The Rights Of Man

MEN TELL THEIR STORIES - FALSE ALLEGATIONS AND DOMESTIC ABUSE

Sorry everyone, very much on the run this week but Monday saw an appalling story how about the effect on Simon Boswell who was falsely accused of domestic abuse and the appalling treatment at the hands of the police.

Tuesday, saw brave Ian McNicholl update his story (and the supportive help he had from police) and the appalling wait he is having to endure on the NHS to repair the damage inflicted on him. What's the betting that if Ian was called Irene he'd have been treated more quickly. What is so good about Ian is the fact that he wants more to be done to help other men come forward. His is not a story about him, it is about urging more to be done to persuade more male victims to come forward - men who make up one in three of all victims. There was also a follow up on his ex-girlfriend.

Wednesday, saw another story in the Daily Mail under the pseudonym of Paul Roberts.

The comments on all stories are generally very encouraging because they show public opinion is shifting towards all victims of domestic abuse and not just female victims. Pity the authorities are still light years behind.

These stories must make the men-haters cringe because they undermine their view of men=bad, women=good. You never hear them talking about these stories, they would pretend they were never reported.

Posted by Skimmington  

NEWS UPDATE

A few recent items and thanks to those who passed many of them on:

Roger Helmer MEP: Resignation update - Discrimination by the Conservative Party against a man 

The Independent: The man who was the target of Britain's worst stalker (Gerard Gilbert) - An old story but one not covered here before but certainly always worth forwarding whenever stalking in spoken in the context of women only.

Hull Daily Mail - Domestic abuse against men up by 30%

BBC News - Where women rule and men are suffragettes (Timothy Allen)

 Daily Mail - Woman's Hour psychologist who made false claim in custody battle is found guilty of misconduct.   (Chris Brooke)

The Guardian - We tell boys not to cry then wonder about male suicide (Ally Fogg) - Great stuff by Ally and his comment is most telling "As I've written before, attempts by men to address their own gender-specific issues are often greeted with hostility and disdain."

Daily mail - Why I'll never let my Ex's new girlfriend meet my son (Kelly Rose Bradford) - A record 1287 comments surely on this rant.

Daily Telegraph - New equality rules could cost companies millions (Louise Peacock) -  Equality is equality so why the moaning from the National Association of Pension Funds - surely not another body that thinks it is OK to discriminate against men.

Posted by Skimmington 

NEWS UPDATE

A few from this week -

Conservativehome - David Cameron wants to use boundary review to choose more candidates: More political discrimination against men like this is what he means.

Press Association - Abusers let off lightly, say Tories: The Conservatives in Scotland like MSP David McLetchie do not believe that male victims of domestic abuse exist in Scotland.

Irish Independent - Equality is the feminist right to whinge

Daily Mail - Taxpayers fork out thousands for paternity tests as mothers try to cash in on wrong fathers

Posted by Skimmington 

 

ERIN PIZZEY - THIS WAY TO THE REVOLUTION

The site has had a few kindly comments about the books it has been featuring. No excerpt this time but a book I have been reading is Erin Pizzey's 'This Way To The Revolution' .

A key part for me is how the "Women's Movement", despite the fact she set up the first refuge, have tried to disown her, discredit her and carry out all sorts of other unpleasantness - because she would not play along with all the men are bxstards line and all women are angels line.

The fact that Refuge do not even acknowledgeher existence speaks volumes about them and every day they refuse to acknowledge her is another day they are discredited. It is also worth noting (and I looked) that the Guardian and feminists and bloggers said nothing on the book - effectively no platforming her. How the sisterhood hate sisters they disagree with - she is the 'disappeared' from the feminist lexicon.

The other part is that without her, there would be no organisations supporting male victims of domestic abuse - No ManKind Initiative (who she is a honorary patron of), no Abused Men in Scotland, no Dyn Project etc and certainly no refuges/safe houses for men - though there is precious little which she still campaigns about. She has stuck at this issue and made it possible for them to exist and made it possible for support and recognition, however little and however grudging, for male victims of domestic abuse to exist.

