Duluth Model Bullshit

[nerdflighter]

It's pretty bloody astonishing, honestly, to see that not only is the Duluth Model based on the kind of crap worldview I'm more likely to expect from a radfem than anyone, but also that it's main founder, Ellen Pence, also pointed out that it was more shit than not.

By determining that the need or desire for power was the motivating force behind battering, we created a conceptual framework that, in fact, did not fit the lived experience of many of the men and women we were working with. The DAIP staff [...] remained undaunted by the difference in our theory and the actual experiences of those we were working with [...] It was the cases themselves that created the chink in each of our theoretical suits of armor. Speaking for myself, I found that many of the men I interviewed did not seem to articulate a desire for power over their partner. Although I relentlessly took every opportunity to point out to men in the groups that they were so motivated and merely in denial, the fact that few men ever articulated such a desire went unnoticed by me and many of my coworkers. Eventually, we realized that we were finding what we had already predetermined to find.

I mean! How much more clear can it get! And yet, this is the model of domestic abuse that most shelters in my country still use, and presumably it's also used by shelters in other countries.
I didn't have to dig for this information. it's on the Wikipedia page for the Duluth Model.
God Fucking Dammit.

Comments

[staranise]

The shelter movement literally was founded by radfems, so yeah.

Part of the problem is that there's not a really strongly articulated alternative program. Because, in my opinion, it's not possible to build one as cohesive and motivating as the Duluth model; the causes of violence are so varied and diffuse, and the means of addressing them are so different, that it just couldn't be done. So on a practical basis, it's hard to get the funding, the scholars to research and develop a model, and the infrastructure in place, when it has to be done afresh every single time. The Duluth model caught on because it was something people could transplant in every new community.

[nerdflighter]

im yikesing and sighing at the same time