Masculine Deficiency, Liquid Courage, and Partner Violence…

Peralta, R., Tuttle, L., & Steele, J. (2010). At the Intersection of Interpersonal Violence, Masculinity, and Alcohol Use: The Experiences of Heterosexual Male Perpetrators of Intimate Partner Violence Violence Against Women DOI: 10.1177/1077801210363539

Commentators often speak of masculinity, violence, and alcohol inter-connectedly, as if to suggest that each is a requisite part of the other. That alcohol, for example, features large in men’s accounts of violence toward their partners should not lead to the automatic conclusion that alcohol misuse presages such violence, nor that violence in the presence of alcohol is germane to the performance of masculinity. Peralta et al. (2010) point out here (at p.3), that it is still debateable whether violence leads to alcohol misuse or alcohol misuse leads to violence. Nonetheless, from their own research interviewing 11, ‘predominantly Black heterosexual men convicted of IPV’ (intimate partner violence) (p.5), the authors discover that ‘liquid courage’ is a critical motivating force for men to drink like fish (p.15). I still cannot see how you get from that point, however, to men then going home and beating up (physically, sexually, emotionally) their partners. Peralta et al. (2010) offer one possible explanation: men who for one reason or another suffer with ‘masculine deficiency’ (p.17) might attempt to make up for that deficiency by drinking to excess and then coming the biff (a ‘small man’ complex). I would agree with the authors that we still know so little about male perpetrator behaviours and that by listening to the stories of men who have drunk and who have bashed, we might get closer to some workable solutions.

Update: The following article shines further light on this subject…

Zaleski, M., Pinsky, I., Laranjeira, R., Ramisetty-Mikler, S., & Caetano, R. (2009). Intimate Partner Violence and Contribution of Drinking and Sociodemographics: The Brazilian National Alcohol Survey Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 25 (4), 648-665 DOI: 10.1177/0886260509334396