The Rights Of Man

ESTEEM CALL FOR MALE REFUGE IN CORNWALL

Esteem, the organisation that supports male victims in Cornwall have called for a refuge in the county. Wonder if anyone in Suffolk will do the same as over 7,000 of the 32,000 domestic violence victims are men.

The Government does not give a fig about these men though.

GOVERNMENT DOMESTIC VIOLENCE INITIATIVE PURPOSELY IGNORES MALE VICTIMS

The sickest irony of the Government's initiatives (including a ready reckoner, more to come in a later post) announced this week (entitled the Together We Can End Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy) is that it came in the same week as Jane Andrews who horrifically murdered her boyfriend had absconded briefly, a female teacher is jailed for having sex with a pupil and the Scotsman reported an increase in male victims in Scotland. 

What is clear (as if we did not know anyway) is that the Government is purposely and wilfully ignoring male victims. They do not even try to hide it as they have made it clear that the initiatives such as bringing education on domestic violence into schools is only to end domestic violence against women and girls not against men and boys as well. So men get told not to hit women, rightly so, but girls are not told to not to hit men. That is the true meaning of equality in the UK.

The deliberate decision to only use the "1 in 4 women will be a victim in their lifetime" figure and "two women per fortnight are murdered by a partner and or ex-partner" figure whilst ignoring the male figures of 1 in 6 men and two men per fortnight is shameful when the figures are from the same research. Sexism by omission.

Also, because so many people keep complaining to the BBC that when they publicise a DV story they only talk about it from a female victim perspective, Bill Turnbull, a presenter on BBC Breakfast, asked the Government Minister Alan Campbell MP about men on Wednesday. Attorney General Vera Baird repeats this on Women's Hour.

He asked him "Why does this initiative not include men because whenever we run a story like this, if men are not included, we get lots of complaints.". The Minister pathetically said "we decided that our priority was just on Women and Girls". Turnbull pushed him and Campbell basically said that as there were more female victims, this is where the priority was. Shameful, truly shameful and truly sexist.

If you are a male victim of domestic violence, this Government has made it clear, it does not care about you.

BBC "BIG QUESTIONS" DEBATE ON DOMESTIC VIOLENCE LAST WEEKEND

There will be a post in a few hours on the domestic violence announcements this week but worth looking at the debate (42 minutes in) on domestic violence last Sunday on the Big Questions BBC show.

There was plenty of people asking the question about why are men not to be included on the proposed ACPO register. When a woman said that all victims should be treated equally everyone clapped except for a few...

CALLING ALL DISCRIMINATED MEN - RESPOND TO THE EQUALITIES COMMISSION CONSULTATION

The Equalities and Human Rights Commission, one of the many organisations that says it believes in equality so long as that does not include men, is calling for evidence in its triennial review.

Not only can you fill in a questionnaire, there is the opportunity to have a face to face conversation with the Commission.

I would urge any readers to reply, I may just send them the link to this web-site...

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AWARENESS WEEK - WILL MEN BE INCLUDED?

Wednesday is Domestic Violence Awareness Week and this is the real litmus test on whether the Government and councils/police who tend to run local events include highlighting the issue of male victims within their campaigning. Once the week has finished this site will look at who has and who hasn't.

Certainly, from a Government perspective the Guardian revealed that male victims are not going to get a look in and this campaign in South Wales shows how some police forces purposely ignore male victims. But to be fair others like York do include men.

If anyone sees examples of where male victims have or have not been included, then please email the links through.

PETITION TO STOP THE SEXISM IN THE FAMILY COURTS

Dr Joel Robisnon of Familes Need fathers has submitted this e-petition to the Prime Minister:-

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to put an end to the demonization of separated fathers in the family law courts!.

MALE STEREOTYPE ON HOUSEWORK QUESTIONED

The Mail on Sunday had this interesting piece on gender roles and housework. This in the Guardian also talked about stereotypes and expectations and how they effect the realtionship between women and men. The comments section is very illuminating and as can be seen in The Observer, it's a challenge for us all.

HAPPY INTERNATIONAL MEN'S DAY

MEDIA RAISE THE ISSUE OF WHO IS THE SECOND SEX AND CHALLENGE STEREOTYPES ON ABUSE

The media blow hot and cold on male issues but whenever they are raised they are most welcome. It is always a pity that no politicians, beyond Iain Duncan Smith MP who has raised the issue of boys education, fatherlessness and gangs, seem to care about the plight of men and boys in society.

Two articles have appeared in the past few days raising some fundamental questions and also challenging stereotypes.

The first was written by Eleanor Mills in The Times which in a wide ranging and thorough article which looks at whether men have become the Second Sex, a term used on this site to describe the situation men now face (here). Of course, there should be no first or second when it comes to gender as we are human first, last and always, but it is a useful term to show how far men are discriminated against in the UK.

The second is really shocking and was in yesterday's Daily Mail, written by Barbara Davies. It tells the story of a man who as a boy was abused by his foster mother. It is based around the Childline figures which showed that boys were more likely to be abused by a woman than a man, which goes against all known stereotypes and societal knee-jerk thinking.

These two articles both highlight the plight of men, an issue which has been hidden away for too long. It is welcome that the British media in some quarters publish them. If only politicians, members of the Equalities and Human Rights Commission, the Fawcett Society and others would take notice of them.

ACPO REPORT IGNORES MALE VICTIMS BUT IS IT THEIR FAULT?

What is so worryingly predictable (issues of common law aside) about the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) recommendations to the Home Office was the lack of mention about male victims of domestic violence.

The proposals (5th down and beware may slow your computer) formed the ACPO response to the violence against Women and Girls strategy, a long-running Government consultation that completely and purposely ignores male victims of domestic violence and rape because those people don't matter. New powers were asked for such as a 'right to know' about violent men when a woman takes a new partner and a new criminal offence based on a body of evidence rather than a specific crime.

 Of course, any new powers will have to be applied to both female and male perpetrators and whilst the response only referred to women, what was noticeable was the gender neutral quotes given by Chief Constable Brian Moore who is in charge of this area for ACPO. The Guardian, Telegraph, BBC, Daily Mail (with debate) and others in their usual 'balanced' way only spun it about being against male perpetrators but Brian Moore seemed careful to avoid gender stereotyping too much (he does just mention women in the Telegraph). The politicians were happy of course just to mention female victims.

One wonders though that if the Government had asked ACPO to look at this not under the guise of Violence Against Women and CHildren but just under violence against people ina domestic relationship, whether the report would have mentioned men or would have been gender neutral. The impression is that with glacial recognition that men can also be victims, it may be the case that it would have been. Perhaps I am being too optimistic...

Pity of course, the Equalities Commission have no shame in just talking about female victims.