By: Liberate Zealot
Content Warning: Discussions of intimate partner violence and domestic abuse

Recently several feminist areas I frequent have been discussing male violence and domestic abuse/intimate partner abuse. Which has called to mind my own experiences with, and education of, abusive relationships.



It's important to remember that intimate partner violence is not just some facet of our violent culture or male violence. It is its own thing which expands beyond the current culture of violence.
Men, such as Sean Penn and Charlie Sheen, who were known for being out of control and violent in many aspects of their lives were even more violence and sadistic when it came to their intimate and domestic partners.
When domestic abusers are treated through anger management therapies their anger and violence will often diminish in every part of their lives but their abuse of their intimate partners.
Intimate partner abusers are not "out of control" with anger, or equally violent in all parts of their lives.  Their violence to, and abuse of, their partners is deliberate, it's systematic, quite often the abusers are very much in control when doing their abusing.  There's something about how these people (overwhelmingly men) think about their partners (often women) that makes intimate partner violence a very different thing than other forms of violence in our culture.