Domestic

Two days ago I wrote of a fans dismissal of Sitiveni Sivivatu's assault on his partner:

Fan Craig Clapson, at the match with his son, said Sivivatu should be able to play. "I can't condone wife beating, but from what I've read, it was basically a domestic that got a little out of hand and they've reconciled."

Yesterday, the NZ Herald used the following headline: "'We thought first shooting just domestic,' authorities say" (it has now been taken down, but Audra wrote about it).

'Domestic' is such a tidy way of saying 'what men do to women who are in a relationship with them doesn't matter.'

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World Socialist Website has an article: The Virginia Tech massacre--social roots of another American tragedy. Lenin's Tomb covers some of the same ground

Do you want to guess what they don't mention? Do you want to guess what they don't think might be relevant?

It’s not actually that hard to include some feminist analysis, even if you’re a Marxist. It’s true that better minds than mine have been defeated in trying to understand reproductive labour within a Marxist economic framework. But looking at the history of school shootings, and some of the details that have come out about this one, you don’t have to rewrite any Capital to understand that maybe a deeply misogynist society might be playing a part.