Posted by Skimmington

One last note - this always brings a smile especially as it was such a great riposte to David Cameron for his tawdry comments on Father's Day last year.

LISA LONGSTAFF BELITTLES AND DENIGRATES ALL 2.6 MILLION MALE VICTIMS OF DOMESTIC ABUSE

A few weeks ago the site commented that the the real reason that some feminist writers and bloggers did not like men (though there is a lot of women also hostile to their misandry) making comments on their sites was because they do not like the fact they had to listen to put up with people who disliked their dislike of men. They only want equality and freedom of speech on their terms, which means no opposition and no platform.

An example of some offensive, gratuitous and anti-male nonsense can be seen in Lisa Longstaff's article in the Guardian.

In her article on the domestic abuse consultation she complains that women need action not consultation - the argument here is not with that.

The issue is with the paragraph:

Moreover, cuts to refuges, legal aid, Citizens Advice and other community support remove the expert help women need to get any legal protection at all. Instead the government is putting £225,000 into a fund for male victims of domestic violence.

Firstly, the cuts to the services mentioned affect men as well as women, but the main issue is that she is complaining about the paltry £225,000 of extra money (women's refuges receive about £65 million per year and male refuges probably get about £500,000) that the undeserving 2.6 million male victims of domestic abuse do not deserve. She tries to make the point that this money should not be available at all and even worse it is due to cuts from women's services that is making this money available - when it is not. There is real hatred there.

How dare the government (she is effectively saying) give those men with their children (both sons and daughters remember) any money at all. She think its offensive. All those men abused physically and emotionally by women (and also by male partners) are treated with such disdain. There are so few services for male victims at a national or local level so to complain about this little extra is frighteningly mean and spiteful.

Her belittling of male victims is a total disgrace and she has shown she really does not like men at all. What other reason could she possibly have for writing that paragraph, and could you imagine the outcry if a man had written the same and reversed the genders.

Lisa Longstaff has a problem with the fact that women can commit domestic abuse against men. No matter what some feminist bloggers want, sites like this and also those people who commented on Lisa Longstaff's article at the botom of it will continue to speak up against misandry.

Posted by Skimmington

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE CONSULTATION - GOVERNMENT STILL CANNOT BRING ITSELF TO PLACE MALE VICTIMS ON A PAR WITH FEMALE VICTIMS

On Tuesday, the site commented on the government's (leaked) new consultation on domestic violence also that there was to be a fund for services for male victims of domestic abuse (the fund has a short period and groups have to spend the first batch of money very quickly - by the end of March 2012).

The press release and explanation has been gender neutral but the document itself sets out clearly that it is only really about female victims of domestic abuse - this is because of the foreword by the Minister for Women and Equalities who is also the Home Secretary - Theresa May.

The document explains that 1 in 4 women will be a victim of domestic abuse on their lifetime and that two women per fortnight are murdered as well as the fact that 1.2 million suffer per year. Looking at the ManKind Initiative's key facts about male victims you can see the alternative figures (1 in 6 men, one per fortnight murdered and about 700,000 men per year) so why are these not in the foreword. They are from the same Home office sources.

It may be OK to mention the number of younger boys who are victims (and it has been very good this issue has at least been raised) but only mentioning women when the alternative male figures are available on a consultation for both men and women is as clear an example of institutional discrimination against men as you will ever see. Someone at the Home Office who drafted the foreword had consciously decided not to include men. Must have been someone from the government's equalities department - that part of the government who explicitly states that its work does not include men:

 
Despite the coverage given however to the leak about the consultation, at least some of the media and otehr commentators had got better at producing a balanced view.

Radio 4's Today programme on Wednesday was a case in point where while the case study was of a female victim it was made clear that it happens to men and women, with Carmel Napier from ACPO restating this. Sky mentioned men as well.

