O Sung Wu, I believe domestic violence has been around for all of human history, it's just that it is only relatively recently it has been a criminal offense to injure or kill your wife.
Before that , it was considered the man of the house's business what he did to 'his' family under his roof.
Some men these days are unable to get past that fact.

There is more domestic violence around because more people populate the earth and more victims are speaking out.
Also, maybe alcohol and drug consumption have increased, leading to more violence in the homes as well as out on the streets?

o sung wu, it may not be those who disagree with you who don't want to see the truth.

You should have a think about how much your experience was impacted by prevaling attitudes. Men rarely call the police over DV issues, a lack of faith that they will get any support if they do, a concern that the police will decide the easiest course is to treat them as the aggressor and remove them (easier than taking mum from the kids etc), difficulty in recognising themselves that their partners actions are DV. The issue is made even more difficult by the view that has been pushed by those pushing the gendered approach that when women assault their partners they are fighting back against an abuser (well refuted but it has traction in peoples minds). Don't blame the victim has no traction when the victim is male and the assailant is female.

I get the impression from your posts that you are of an age and mindset that has an overall protective view of women, not a bad thing overall as long as it's not a blind spot or something that hinders recognition of the fact that women ar human beings with all the strengths and weaknesses that go with that.

When was the last time you saw any public mention of female initiated DV as a bad thing other than on forums like this?). I've not noticed any for a couple of years but there were still TV adds running not that long ago that portrayed women about to assault a partner as their fun attention grabber.

The personal experience of police, nurses etc are heavily filtered by their own attitudes to gender and the social difficulty men face in dealing with DVinitiated against them. I know women face difficulties talking about it but it appears to me at a far lower level than the difficulties men face.

There are plenty of reasons why you and Suzie would have personal experience that does not match what the research that has tried to get to the truth tells us.

R0bert

I repeat:
The difference of opinion here is not pro violence vs anti violence it's between people who want the state to prioritise prevention of violence against women over prevention of violence against men and people who want a society wide anti violence approach.
Feminists and traditional conservatives both hold the same position which can be summed up as "women and children first" with no exceptions though they come to it from different starting points.
While the position of Tradcons can be simply dismissed as primitive and backward Judeo-Christian thinking the argument against Feminism is that it's a money making racket, like a cult backed by pseudo science and utilising political "in group-out group" tactics, hence the term "Feminazis".
Neither Tradcons nor Feminists are actively seeking to end domestic violence, they only want control of the state's social services and law enforcement apparatus to further an ideological agenda by diverting state funding to their own groups.

There is the sneaking suspicion that if a man reported domestic violence affecting him to community health's nurse assistant Suseonline she would very quickly admonish him to 'Grow a pair'.

If feminism is about equality, that equality must also apply to men. Also to those lesbians (and minor groups) who are being abused by their partners. That is all impossible where feminist dinosaurs refuse to admit that women are offenders too.

There is a problem with definitions and of course the favourable stereotyping of women, with the negative stereotyping of men. The old nursery rhyme is believed by some like Killarney and Suseonline for whom there is no redemption for infant boys, who are made of little bits of loathsome snails and discarded, smelly puppy dogs tails.

Conversely, old fire-breathing feminist dragons who block career progression of young women in academia and in public bureaucracies are very pleased to know that they are wonderful womyn, 'Earth Goddesses' in fact. They must be because they were made from 'sugar and spice and all things nice'.

Any wonder that young women run screaming from the feminist harridans.

It is a good article and not before time.

Having read these comments I cannot help but feel sad at how predictable this conversation is and how committed some people are to positions of hatred. Most comments are men saying 'please stop demonising me'. A few are women defending and asserting their prejudice that men are basically evil.

I've long given up being upset by the labels and slurs that are leveled against me when I challenge this hatred of men, this has always been the way the hateful argue, they are in fact exactly the same label and slurs that were thrown at early women's liberationists and civil rights activists when they challenged the prejudice against them.

What I cannot come to terms with is how this sort of emotional manipulation manages to work generation after generation. Whether it's women, or Jews, or black people, or men being vilified - the tactics are the same - and somehow they manage to get otherwise well meaning people to buy into it.

Human history is a story of hatred and division and we never seem to learn. Just get people scared and angry and point them at the person you want to hurt or destroy, and they will do it. Hitler Youth, Poll Pot, Genocide in Rwanda - It's all the same - a hateful power hungry few manipulating the emotional gullibility of the many.

I am not the enemy of women or any other peoples. I am the enemy of hatred, prejudice and fascism disguised as righteousness (and it's always disguised as righteousness). When do we grow up as a species?

Adam Blanch you forgot Bush, Obama, Howard, Abbot, Gillard, Thatcher, Churchill, the list goes on and on of power hungry people, lets create war, let Iraq sort itself out, but Obama can't wait to get in there, and China is in his vision of the next knock out.
How can anyone agree with any one else in la la land without fighting and killing, male or female.