TW for abuse apologism.
It is known that Mr. Pat Robertson is a misogynist fuckhead. His latest statements that advised that a man move to Saudi Arabia so he could legally beat his wife have only managed to provide further evidence of this.
However, I would like to draw your attention neither to the Islamophobia nor the condoning of physical abuse, but to the question that he was asked. “Michael” says that his wife insults him, refuses to talk through their problems, is destroying his self-esteem, and stretched her arm to beat him. The obvious answer here is that this is a man who is emotionally and physically abused. If Mr. Robertson were a human being that one could even remotely trust to give one relationship advice, he would tell Michael that his experience is abuse, to contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline, and to (if he can) see a therapist or begin to lay plans to leave the relationship.
But men can’t be abused! That would be wrong and probably against nature or something! All Mr. Robertson has to offer is Islamophobic “jokes” about wife-beating, the reminder that Scripture says he can’t divorce his wife (nice to see that verse applied to a male abuse survivor for a change) and trivializing the abuse by calling Michael’s wife a rebellious child, a thirteen-year-old trapped in a thirty-year-old’s body. Note, here, the ways that sexism acts to disadvantage both men and women: women are silly, weak, and childlike, so therefore you couldn’t possibly be abused by one.
Eeeurgh. Pat Robertson, you are a horrible person.
Thank you for writing this. When I read the headlines I assumed it was just about misogyny, but I had no idea he was talking to a man who is clearly being abused.