"Man Up" campaign by SafeIreland

Michael D Higgins used his re-election speech last night to call for an end to the "scourge of violence against women".

[..]

"The urgent need to end the scourge of violence against women cannot be deferred, but must be ended now," he said to applause.

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/presidential-election/the-presidency-represents-ireland-in-all-our-strengths-and-vulnerabilities-37466404.html

iptba wrote: »

It irritates me to see this being held on International Men's Day.
Description

The Health Service Executive invites you to join with leading Irish men and Irish women to talk about the need for Gender Equality with the Men's Development Network CLG on International Men's Day and to highlight International White Ribbon Day 2018 to End Men’s Violence Against Women and Girls and to promote Gender Equality

https://www.eventbrite...-tickets-52207779875

What are the chances the HSE would hold an event about ending Women's violence against Men and Boys on International Women's Day?

Going anonymous here.

I'm a man who'se wife (now ex-wife) emotionally and physically abused myself and our children.

The physical trauma healed quickly. I've been to counselling, psychotherapy, stress management and practice mindfulness to help me deal with the emotional trauma.

Two of our children, once they were old enough to decide for themselves, have also been to counselling help them deal with the emotional trauma.

A third child has struggled with emotional difficulties and anger management as a result of the abuse.

We've just had the Safe Ireland Safe World Summit. Of all the days to pick for this conference I don't think they could have picked a more inappropriate day. Could they not, for once, do something positive for international men's day.

I can't begin to express how this makes me feel. The physical trauma has healed, the emotional trauma I'm (mostly) coping with but this is like a knife twisting in an open wound. It's as if I'm invisible, as if I don't exist, as if I don't matter, our children don't exist and our children and what they have been through doesn't matter.

To dress it up in the guise of "Gender Equality" only adds insult to injury.

Is it too much to ask for it to be equally acknowledged that I, our children and many more like us exist and that comparable supports should made available? Is it too much to ask for us and others like us to be treated equally?

The abuse is now historic, the lack of acknowledgement, the lack of support, the discrimination is ongoing, compounds the original abuse and is possibly more harmful in the long term. It has, at times, left me frustrated, in total despair, depressed and at one stage, suicidal or having suicidal ideation and had I succumbed I wouldn't have been the first man to do so for the same reason.

Domestic violence is not a gender issue it is a people issue and as long as one half of those people are largely ignored half of the problem will never be addressed.

(Australia)

"No interest loans part of $15 million package for domestic violence victims" (but only if they are female)

https://www.9news.com.au/national/2018/11/20/06/37/no-interest-loans-part-of-15-million-package-for-domestic-violence-victims

Social Services Minister Paul Fletcher said the loans would be provided through Good Shepherd Microfinance to help women set up new lives.

"If you need to leave a dangerous situation because of domestic violence and you haven't got the financial resources to do that, you simply haven't got the money to pay for a bond, to buy new furniture in the new home, then sadly, experience says in too many cases women stay," he said.

The women killed on one day around the world

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-46292919

This article shows that 80% of homicide victims worldwide are male.
Probably in some cases, some of the males contributed to their own deaths e.g. by being killed due to criminal activity*.

However, even in the category "killings by partner or family member", 36% of the victims are male. That's not an insignificant percentage of all "killings by partner or family member".

*(Minor point) Though in some ways criminal activity can be seen as being like a dangerous occupation and the female partners of male criminals can benefit financially without undertaking the same level of risk of injury/death or incarceration.

I don’t watch Coronation Street but happened to catch a few minutes on Virgin Media 1 on Vera Duckworth last night. There was a montage of her attacking her husband in various ways including throwing stuff at him. Actors said with a smile something like she was often violent towards him. While it didn’t look at the severe end, I doubt it would have been celebrated if the genders were reversed.

Good to see that there is no gender-specific language in this

Wednesday 2 January 2019
Charlie Flanagan: 'I am committed to do all I can to tackle scourge of domestic violence'

Holiday times can be especially difficult for victims of domestic violence and their children. While many of us have been celebrating this holiday season with loved ones, in homes throughout Ireland women and men are being subjected to verbal abuse, psychological torment, and physical attack by their intimate partners. It is only right that we consider their plight.

https://www.independent.ie/opinion/comment/charlie-flanagan-i-am-committed-to-do-all-i-can-to-tackle-scourge-of-domestic-violence-37674200.html

It will be interesting to see on a practical level, how the new regulations will work out.

I just came across this 2 year old New Zealand study that suggests women, well New Zealand women, were more likely to use violence than men.

"It presents a challenging picture. If the findings were a true reflection of our community, we should be concerned," he said.

Wills said recent 'mainstream' studies on the subject had shown about 80 per cent of the perpetrators of domestic violence were men.

However, in their paper "A couples analysis of partner abuse with implications for abuse-prevention policy", authors Terrie Moffitt, Richard Robins and Avshalom Caspi found a more even split between the genders when it came to violence in the home.

