Men urged to stop insulting women
Published:Monday | March 9, 2020 | 12:32 AM
Family Life Ministries co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Dr Barrington Davidson says that attempts to arrest physical abuse against women must also include paying closer attention to those who are being emotionally abused.
Davidson was one of eight speakers at yesterday’s International Women’s Day conference held at the National Housing Trust under the theme ‘Men Affirming Women, Knowing and Appreciating Her Worth’.
“Women are quite often emotionally abused, and one of the things we realised is that we have been focused heavily on physical abuse over the years while not recognising the tremendous danger and tremendous harm caused by emotional abuse,” he said.
Emotional abuse, Davidson said, was the precursor to physical abuse, reasoning that men who hit their partners have almost always been firing verbal barbs.
REPEATED NEGATIVITY
According to the FLM CEO, data have shown that approximately 85 per cent of a child’s ultimate personality is formed between birth and seven years old. Therefore, the words directed at them by teachers, parents, and others can have devastating effects in later years.
“So if the significant other in your life thinks you are a nobody, you, after hearing this over and over again, might begin to believe it, and if you believe, then you think you deserve to be treated that way,” Davidson said.
He said that FLM had found a large segment of the population suffering from low self-esteem as a result of home-based verbal and emotional abuse.
Davidson was joined on the panel by American Jeffrey Wenzler, founder of Pivotal Directions; obstetrician Dr Charles Rockhead; social anthropologist at The University of the West Indies Dr Herbert Gayle; Pastor Courtney Morrison; Dr Philbert Bailey; and Kevin Bailey, psychotherapist at Family Life Ministries.
The event’s host, Keisha Ann Thomas, of Predestined – a support network for women facing hard times – is urging men to deliver more words of encouragement to women.
“We also take note of the high incidence of murder-suicide happening in our intimate relationships, and so we thought as a support group, we have an awesome opportunity to speak with a voice that people will listen to,” Thomas said.
“So what we have done is to have eight powerful men speaking to a female audience, affirming our women, educating them about the different kinds of abuse, what signs to look for, and how to protect themselves from it, and also just to encourage men to treat women with respect,” she added.