Today is International Day to Eliminate Violence Against Women/White Ribbon Day, marking the start of 16 days of worldwide campaigning against 'gender based violence'. The White Ribbon Campaign is a global campaign to ensure men take more responsibility for reducing the level of violence against women.
Meanwhile, the Guardian today reports a speech given by Attorney General Baroness Scotland in Paris yesterday, ahead of International End Violence Against Women Day. In it, she stated that domestic violence costs the British economy £5.8bn a year, and significantly depresses women's ability to contribute to economic growth.
As the Guardian report mentions, the main provisions of the Forced Marriage (Civil Protection) Act 2007 came into force today. Forced marriage is a significant cause of violence against women. As a reminder, the Act enables a victim, friend or the police to apply for a 'Forced Marriage Protection Order', which can forbid families from actions such as taking people abroad for marriage, seizing passports or intimidating victims.The only thing that I would add to the above is that men are, of course, victims of domestic violence as well as women.
I am glad you mentioned that men are victims of domestic violence too. I am angry that the government is breaking the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 in its treatment of women over men in relation to prison sentences. See my Titan Prisons my arse post for the story.
ReplyDeleteThanks John.
ReplyDeleteJohn's post can be found here.
It isn't domestic violence that is 'gender-based' but the politicised response to it.
ReplyDeleteThose who call for the ending of 'violence against women' are not concerned with ending violence so much as with making a political point.
While Baroness Scotland, Harriet Harman & their ilk remain wedded to the view that domestic violence is a culturally endorsed consequence of the patriarchal hegemony I doubt there will be any effective reduction in DV.
Surely it should be International Day to Eliminate Domestic Violence and both sexes should support it.
ReplyDeleteI am disappointed that people think opposing violence is the consequence of some leftist feminist agenda.
ReplyDeleteFrom my point of view not only are women largely the primary victims (85%; children are also victims in that they witness violence.
All rightminded people should oppose this sort of abuse - and yes that means standing up for the men who are victims.
Well said, Paul.
ReplyDeletePaul, I didn't read any comments that said DV wasn't anything other than a political point scoring game. I thought that the thrust of opinion was that it shouldn't be directed at just one gender.
ReplyDelete85%, 80% (Womens Aid website), 75%, (Government statistic I found), whatever, just one incident is too much, from whichever gender it originated from.
Swizz
"just one incident is too much, from whichever gender it originated" - well said too, Swizz.
ReplyDeleteFor the record, I don’t think opposing violence is the consequence of some leftist feminist agenda; I think turning violence into a gender issue is the consequence of some leftist feminist agenda.
ReplyDeleteI’ll support anyone who campaigns to oppose violence, but I won’t support a campaign which is only opposed to violence against women, or only violence against white people, etc.
To quote Erin Pizzey, ‘I'm not interested in discussions about how many men hit women or how many women hit men.’ As we learn more about DV so we learn that violence by women against men is far more common than once thought; there is plenty of evidence emerging to show that there are just as many violent women as violent men. Government figures (not just in the UK) tend to downplay these statistics compared with more independent reports. Just because men are on balance stronger does not make them more aggressive. Let’s stop the points scoring.
I agree with a most of what's been said but I'm not sure about the leftist feminist comment. As recounted by Erin Pizzey in an earlier letter to The Scotsman, during the early 1970s damaged women who had suffered DV influenzed the Women's Liberation Movement. These women were polarised by a sense of grievance against men fueled by emotional 'sharing' and derogatory discourse.
ReplyDeleteThere are lessons to learn here and they apply equally to fathers' organizations as to women's groups.