In the defense of men
In cases of domestic violence, it is all too often presumed that the woman is the victim and the male agressor is the guilty party. I recently heard a commentary by the Procuradora de la Mujer, Maria Dolores Fernos, to these effects, pertaining to the sad case in which a policeman killed his wife. The police-man was characterized as living with 'insecurities' by Fernos. While certainly we are saddened by the incident, it is nonetheless deplorable the manner in which the issue was characterized despite having no direct knowledge of the case. (It is unlikley that Fernos was an intimate friend of both parties.). Public commentaries tend to fit a fairly steretypical cliche in which all women are presumed to be' virgins' who are innocent despite of any actions. In fact, I think most mature adults would recognize that there is an implicit social contract in any human relationship, with a given set of rights and responsibilities. The violation of this silent contract is one of the most direct assaults on the intimate life of the person, seldom recognized by women's rights activists. In other words, never in these public commentaries is it asked whether the woman breached such a contract, which would make the issue not a psychological one (male insecruity) but rather a moral-religious one (female virtue). Unfortunately, changing societies moving from an agricultural econoimc base to an industrial/service sector one creates a great many pressures on the intimate life of a couple. Although many feminists will scream, women do tend to be opportunistic given the high costs of birthing and rearing children, which in turns tends toward a searching of the 'best (most affluent) available parter'. Under the declining econoimc circumstances, as those under which Puerto Rico currently exists, women are faced with a 'selective pressure' toward reevaluting options previously chosen (existing partners), which in turn upsets the social family order and internal psychic peace establihed by that couple under times of greater prosperity. In this implied social contract, the coslty gifts awarded towards the woman tends to consolidate a set of future benefits by the giver. When the woman, after having accepted such gifts, then decides to leave the individual, she is breaching the implied contract, which cannot be evaluated under any court of law, and hence impossible for the man to seek fairness. Unfortunately, all too many men, then become the own arbiters of justtice, assuming the role of God in the granting and taking away of human life.