The Rights Of Man

MALE SUICIDE RATES STILL THREE TIMES HIGHER THAN FEMALE SUICIDE RATES

Recently it had been mentioned that when a male member of the now defunct Equal Opportunities Commission had been asked why there was no Minister for Men, he depressingly but unsurprisingly said there was no reason to have one.

The recent figures (published Jan 2008) by the Office of National Statistics (link) and (link) on male suicide rates clearly show one of innumerable reasons why there should be a Minister for Men and why more attention needs to be given to the sad tales behind the figures.

In 2006, there were 5,554 suicides in the UK and three quarters of these were men. 4,196 men committed suicide (17.4 per 100,000) whilst for women the figures were 1,358 (5.3 per 100,000)

In addition, whilst the rates of suicide for men between 15-44 and 75+ have fallen, those for men 45-74 has actually increased. The figures from the Office of National Statistics are below:-

According to CALM, who help and run a helpline for depressed men (link), one hundred thousand years of life are lost each year as a result of British men killing themselves. This of course, does not just affect the men themselves, it also affects their friends and families, of course many of whom are women.

The issue comes back again to the lack of help and support for depressed men from statutory agencies and the general anti-male, pro-women attitude by the state which means that many men are feeling scened class and are actually being treated as second class. There is no real help aimed at depressed men and certainly a Minister for Men would bring this into focus.

One key issue that often drives depression and suicide is when the economy turns and men start to lose their jobs thereby finding it harder to provide for their family or even get onto the job ladder. This also brings into sharp focus all the extra help that women receive in the workplace.

If the economy does turn in the next 18 months, then this may increase the male rates of suicide. The figures on the chart above show that male suicide rates were high in the early 90's, the time of the last recession.

MEN IN FORCED MARRIAGES - GOVERNMENT CAUGHT AGAIN OF PURPOSELY TURNING A BLIND EYE TO MEN

In February, it was announced that the Government were looking at a male-only refuge for men and boys who were being forced into marriage. According to the BBC report (link)"it has emerged that 15% of the people who seek help about being forced into wedlock are men or boys." There are 165 refuges for women forced into marriage, none for men.

Foreign Office minister Meg Munn said: "Generally people expect men to be able to look after themselves, to manage situations, so men subject to domestic violence, men subject to forced marriage are likely to find it much, much more difficult."

Firstly, it shows once again, as in the case of the plight of male domestic violence victims, that the Government knows there is a problem affecting men but CHOOSES to ignore it - to purposely turn a blind eye. It has been caught out again, ignoring men.

The second issue, is that male domestic violence victims (of whatever race) have been systematically ignored for decades - there is only one/two refuges for men. However, as soon as race/multi culturalism is brought into it, the Government jumps on the issue, ignoring the fact that many domestic violence victims are also from an ethnic background and they have been ignored.

They have been caught - once of ignoring men when knowing there is a problem and secondly only reacting on an issue because of multi-culturalism/political correctness.

NEW INITIATIVES FOR MALE DOMESTIC ABUSE VICTIMS

The past few months have seen an increase in activity in the organisiations (albeit still small) in the male victims of domestic abuse sector.

The ManKind Initiative has a new web-site (link)

A new help-line and service has been set up in Wales called Dyn Wales (link) and (link)

A new branch of Men's Aid has been set up in Scotland (link)

LX LITTLEWOODS DIRECT THINK MALE DOMESTIC ABUSE VICTIMS ARE FUNNY

One of the many this site's kind readers brought up a LX Liitlewoods Direct viral campaign which is available on YouTube. It was used as a Christmas viral advertising campaign in 2005 and shows four men in casualty that have been harmed by women, including one man with a stiletto embedded in his skull. It is based on their campaign about "What Women Won't Want For Christmas".

They seem quite pleased with themselves that the campaign was a success (link) and Mr Funny,  Michael Duffy, Head of Online at LX Direct said, " We wanted to investigate if they would respond to a viral campaign that was a bit more off-the-wall than normal".

The two points here:-

Firstly, LX Littlewoods Direct would never, and rightly so, create an advert that showed battered women in casualty with a tag-line "What Men Won't Want For Christmas". It wouldn't even enter their thick head, but an advert showing the same against men is fine by them. It was a similar issue to the MFA advert (link), the Superdrug Punchbag (link) and the All men Are Bastards Knifeblock (link).