They found that 40 per cent of male couple members in the study had perpetrated at least one of a list of 13 physically abusive acts, ranging from slapping and kicking to forcing sex and use of a weapon, while 50 per cent of women had. The data did not fit the male-dominance model, which attributes aggression mostly to men, the researchers concluded.

"[It] would suggest the need for policy that encourages development and evaluation of programmes to reduce physical abuse by women," the authors stated.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/timaru-herald/news/81025573/domestic-violence-study-presents-challenging-picture

iptba wrote: »

Drivetime on RTE Radio 1 today had a piece on domestic violence and the new Irish law on coercive control where non-violent behaviour is also covered.

It can be heard here at https://rte.ie/r.html?rii=b9_10982839_83_10-01-2019_

The relevant bit starts at 35:22

The interviewees were Davina James-Hanman, a UK independent consultant specialising in domestic and sexual violence, and Margaret Martyn, director of Women's Aid

It wouldn't be much of a surprise that the woman from Women's Aid only talked about female victims.
However, the other woman is an independent consultant who trains police forces in the UK.
She only talked about female victims until the interviewer asked about whether men's rights groups were commenting on the law in the UK or whether men could be victims. She said something to the fact that it was almost impossible for men to be victims because of the general sexism in society and the power that men have. She doesn't all sound like the sort of person who should be teaching police forces about the law. I see on Twitter she describes herself as a feminist, which is not very surprising given how she talked.

She talked about how it can be useful to ask the alleged victim about the relationship. If there was a whirlwind romance, she said something to the effect that this circumstantial evidence of a relationship where there was coercive control. Similarly if the man had showered the woman with gifts. I am very uncomfortable with any suggestion that such behaviour should be used in a criminal investigation (it is another thing if people want to warn women to be wary of such relationships, but that wasn't the context).

I remember hearing a good while back that Women's Aid or similar group were educating gardai about domestic violence. I wonder what the current situation is. I could easily see that training could be biased.
At the start of the interview, a Garda Representative was complaining that they want more training for the new laws.

Direct link is now up for the segment:
https://rte.ie/r.html?rii=b9_21491356_83_10-01-2019_

(Australia)

Coalition pledges $78 million for Australians fleeing domestic violence

More than 450 new safe spaces are set to be built to house thousands of women and children escaping domestic violence each year, through $78 million in fresh funding.

https://www.sbs.com.au/news/coalition-pledges-78-million-for-australians-fleeing-domestic-violence

I came across it via this article, which I haven't read yet:

The Demonisation of Australian Men
14th February 2019

It is to the the federal government’s shame that it has signed on to a biased campaign depicting men as the sole agents of domestic violence, most particularly white men and boys. The obscured truth is that women are also violent, but feminist ideologues and their panderers don’t want you to know that

https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/qed/2019/02/the-demonisation-of-australian-men/

That is nuts...especially when you consider that experts in the field of Domestic Abuse consistently tell us it is way more nuanced than just a gender issue.

Indeed, 70% of non reciprocal domestic violence, that is one partner abusing the other (as opposed to both partners abusing each other) is female on male...you won't find too much headline coverage of this fact...interestingly!

http://newscastmedia.com/domestic-violence.htm

LostinBlanch wrote: »

It's nice to see an article in a national newspaper focusing on female perpetrators of domestic violence instead of male ones. In this case it's Suzanne Harrington in the Examiner.

No doubt she's going to get a lot of grief from the sisterhood for going against the narrative.

When we think about domestic abuse, we think bruised women, terrified children, violent men. That’s the formula.



The statistics backed this up: in Britain, it’s two dead women a week, murdered by current or former partners. Two dead women, every week, and hundreds more assaulted, controlled, terrorised. There are fewer deaths in Ireland — 216 femicides since 1996 — yet domestic violence has the highest rate of repeat offending of any crime.


Men bash women once, twice, three times, until he loses count and she loses consciousness.

In the UK, 7 women die at the hands of their partner each month, but so do 2 men.

LostinBlanch wrote: »

Anyway, I expect it'll be drowned out within the next few days and forgotten about.

This Friday being womens day, it's probably consigned to history already. If it causes even one person to think or change, the article will be worth it .

I am unhappy with this tweet, which has gone over 1000 retweets and appeared in my Twitter timeline:
https://twitter.com/CoCoAwareness/status/1109495674616320000
Glad to see it being challenged:
https://twitter.com/peggy_woolley/status/1109508509903831043?s=11
https://twitter.com/senior_witch/status/1109508933088145410

iptba wrote: »

I am unhappy with this tweet, which has gone over 1000 retweets and appeared in my Twitter timeline:
https://twitter.com/CoCoAwareness/status/1109495674616320000
Glad to see it being challenged:
https://twitter.com/peggy_woolley/status/1109508509903831043?s=11
https://twitter.com/senior_witch/status/1109508933088145410

Based on the figures from England and Wales, if they were replicated internationally, 14,000 men a year are killed by their current or former partners. So again more than lightning strikes or shark deaths.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-22610534