10 VIOLENCE
It’s no secret that men lead more violent lives than women. We’re more likely to be murdered, more likely to be both the perpetrators and victims of violent crime, more likely to join gangs and more likely to get our asses thrown in jail. In fact, the only areas where women are more-likely to be victims of violence than men—domestic abuse and sexual assault—are in categories where the perpetrators are frequently male. In other words, violence so completely permeates every aspect of our lives that it winds up damaging everyone, regardless of gender. So what’s going on?Well, it’s almost certainly rooted in childhood. Boys are more likely to be beaten at school than girls, and parents are far more likely to encourage fights between boys. Think about it: if one of your earliest experiences is being told to punch that kid who insulted you, it’s no great leap to imagine you’d reach adulthood thinking violence was the right response to, well, everything. And since our culture loves to reward aggression—in the boardroom, on the sports field, in the military—it’s easy to see why unlearning that lesson might be next to impossible.