Secondly, a common thread coming through much of the media coverage on the subject recently was that men as domestic abuse victims are not taken seriously by society at all. This was a brick wall that male victims were facing and remember that as many men are victims of severe force in a relationship as women.

p>The viral advert is below:-

NEW CRIME STATISTICS ARE WAKE UP CALL TO THE PLIGHT OF MALE DOMESTIC ABUSE VICTIMS

New British Crime Survey figures published by the Government (link) show that as many men as women are victims of 'severe force' in a relationship (1.7% men and 1.8% women).

These figures were highlighted by The ManKind Initiative (link) who accuse the Government, the police and local authorities of turning a blind eye to the plight of male victims, especially as the figures are irrefutable when they are the Government's own figures (link). This is because the Government do not provide local authorities with funds, the latter don't ask for it and don't want to know and very few police authorities accept that men can also be victims.

The ManKind Initiative also highlighted the trend over the past three years which show that c40% of male victims of domestic abuse are men.:-

	Men			Women
	2004/05	2005/06	2006/07	2004/05	2005/06	2006/07
Partner Abuse (non sexual)	4.1%	4.0%	4.3%	5.6%	5.7%	5.6%
Partner Abuse (non sexual -severe force)	1.6%	1.3%	1.7%	1.8%	1.8%	1.8%

Whenever, you hear Feminist Fundamentalist groups such as Women's Aid, Refuge, The Fawcett  Society etc, deny that male victims need help or if they only talk about female victims, then use these figures. Their untruths are no longer sustainable.

GMTV FEATURE SUCCESSFULLY THE PLIGHT OF MALE DOMESTIC VIOLENCE VICTIMS

When opportunities come along to highlight the plight of men, let alone male domestic violence victims, it is essential that these are taken and that the features are informative.

GMTV therefore must be congratulated on the way they handled the plight of male domestic violence victims on both Wednesday and Thursday. Not only was the coverage comprehensive, it was handled sensitively and was informative.

The point was made, especially by the ManKind Initiative's representative, that the plight of male victims can no longer be ignored by the Government, local authorities and the police.

Links to the features still available on their web-site can be found (link) and (link).

GMTV FEATURE THE PLIGHT OF MALE DOMESTIC VIOLENCE VICTIMS

The ManKind Initiative are reporting that GMTV (link) on ITV1 are running features on the plight of male domestic violence victims both tomorrow (Wednesday) and Thursday.

ANTI-FREEZE POISONER GETS 30 YEARS

Kate Knight  who was found guilty of poisoning her husband with antifreeze received a 30 year sentence. It was the top of the scale for sentencing attempted murder cases.

The story had previously been covered here (link).

On the previous post above, it was said that this case received the level of coverage it deserved. One commentator disagreed because the media had not made the connection between this case and the fact that it was a case of domestic abuse. He was right.

There does not seem to be any articles in the media that connect this case to the wider issue of male victims of domestic abuse. It is almost treated as a one-off case.

Whilst there has been some recent movement in the media on this subject, it shows that more needs to be done.

Whenever an opportunity arises, this sad case should be used as an example of how men are DA victims as well as women.

CONGRATULATIONS TO RADIO FIVE LIVE (5) FOR FEATURE ON MALE DOMESTIC VIOLENCE VICTIMS

As reported (link), the Stephen Nolan show on Radio Five Live (5) ran a feature on male domestic violence victims.

It was first rate and aired an interview with Erin Pizzey and a victim. Subsequently, they were inundated with calls from other victims, many of whom were interviewed. Not in recent years has there been such an opportunity to air this taboo.

It can still be heard at (link) and thanks to Men's Aid (link) - the timings are  01:34:40 to 01:43:00 and then 01:45:00 to 01:57:00, 02:01:30 to 02:28:30 and lastly 02:35:30 to 02:45:00.

If you ever hear those from

• Women's Aid,
• Refuge,
• NSPCC,
• Fawcett Society,
• Commission of Equality and Human Rights,
• Labour Government,
• Media.

deny that men are victims, sit them down and make sure they listen to every single word said on this programme.

With this feature and other articles such as those in the Telegraph, The Independent (link), (link) and (link), if the current Home Affairs Select Committee on Domestic Violence does not take male victims seriously in its findings then it will be a whitewash.

ERIN PIZZEY - INDEPENDENT ARTICLE

I know Erin has been well covered here recently (and rightly so), but there was an overview of her work in The Independent two weeks ago. For completeness, the article is here - (link).