The Rights Of Man

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.

CHILDLINE FIGURES ON FEMALE SEXUAL ABUSE MAY GIVE SOME BALANCE TO THE WAY MEN ARE PORTRAYED?

No-one likes reading about the issues of child abuse but at least the figures from Childline / NSPCC, which is run by the NSPCC, might stop the sole demonisation of men when it comes to this subject.

Childline's figures released yesterday showed that the number of calls from children stating they had been sexually abused by a women had doubled since 2004/05 and that now 1 in 4 calls where the gender could be identified showed that the abuser was female, a figure the NSPCC states is still too low because of under-reporting. Boys are more likley to sexually abused by a woman than a man. The BBC and the Press Association do a good job of covering the subject here and here.

In many respects this report show results similarish aspects to the previous NSPCC research which talked about physical violence in that the figures between men and women are closer than you would think given the propaganda and the general perception that only men commit these crimes.

The issue about who commits sexual abuse and physical abuse against children is also like the issue of domestic violence against male adults. It has been underground for years and the stereotypes that only men are involved in such crimes has become ingrained in popular culture.

Perhaps, male teachers will no longer be treated with such suspicion, that only men are depicted in popular culture as abusers and perhaps we can now see such awful crimes in a gender-neutral fashion where both the victims and perpetrators can be seen as from different genders and not just portrayed as men. Maybe we can have equality?

Google News

STORIES ROUND-UP

As is now becoming increasingly common, there is such a volume of stories and issues to cover it is difficult to keep up. However, please find below links to issues stories of interest that have not been covered in the last six or so weeks:-

False Accusations

There has been a deluge of false accusation coverage in the newspapers, it is concerning because the power of the false allegation is increasing all the time, to the detriment of the men falsely accused and of course, the women who are genuinely attacked:-

Basildon, Essex

Shropshire

Aberdeen

Durham

Berkshire

Thurrock, Essex

Jarrow, Durham

Advertising

Why men is ads are dumb?

British Men Make Best Husbands

Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph

Have You Turned Your Man Into a Hermaphrodite?

Judith Woods

Men Held for Playing Football With His Children

Daily Mail

President Obama

His betrayal of the working class male

NSPCC FIGURES SHOW GIRLS MORE LIKELY TO BE PHYSICALLY ABUSED BY THEIR MOTHERS

In yesterday's post, the NSPCC's Childline report (What Boys Talk To Childline About) on the increase in calls by boys was reviewed. However, there was one section that was worthy of a separate post.

On pages 10 and 11, the section on physical abuse revealed that:-

(1) Boys said that 39% of perpetrators were fathers and 28% mothers

(2) Girls said that 37% of perpetrators were mothers and 25% fathers

In terms of sexual abuse (pages 12-14):-

(3) Boys said that 21% of perpetrators of sexual abuse were fathers, 18% mothers (no figures for girl callers which is unfortunate as that would have added balance)

The reason why these figures are significant is two fold:-

Firstly, the anti-male domestic violence industry would have it that women do not attack men, only the other way around. All those that disagree are delusional, well, they are not. Violence against men also occurs in the mother- boy relationship as well as the wife-husband relationship.

In addition, it is worth noting how close these figures are. The ratio of 39% to 28% is 60% fathers/40% mothers).

The same is for sexual abuse, the ratio of 21% fathers to 18% mothers is 54%/46%, again much closer than the propaganda against fathers would suggest.

Secondly, the figures are significant because propaganda always show a father hitting their daughter when the facts show it is more likely to be the other way around. The most infamous is the Barnado's advert, the most complained about advertisement of last year (link) which shows a father repeatedly hitting his daughter.

So ingrained is the anti-male culture we live in, that charity's like Barnados and others who always show the man as the physical aggressor on girls can't be bothered about letting truth get in the way of another piece of anti-male stereotyping.

 

PADEL RESIGNATION SHOWS THE POWER OF THE FALSE ALLEGATION

So what does the case of Ruth Padel's resignation as Oxford's first female (why does it matter that she is a women) Professor of Poetry say about the whole issue of male equality and the metropolitan elite's demonisiation of men.

