Seeing the horrific experiences that Taylah went through on Newsnight (34 minutes in) was quite distressing as were the experiences of Armanie - who was victim during a same-sex relationship (How do Women's Aid and Refuge deal with that ideologically?). No one for any minute wishes to belittle their stories but what strikes anyone looking at the report is that it fails to mention domestic/partner abuse against teenage boys - whether in a heterosexual or gay relationship.
Troubling is the issue that the facts the BBC use throughout the video and also where they cover the story online are all from Women's Aid and the Home Office and only highlight female figures.
Certainly, from the British Crime Survey every figure for a woman has a male equivalent (see ManKind Initiative 21 key facts) so saying that 1 million women were victims in 2011 is fine as a statistic (it was 1.2 million) but then deliberately choosing not to state that 800,000 men also suffered that year is sexist.
It is sexism by omission because the producers and researchers of the piece must have consciously chosen not to include male teenagers and male equivalent figures when the figures for women are from the same source and the same table (ManKind's source list indicate page 101 here). The BBC also say 30% of women have suffered from domestic abuse since 16 but so have 17% of men - again in the same British Crime Survey reports.
The statistics on the Newsnight report also refer to refuge and funding cuts. No one wants to see refuge cuts and women being turned away but there are hardly any refuges for men to be turned away from or services to be cut. That is never tackled.
Keeping on the statistics front - it was good that BBC raised the issue of teenage abuse but again as the British Crime Survey shows for 2009/10 - 12.7% of 16-19 year old women are victims of domestic abuse (7.3% partner abuse) but 6.2% (3.6%) of men are too in that age group - one in every three.
Why does the BBC not mention that?
The whole commentary on the piece was about support for female teenage victims. If Newsnight had not produced a sexist report it would have been about teenage women and male victims.
Male teenagers do not even get a look in (the Home Office's £2 million pound campaign about teenage partner abuse did not implore girls not to hit boyfriends, or girlfriends for that matter).
This is a continuation of a trend where the BBC and other parts of the media one minute ensure male victims are mentioned - BBC Breakfast makes great play about it (even the Guardian do here but the the Telegraph do not - even for the same story on legal aid), but then they take one massive retrograde step backwards.
Newsnight story was another classic piece of sexual and gender discrimination against men - this time male teenagers who are victims of domestic abuse.
You can tell the frustration from teenage boys or those men who were victims of domestic abuse when they were a teenager about not being included through the comments on the Radio 1 Extra piece. Those frustrations show sexual discrimination against male victims of domestic abuse is alive and kicking.
Posted by Skimmington
The BBC is nothing more than a left wing mouthpiece that loves to help spout the feminist propaganda, amongst other such things. I Never had a license, never will. I refuse to help pay for this dreadful institute of propaganda.
Posted by: ian | Thursday, 26 April 2012 at 00:42
Glad to see this corrective report about trafficking.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2012/apr/26/two-fifths-human-trafficking-male
Keep on complaining and pointing out the truth. Ian as you point out the BBC is paid for from a tax so has an added resposibility not to be sexist or irresponsible in its reporting.
I'm reminded of the Australian "One in Three" Campaign well worth a visit.
On so many issues: DV. Forced Marriage. Traffiking. Health and Housing(homelessnes) the invisibility of men is the result of such sexism by omission. The Violence against Women and Girls Strategy is a classic where all sorts of issues that actually involve male victims have been appropriated into building up a "feminist" and sexist slant in public policy.
One effect of this is that bodies seeking funding effectively have to play up their services to women to recieve government or quango funding. This both prioritses the services for women and leads to collusion in the invisibility of male victims.
The first priority is visibility. Do not under estimate the importance of FOI requests to have data divided by sex or quoting Official data on men. The Voilence Agianst Women industry relies on decision makers' ignorance of the actual facts.
Posted by: Groan | Thursday, 26 April 2012 at 14:30
Good points Groan.
Another example:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-17838022
The boy was 3 years old when he was married. How is he not just as much of a victim as the girl?
The way they ignore us as men and boys is sickening.
Posted by: Jon | Thursday, 26 April 2012 at 15:03
Jon...
" One effect of this is that bodies seeking funding.."
I think your question has already been answered ;-)
Posted by: ian | Thursday, 26 April 2012 at 16:02
Wow even the Guardian had to publish that truth which would clearly make the feminist groups liars in their propaganda, that must have really put a thorn in their tampons to do that.
Posted by: ian | Thursday, 26 April 2012 at 16:08
It's not just the BBC that are guilty. Every place you look paints the same old picture that women are always the victims and men are always the perpertrators. Violence against men is frequently conveyed as being comedy material. How many times have we seen a man get kicked in the crotch by a woman while the audience fall about in fits of laughter! And how many times do we see a man get slapped by a woman for very little reason! In fact, a woman can be seen to inflict quite serious physical abuse upon a man without suffering any consequence whatsoever, whether the consequence be socially damaging to her or perhaps even legal reprimand. On the other hand, if a man hits a woman, there is ALWAYS a consequence purposefully built into the storyline.
This disgusting attitude is everywhere, even music videos. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dnTLx4XQDI
It's no wonder that society is screwed up when this culture is broadcast via the media to millions of easily influenced people; it's not hard to see why virtually everyone is indoctrinated with a skewed preconception that it's actually ok to hit a guy.
Sickening!
Posted by: Dave | Thursday, 26 April 2012 at 22:11
Kind of says it all really...
http://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/video?id=2754248
So if adults can't set a good example...!
Posted by: Dave | Sunday, 29 April 2012 at 10:27