NEW MISANDRIC GOVERNMENT DOMESTIC VIOLENCE CAMPAIGN AIMED AT TEENS

Yesterday saw the launch of one the most incredibly sexist government domestic abuse campaigns to date.

A series of TV, and radio ads, poster and a website were launched aimed at those aged 13-18 and urging boys "not to use violence against their girlfriends". That's right, they're not even trying to hide their sexism anymore. Every single poster in the campaign and every single video contains a male abusing a female. There isn't even the usual token male victim, not much mention of homosexual relationships (where abuse tends to be even more common than with heterosexuals). In the past it was more common for the government to outsource broadcast of such propaganda to anti-male charities such as Women's Aid, but they're now brazen enough to put their own name to the material now.

The sexist theme continues throughout the site. For example the FAQ section does contain some gender neutral questions, but five types of abuse listed are written in an exclusively male on female context. Even the one question referring to help for males victim still doesn't' dare suggest said abuse came form a female, presumably it's only gay males who get abused and all girls are sweet, pretty and innocent?

The hypocrisy of the campaign when it comes to discrimination is quite bizarre. Clearly every attempt has been made to be neutral in terms of race. For example two inter-racial couples are shown in the videos, one has a black male abusing a white female, whereas the other shows white male abusing a black female. Such balance is hugely commendable, but why does such equality only apply when dealing with race and never, ever with gender?

The site appears to attempt to justify it's gender based approach by stating "Research shows that suffering from abuse in relationships is more common for young women but young men can experience it too." In a away this is true, at least in terms of the 13-18 year target age group. But the same research also shows that as soon as these children grow grow up and reach adulthood the roles are reversed, and it's mostly males who are the victims. Therefore, given the government's (admittedly ridiculous) premise of only targeting the gender with the most victims, are we also to see a further £2 million spent telling 20-24 year old women to stop threatening, hitting and controlling their male partners?

One of the worst things about these campaigns is that even in the event of a  male victim seeing past the dishonesty and realising they need to get help, not charities that actually care about male victims are listed as a resource. Rather than being referred to the quite brilliant Mankind Initiative or a similarly gender neutral organisation, the feminist leaning organisation Respect have a monopoly. Such an organisation worships at the alter of gender based approaches to abuse rather than living in the real world. Is a boy really going to gain anything from talking to such obtuse people who only basically only really see males as the guilty party? In fact I imagine it could be quite a damaging experience for them. Why does the government happily provide lines to the gender feminists, at Respect, the Men's Advice Line, Refuge, Women Aid etc, but doesn't have the decency to give equal access to an organisation genuinely interested in helping men?

Finally, lets not forget who the the victims of this misandry are. Yes it you and I who have to pay the taxes funding this hatred of males, but the campaign itself is of course aimed at children. Therefore we're talking about gender feminists trying to impose their "violence against women and girls" nonsense on vulnerable, young developing minds and brainwashing them into feeling guilty perhaps even before they've started a proper relationship. Further still, the campaign is simultaneously campaign sending out the subconscious message that these boys can't really be victims either, thus further compounding the existing barriers which stop male vicitms from coming forward.

To do these awful things to adults is bad enough, but what we've got here is quite simply child abuse in my book. Domestic violence is a psychological issue and really has little or nothing to do with gender whatsoever. It really is time to put a stop to this nonsense and for the government to stop playing gender politics with people's lives.

BTW, I don't wish to promote this sick campaign by posting a link to the site. If you want to see it for yourself just search for "thisisabuse".

Comments

[Groan]

An exellent disection of the sexism of the campaign. In fact research in northern ireland,scotland and soutthall all noted a higher incidence of violence against boys by their partners than the reverse. Of course both should treat each other with respect. The campaign is a disgrace.

[amfortas]

One in 16 and one in 17. The difference? One third of one percent. But heck, let's not quibble, just blame the boys.

What a travesty. Someone, probably many someones are quite aware of this bias and are directing it.

[Groan]

Exactly . The research this campaign is legitemised by,from Bristol University, simply ignored previous research in the uk. Indeed it stated ther had not been such research when in fact there are three big pieces. In fact the biggest,in terms of numbers, was done for the Nhs in Scotland. All these previous pieces noted the "surprising" finding that violence against boys by girls was slightly higher. In fact the same is true of age peers in the Bristol research! What is dfferent is the small number of cases where the partner is more than a couple of years older than the girl. So there may well be a problem for school girls dating older young men but this is quite different to the campaign. If you look at the research you can see how the problems of a small subset of the sample have been twisted to all teen relationships.

[Groan]

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/UK-News/Domestic-Violence-Man-Dies-Every-Three-Weeks-Claims-Support-Group-In-New-Campaign/Article/201003115562684?lpos=UK_News_First_Home_Article_Teaser_Region_4&lid=ARTICLE_15562684_Domestic_Violence%3A_Man_Dies_Every_Three_Weeks_Claims_Support_Group_In_New_Campaign.

Story on sky and mentioned on gmtv

[Groan]

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/sarah-cassidy-tackle-the-cause-not-the-symptoms-1916517.html

A report that doesn't have the headline "more men killed by partners" yet is should.

[Bill]

As someone who has been physically, emotionally and financially abused by a woman with a serious personality disorder I find this campaign very offensive. Our children are also victims of this behavior. In English family law there is NO protection against a woman with this capacity. In fact the opposite is true, as a man I had to show regret for involving the police when assaulted and as a man I had to prove that I was capable parent. No questions asked about the abusive woman! England is 50-75 years behind in views on gender compared to Northern European countries and about half of the US states. It is pathetic and should be brought into the center of the election campaign.

[Groan]

Just to note Cosmopolitan has a goot piece on a Male victim in its April edition.
http://www.cosmopolitan.co.uk/your-life/april-2010-cosmopolitan-magazine/v1

The exelent Mark Brooks and Mankind get a mention. Amen has the text on its site.

http://www.amen.ie/Papers/0410_her_fist_slammed_into_my_face_cosmopolitan.htm

Keep chipping away to gain recognition

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[ZimbaZumba]

The research that this campaign is based is suspect, the University of Bristol has a history of advocacy based research. If you are going to base public policy on "new found facts", they had better be well founded and the research should go through independent peer review. Their report did not.

They found there was a difference in the extent of male on female and female on male abuse, which may be true albeit not massive. Then they introduce the nebulous concept of

"Research shows that suffering from abuse in relationships is more common for young women.. "

so as reduce the significance of female on male abuse into oblivion. The operative word being "suffering" this is a highly gendered concept and also results come from interviews. Young men would respond differently very likely minimising it for purposes of pride. A peer reviewer would laugh that into the "paper rejected bin".

These adverts and the research behind them are a disgrace. The associated site at

http://thisisabuse.direct.gov.uk

is in my view even worse as Government money is involved. The level of unfettered bias and bigotry that has leaked into our institutions is horrific.

This what female on male dating violence can look like

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dc_9CoH8upE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxFXO2OIj5M

[John Kimble]

A well informed contribution ZimbaZumba.

Bristol is certainly leading the way in terms of producing anti-male "research" these days although they're far from the only ones.

In contrast you'll find some very progressive voices at Lancaster University.

[flies]

Very descriptive article, I loved that a lot. Will there be a part 2?