The issue arose last week where Ms Padel resigned because of her involvement in an 'alleged' smear campaign against a rival Derek Walcott. She passed on the 'concerns' of a student about an allegation (to which he was cleared) in 1982 at Harvard to two journalists. 100 Oxford academics had been sent an e-mail (not from Ms Padel) with details of the claim obviously in an attempt to derail his application. It worked as he withdrew.

Three issues, albeit interlinked, arise.

Firstly, what it proves is the power of false accusations made against men as a weapon to attack any man who has been accused, even if the allegation was unfounded. The allegation is 27 years old but still it was used as a weapon against Walcott.

Not knowing whether the law is the same in the USA as here (though it is likely), his name was in the public domain but the person making the accusation was not. If there was real equality in the law on this issue then both the defendant and plaintiff's identity should be kept secret  and then this would not have arisen. As we have seen, aided by the power of the internet (only takes a Google search), once an allegation against a man has been made, the stigma can never be removed for the innocent.

Secondly, it shows that a minority of females are prepared to use it as an advantage and obviously the concerned student who asked Ms Padel to pass it on wanted to use the allegation to help Ms Padel. But also whilst Ms Padel said she was naive in passing on the claims to two journalists, what was her thought process for doing so. Why did she think it was relevant to the campaign. If she did not think it was relevant to the success of her campaign, why pass it on, why not tell the student to do it herself and that she would have nothing to do with it.  

Thirdly, the excuses made by supporters of Ms Padel also do not understand (or care) about the gravity of the effect that false accusations have on men.

In The Guardian:-

Rose Tremain, rightly says: "It is a tragedy. But there is a moral question here – and I think it is unanswerable."

But why does Novelist Jeanette Winterson say "It's a pity she has been backed into a corner. What she has done is so much more ­trivial than her contribution to poetry. This feels malicious and nasty. We ought to be able to look beyond the woman to the poetry. This is a way of reducing women; it wouldn't have happened to a man. But then Oxford is a sexist little dump."

or as poet Jackie Kay said: "This was the first time that we had a woman as Oxford Poetry Professor – and she has had to resign over two emails. The old boys have closed in on her. It would not have happened to a man, and I am very sad."

The key lines are in Bold above. Firstly, it is certainly not to trivial to pass on false accusations and also it would have happened to a man if they passed on these smears. What it shows is that the mindset of those quoted is one where anything that adversely happens to a woman must be because of the fault of man or the male society etc.

This type of double think is seen as acceptable and shows clearly that we do not have an equal society where some people (members of metropolitan elite) truly believe that it is right to have different rules for men and women and those rules must be more favourable to women.

Media Coverage - Daily Telegraph, BBC, Independent, Times including the e-mail

FALSE RAPE VICTIM TO GET DAMAGES

A man who was falsely accused of rape is to be awarded damages through the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority. This is a first.

The poor chap who lost everything and the woman who was accused (Kirsty Palmer) got 10 months won a tribunal so he get compensation. This is a small victory and nowhere near makes up for his trauma. The Fawcett Society, going by their report (see Monday), obviously don't think she should go to prison.

The story was covered by the BBC, Daily Mail and Mirror.

Another false rape stories recently was in Sunderland. It shows that a tiny minority of women are prepared to use this against unsuspecting men without any regard to the consequences. It damages honest men and poor women who have been raped.

A new angle in Canada where a cabbie is suing four women who falsely accused him. Fortunately he had a video in the car which proved his innocence else he'd probably still be in jail.

FEMALE PAEDOPHILIA TACKLED BY THE BBC

The BBC chose last week to tackle one huge taboo subject (link) - that women can also be paedophile's.

This is NEVER spoken about even though their have been some stories where female teachers have had sex with under-age boys.

The section where people can put comments is particularly sad.

The key section is outlined below:

Steve Bevan, who for nearly two decades has run a support group for male victims of all forms of sexual abuse. Out of 18 men currently getting individual and group support, five say they were abused by women, three of them exclusively so.

