The White Ribbon Campaign starts the day after tomorrow, i.e. November 25, and as some of you may know this annual campaign attempts to bring focus on men's violence against women. You can find more details from our WRC pages.

I recently discovered a web site that promotes a book called "The Origin of Emotions". The book promises to "identify the purpose, trigger and effect of each emotion" and since the first 18 chapters can be read online I decided to have a quick look at it. Amongst other things, I found a claim that "only men feel jealousy", which sounded odd and interesting so I read some more (pages 53 and 54, to be precise). It soon dawned to me what purpose such a claim could serve. Now, follow these statements closely (they are all taken from the book):

1. "Only men can feel jealousy" (a brief sentance states that for some reason "female jealousy did not evolve").

2. Jealousy is triggered by "the woman I love making another man feel sexual pleasure".
3. "Jealousy encourages men to punish female infidelity".

In clear text, this says that it is only natural for a man to use physical violence if a woman has been unfaithful. Does this sound like an attempt to give a scientific explanation and excuse for why men should be allowed to beat women? Or, at least, why it is understandable if some men happen to retort with physical violence?

The book also says jealousy can by triggered by other sources than the woman giving direct penile pleasure to another man. Another source for jealousy is "if the woman is flirting with another man". So, according to the book she deserves to get smacked for flirting, too.

But it doesn't stop there. The book continues: "jealousy can be triggered if another man gets visual pleasure while looking at the woman". Which means she deserves a beating simply for another man looking at her!

But that's not all. This is the best part: "Women often trigger jealousy to verify monogynistic love. Women intuitively know that a jealous man is a man in love. A woman will flirt with other men just to see if it triggers jealousy in her man. If it does, he must be in love".

Do you want me to put that in clear text or can you figure it out yourselves?