Neil Websdale points to many possibilities for the increase in familicides. He says masculinity exacts a heavy burden on men who cannot accept feminism. Domestic violence theory points to an abuser’s need for power and control and asks why the victim doesn’t just leave. But Websdale argues that abusers are just as vulnerable in a sense by their own inability to live without that victim. “My question isn’t ‘Why doesn’t she leave?’ ” he says, “It’s ‘Why does he stay?’ Many of these men are terribly dependent on their female partners. They see them as a conduit to the world of feeling that they
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