With all of this talk about incarcerating Ray Rice, I think we're missing the point on a lot of things:
1. By focusing just on Rice, we're forgetting the even bigger issue of how society fosters this type of violence through its skewed vision of masculinity. Even the rhetoric after the fact, all of this "a real man" shit, just demonstrates that further. We need to look at root causes.
2. We can't ignore how the NFL, Ravens, etc. were clearly protecting this guy until it became clear that the situation was messing with their cash flow. And you can see a similar pattern with the NFL on the issue of head injuries to players, the Washington football naming controversy, etc. Institutions need to be held accountable if they are going to be expected to do the right thing. And I say this as someone who has always been a football fan. It's almost comical that the NFL has non-profit status.
3. With the rush to incarcerate Rice, is that just about making people feel like justice was done? Because that doesn't really take into account data on domestic violence recidivism...long-term intensive community supervision, coupled with real treatment (not just some "anger management" class), is most likely a much better option. But it doesn't give the public the same feeling of "justice".
So I'm glad they kicked him out of the league. But now let's focus on making the situation better. How are we providing treatment to DV victims? Is Janay Rice getting the help she needs? And what are we doing to ensure that young men (and women, too) don't become domestic abusers? And once someone commits an act of domestic violence, what are we doing to ensure that it doesn't happen again?
Apologies for the brevity - maybe it's too short for a diary. But I feel like this deserved a mention.
As an aside, we have to stop making the argument that domestic violence is wrong simply because we have women in our lives, as our mothers, sisters, daughters, wives, etc. It's still viewing women and their value simply in relation to ourselves as men. Violence against women, like all domestic violence (whether male against female, female against male, male against male, female against female, etc.) is wrong simply because it is wrong.