Over the years we've had lots of men abused by mothers, sisters, aunties and baby sitters," says Mr Bevan.

"It's hard enough for adult men to admit abuse but to admit to abuse by a woman is even harder because it challenges their masculinity, it challenges their sexuality.

Congratulations to the BBC for raising this story and perhaps we may start to get some balance and recognition for those who are victims. It's a long way behind recognition of the plight of male victims of domestic abuse but at least it has been raised.

WHEN WILL THE GOVERNMENT CHANGE LAW TO STOP MEN BEING NAMED AND SHAMED UNTIL FOUND GUILTY

The case last week where Peter Bacon was acquitted of rape (link, link, link) continues to highlight the problem faced by men who are falsely accused. It means that whilst he was innocent, the stigma of his name being made public means he will never escape from it, it is on the Internet forever.

As he said himself, his name has been dragged through the mud and he questioned why his alleged ‘victim’ received automatic lifelong anonymity, while he was named as an accused rapist.

In a statement read by his solicitor, he said: ‘This case seriously calls into question the lack of anonymity for people like Peter who have been wrongfully accused of rape, and who are ultimately acquitted.

Whilst there is the issue about the false accusation itself, at least a dozen years after the issue was raised nothing still has been done on securing the anonymity of the accused. Rightly, the accuser should not be named before the jury's decision but the accused should not be either. If he is found guilty then rightly he should then be named but he is not guilty as the systme stands an innocent man's reputation is ruined.

The Government simply do not seem interested in bringing in this change which suggests they are happy for innocent men to be named and shamed forever. This blatantly unfair and wrong law should not continue.

Some previous posts on this subject are here (link, link, link, link, link, link)

UPDATE - Another story of a false accusation where the man was named (link)

An article in The Times (link)

FALSELY ACCUSED OF RAPE IN WANDSWORTH - NO APOLOGY FROM POLICE

One of the most pernicious crimes that a woman can commit against a man is to accuse him of raping her. Obviously rape is an awful crime and those who are guilty must be punished severely but when false accusations are made (often with the man being named) the man they are stigmatised for life.

There seems to be an increase in cases coming to the fore which is of great concern (link, link, link) to those men accused but also the genuine cases which probably make it harder for female who have been raped to come forward.

This particular case (link) is one of the most pernicious as it mean two teenagers spent months behind bars. As the article suggests the police do not seem to be remotely interested in the damage done to the boys, they have received no apology and are stigmatised.

Glenn Sacks in his commentary (link) says these boys are just 'collateral damage'. Very true.

FEAR OF MALE TEACHERS: A BYPRODUCT OF THE WAR ON MEN

The Daily Mail has long been the only newspaper in the UK who generally rejects the all-men-are-evil approach. They have some excellentwriters or accept contributions from the likes of Melanie Phillips, Erin Pizzey and Amanda Platell.

In this brilliantly written piece (link) by Carol Sarler, she highlights that one of the reasons behind the severe shortage of male teachers (article, report) is because some mothers have a negative view of men and also because they fear their children (especially daughters) will be at risk of some sort of sexual assault.

Ms Sarler rightly points out that it causes a real problem for boys who don't have fathers in the home so have no male role model. And of course, it effects men who want a career in teaching.

As posted before, the anti-male culture we live in has a myriad of victims. One post recently highlighted the issue on adoption (link) and now we have male teachers being unfairly put under the microscope. False accusations abound, which means when a man is accused of sexual assault etc on a pupil, his career is ruined and it is irrelevant if he is innocent. That is why there is an organisation called Falsely Accused Carers and Teachers (FACT) (link).

There are two ironies that always get overlooked as well.

Firstly, as the article says "When the NSPCC reported this week that the police estimate some 50 allegations a day of sexual abuse against children, they meant, overwhelmingly, abuse at the hands of family or of parents' friends."

Secondly, there have been many stories recently about female teachers having unlawful intercourse with their male pupils (link, link). All I hear is a vacuum of silence from those who think women=good, men = bad on this issue.

In education, as with so many other facets of life in Britain, the war on men is having a serious effect.