Yes. I agree. This is also my belief based on my life experience.

Thanks for taking part in this discussion.

@wakeup
Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment.

I understand why some men might have been on guard but I do think that those men reading women’s blogs should be mindful enough to read closely and recognize a friend when one presents.

Hi, just wanted to post my comments. As a men’s rights activist I want to say that I DO NOT find your article offensive or anti-male in any way. I can see how you have examined the effect on both sexes and even admit that the studies you have are inconclusive. You must understand, however, that when it comes to some of the men making comments which seem defensive, it is because they see an article about testosterone written by a woman and some red flag goes up and makes us wonder “Is this more anti-male bias?”. This is no excuse for you being misunderstood or some of the negative comments, but understand that many women do write one-sided info about these things to smear our entire gender. Just know men have feelings about that and sometimes have trouble expressing it constructively because we’ve always been taught to internalize those feelings. Take care of yourself and peace!

Well, neither feminists nor the media had anything to do with what I have seen myself, of women suffering domestic violence at the hands of their partners.

The number of female victims far outweigh the number of make victims. And if anything DV is continues to be under reported with women only able to come forward to report after their lives or the lives of their children are threatened. That takes about approx 20 -25 incidents. But I have no wish to take this further off topic not assist you in turning it into a feminists vs the men thread.

Suffice it to say that I agree that testosterone isn’t the cause of violence whether men to women or vice versa. In my opinion the need to have power over and the ability to dominate another person may exist as characteristics in both sexes but not in equal amounts. I believe men are raised to believe they must exert dominance over another to win… and it doesn’t have to be a female.

Both sexes produce testosterone and it seems it has the same effects on men’s bodies as it does on women’s bodies. More to the point — testosterone alone does not lead to violence. The article emphasized “dominance” and exerting dominance is characteristic of both sexes.

The blog post concluded:

No one really knows the answer, but a growing body of evidence suggests that testosterone is as much the result of violence as its cause.

Almost 200 scientific studies (for example those done by Dr. Murray Straus) have shown that women are equally as likely as men to initiate domestic violence. The fact that “men hit harder” is counter-balanced by the fact that women tend to ambush their partners or throw things at them. Studies have also shown that in dating violence, women are _more_ likely to be perpetrators than men.

In spite of this, the domestic violence industry spends over a billion dollars each year to help women, but offers virtually nothing to men.

False accusations of domestic violence against the father, are a common tactic used by women seeking child custody during a divorce. In fact, a restraining order my be taken out on the man even if no violence is alleged. In some locales, the wife’s lawyer can be sued, if he (the lawyer) does not recommend to the wife that she take out a restraining order during a divorce.