And On The Other Hand

We have this situation.

TAMPA - The girlfriend of Tampa Bay Buccaneers linebacker Geno Hayes is accused of stabbing him in the head with a pair of scissors and in the neck with a knife.

Hillsborough County deputies arrested Shevelle Bagley, 19, at her home Saturday afternoon, according to arrest records. Hayes, 21, was treated and released from the hospital. The former Florida State player was drafted by the Bucs in 2008.

Bagley is charged with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon. Jail records show she was released Sunday on $25,000 bond.

Let me get out ahead of the argument that I know is coming. It goes something like this: See, this domestic violence thing isn’t a male issue because there are women like that one who stabbed the NFL player in the neck.

I’ll be up front and say that no one has any right to put their hands on anyone else but that false even-handedness that I’m hearing is starting to grate. While cases like this one highlight that there are violent women in this society, we simply don’t have a nation-wide phenomenon of men being brutalized, hospitalized and murdered by the women they love. Even in those circumstances where a woman initiates violence she is more likely to suffer the more serious injuries.

As tragic as those circumstances are and as much as the women involved may warrant prosecution, situations like the one with Geno Hayes remain exceptional while a woman’s life is most likely to be taken by a man with whom she has or previously had a relationship. Let’s not pretend that we all know men who are missing work because a girlfriend has cracked a rib or thrown him down a staircase.