-budget porno"

    "Where links ?"

    The documentary in question is called She Stole My Voice. I've never seen it.... but vid clips online do make it appear like a cheap sexploitation movie.

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  43. Love the Kolchak reference.

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