However, because the foreword only mentioned men really and also the tone of the idiot, sexist and biased reporters had been set previously in the week, the notion that the consultation was only about female victims continued. Examples can be found here - The Sun, Daily Mirror, Standard, Daily Mail (Melissa Kite) and The Guardian (Lisa Longstaff)

Posted by Skimmington

MORE NEEDED TO MAKE SURE DOMESTIC ABUSE EQUALITY BECOMES A REALITY

Monday saw a post about how the media forget male victims exist and not helped by the government who often forget that men are victims too (Sonia Poulton wrote a great piece righting that wrong). The problem with the government is while their policies are gender neutral they are often not explained that way (including by them) and they certainly not applied that way.

A case in point (and pointed out by a kind reader) was this pathetic suspended sentence of a woman who attacked a man with a golf club and was not sent to jail. If the genders were reversed does anyone really believe this is all a man would have got?

The government though has announced that it will be launching this week a fund to help male victims (see question 4) at least it is some recognition bar giving the Men's Advice Line (run by the awful Respect) money for its helpline.

The issue is that small initiatives are welcome and so is a gender neutral policy but more, much more, has to be done to make sure the support and recognition is happening on the ground. Pathetic and sexist sentences are one such example of how discrimination remains rife in domestic abuse.

Posted by Skimmington

MEDIA STILL FORGETTING MEN CAN BE VICTIMS OF DOMESTIC ABUSE

While the BBC and others tend to be a bit more balanced in ensuring the way they portray domestic abuse as being about male victims as well as female victims, some continue to only keep one eye open even though the statistics are clear that one in three victims are male. It is a theme raised before. This weekend we have seen more cleaq eampoles:

The Sunday Telegraph's Patrick Hennessy broke the story under this headline: Men who bully or abuse their partners in a "controlling" fashion could face criminal charges under a shake-up of domestic violence laws being planned by ministers.

The Mail on Sunday's Jack Doyle followed up with: Bullying husbands could face court for 'emotional abuse' as domestic violence laws are tightened


Yet both articles go on to say later on that men can be victims too, but the impression is clearly left (especially because of the headline) that again only men perpetrate domestic violence and only women are victims. It is this biased and awful reporting that continues to give succour to those who believe that domestic abuse is a gendered crime and do all they can to stop male victims from being recognised and getting the help they need.

Shame on you Telegraph and Mail.

Posted by Skimmington

PARISH NOTICE - NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON DOMESTIC ABUSE

Good to see a conference on this subject - from the ManKind Initiative

PARISH NOTICES - MEN'S MATTERS AND DOMESTIC ABUSE AWARENESS WEEK

Two parish notices:

(1) Men's Matters on Express FM 

The latest broadcast of Men’s Matters, presented by James Williams, is being going out live on Tuesday 22^ndNovember at 1900 GMT on 93.7 ExpressFM. Most listeners do not live in Portsmouth (England) but can listen on line. To listen in live click on: http://www.expressfm.com/player/

If you are unable to listen at this time, the program does get moved to Listen Again after a few days which can be played at anytime. You can hear it by clicking on Listen Again on: http://www.expressfm.com/player/od/and then select the Mens Matters icon.

The show lasts barely one hour but is the only one of its kind in the UK. The only advertising it gets is through people like yourself passing it on so if you can, please tell people about it.

This edition includes an interview with Tom Martin who is suing the London School of Economics for £50,000 of damages for sexism against men. He says the course he undertook had been was misleading in its advertising, and breached the Gender Equality Duty Act. Listen to his exclusive interview. May be we all could learn something by his action? There is also an American contribution from the Tom Leykis show in Los Angeles concerning the distressing affects of single parenting.

(2) Domestic Abuse Awareness Week

 

Today was the the start of the above and eagle eyed readers are encouraged to point out any examples where the police or councils run or support events during the week that only raise the issue about female victims, and not female and male victims.

This is not only the usual discrimination but also places the authority in danger of breaching the Public Sector Equality Duty. Here is one by Crimestoppers (a charity) so the Duty does not apply.

 

Posted by Skimmington