14 DAY TRIAL // MMA fighter War Machine got more than a fair share of media attention this past week or so, after he put a beating on his estranged girlfriend Christy Mack so severe that she’s still to be discharged from the hospital. He then went hiding from the police and was finally captured last weekend.
The catch to the story isn’t that he almost killed a woman with his bare hands (and a blunt knife, with which he wasn’t entirely satisfied), though that alone should be enough to make your blood boil. The catch of the story is that Christy Mack is an adult actress.
What an unfortunate combination, of brute force and oversexualization. It’s a certain recipe for disaster, voices are saying: and disaster is precisely what happened when War Machine visited Mack’s Las Vegas home the Friday before last, and for some reason or another, started pounding on her with his fists and feet.
Mack said in a statement that what got War Machine in such a rage as to want to kill her on the spot was the fact that she was with another man at her home. She also said that they had been broken up for a couple of months, which may or may not be true, but probably isn’t, because there are photos of the two of them on social media, posted just days before the attack.
The bottom line is that Mack may have been cheating on the MMA fighter so, when he arrived at home and caught her in the act, he flipped and did what he does best: he went in ready to use his fists, ready to cause serious damage to another human being. He didn’t change his name from Jon Kappenhaver to War Machine for nothing.
From that to voices online (actor Chuck Zito, more recently) saying that Mack “had it coming” and that she “deserved” every punch that landed on her face was but a small step. Because, you see, if she’s an adult actress, then she’s somehow less of a woman than all other women who work 9-to-5 jobs, for instance.
We don’t consider a homeless person less of a person just because they have nowhere to sleep. An addict is not any less a man or woman because they’re struggling to conquer their demons. The parallel is a bit forced, but on the same reasoning, an adult actress is still a woman, no matter what she does for a living or how she chooses to dispose of her body. She is still a person – and should not be subjected to violence no matter what.
If you know anything about domestic abuse, no matter at the hands of which, you know that there is no such thing as a “provocation.” Those saying that Mack “provoked” War Machine by sleeping with another man (if that’s what she did) have never been in an abusive situation: because in such a situation, the fault lies with the abuser, not the victim. Always.
A man or woman who raises a hand against someone else is a man or woman who has been taught or has come to believe that this is the right answer for anything. War Machine is one of those men.
Charged with a crime, you’re innocent until proven guilty, so we’ve been repeatedly told never to judge the alleged culprit until we have all the facts. However, you’re not passing any kind of judgment if you acknowledge that War Machine is a violent man, to whom such outbursts of rage come regularly and always with an impressive destructive force.
His track record speaks volumes for him: he’s been arrested countless times for assault and he’s even done time behind bars for these charges. From jail, he kept a blog diary in which he documented, among other things, his belief that man should not marry because, if he does and then he hits the wife when she gives him lip, she has him thrown in jail.
He joked on Twitter about raping Mack and about putting a beating on her for whatever reason. The police manhunt for him ended because he tried to beat up another woman who was staying with him at the Simi Valley hotel he’d been hiding at.
Clearly, when it comes to exercising control, War Machine comes up completely blank, especially in the way he treats women. His history paints him as a violent man who would not hesitate to do the things Mack says he did to her.
We must wait for the judge and jury to tell us if he’s guilty of beating up Mack to near-death, so we’ll refrain from pointing any fingers. But that doesn’t give us a free pass to shame the victim.
Here’s an even better idea: instead of choosing sides or debating whether it’s right that there’s a fundraiser for Mack to get plastic surgery so she can go back to her daily job, let’s turn this scandal into a lesson.
Respect – towards your partner and, ultimately, yourself – should be the binder in a relationship, the one that helps us solve problems, not violence. Violence breeds violence, and that’s never the answer to anything. So no, not even women in Mack’s line of work “deserve” a beating.