There was a good article by Michael Gray last year on OLO entitled "Domestic violence - a statistical 'shock and awe' campaign?" (http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=5077). Rob Moodie should read it and if he was then actually serious about working out myth from reality (and I doubt that he is) start investigating the (gender political) background to the 1996 Women's Safety Survey (WSS) - truely one of the worst peices of 'social research' ever. That survey was apparently fully funded by the Office of Status of Women (OSW) (as indeed was the later Acess Economics study that claimed domestic violence (against women only of course) cost the nation $8 billion a year - based largely on the WSS study of course).

If the tobacco industry funded a study finding smoking to be good for your health we would regard it as junk research. So we should too with the OSW funded WSS study. But they were very clever getting the ABS to sign off on it. A lot of pressure was applied to get that result. Interestingly with this latest (PSS) survey OSW only funded 50% of it and OSW (now called something else) are not as powerful as they used to be. So surprise, surprise, the results were quite different to the WSS findings. I suspect if you could get the ABS to do a survey that had no meddling and pressure from the OSW types, the result might be even more surprising. The real message that the DV industry is trying to peddle is not simply the 'universal victimhood of women' - it is a re-packaging of the failed 1970's slogan 'all men are bastards'. Some are. Most aren't. And some women are surprisingly violent and viscious. Men like Moodie should start to wake up. They won't of course because they have been fooled into thinking they are in the vanguard of some chivalrous crusade to protect women from the 'rest of us'. Thank God the mainstream of society aren't buying it.

QKay

I found this interesting piece at

http://www.theage.com.au/news/education-news/cyber-bullies-are-wrecking-lives/2006/09/30/1159337347814.html?page=2

"a 2006 survey by the National Coalition Against Bullying and teen magazine Girlfriend, which found 42 per cent of 12 to 15-year-old girls reported being intimidated or denigrated online or by text messaging. Ms McCaffrey says both boys and girls cyber-bully, although more research has been done into girls doing it.

"Often very nice kids who would not bully face to face hide behind the anonymity of the internet," she says. "They feed off each other and it becomes a frenzy as to who can be the nastiest or most obscene - their parents would be horrified if they knew." "

Yes, it says that both boys and girls are doing cyber-bullying. I do not deny DV from both genders. I see a parallel between bullying and DV.

Another interesting article can be found at:

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/they-just-want-to-be-loved/2005/10/30/1130607152238.html

" 'Dr Spears said while the girls indicated they used all forms of bullying, including physical bullying, the most common form was verbal, directly or indirectly.

"They are quite clear that their type of bullying is verbal and inflicting a mental hurt," she said, adding that boys tended to be more physical.' "

This shows that at school level that girls are capable of recognising that verbal abuse is a type of violence. This is not to justify physical violence, but to illustrate that verbal abuse is designed to inflict hurt.

Why haven't feminist groups come out and denied these studies and evidence? Maybe they haven't realised that this evidence, that people often carry their bullying behaviour from the school yard into their adult relationships, counters the idea of women as victims and men as perpetrators.

And sometimes bullying behaviour, Romany, can take the form of denying others arguments and experience. Of course we take part in discussions that interest us, that touch raw nerves. Often it is in those areas that we have done a bit of research or devoted some thought. Or are you seeking to deny us a voice?

Pt 1

Michael Flood wrote…

“In acts-based approaches such as that used in the PSS, ...‘acts’ “are stripped of theoretical and social meanings and, as such, provide an inadequate basis for describing or explaining the violent acts of men and women.”

And…

Violence prevention advocates typically use the term ‘domestic violence’ to refer to a systematic pattern of power and control exerted by one person (usually a man) against another (often a woman)…. “In addition, women may experience the impact of non-physical tactics of control and abuse – controlling their movements, destroying property, verbal abuse, mind games, and so on – as more damaging than physical aggression. (…)

At least Flood acknowledges in the first paragraph that women are actually capable of violent acts. Quite a statement for you Michael. But then he delves into the notion that a systematic pattern of power and control is ‘usually exerted by the man’. My partner was a victim of this kind of control by her ex husband (which of course included financial control) and I have known a couple of other women who were the victim of it. But of all the women (and relationships) I have known over almost 50 years this ‘man controlling the woman’ vision is a relative rarity. More often, it was virtually in the reverse. The man fearful of ‘getting in the doghouse’, or having to ‘spend the night on the couch’, willingly handing over his pay packet each week because his wife ran all the household budgeting (and was often smarter with finances).

Cont'd

Romany and la1985

have a look at this site and read the articles! Look at the research.

http://www.mediaradar.org/

and this article;

Is Misandry Protecting Mothers Who Murder And Maim?
http://mensnewsdaily.com/2006/11/06/is-misandry-protecting-mothers-who-murder-and-maim/
By Teri Stoddard

"I’m a woman and I used to believe what the media said about men. Now I know better.

The media constantly exposes us to inaccurate, negative impressions of and statements about men. In looking for the root of the problem I found a network of people who benefit from misandry."

la1985!

Erin Pizzey who opened the worlds first refuge wrote the article in which she describes violent women as family terrorists. (Do your research girl)

The hypocrisy lies in the fact that feminists only want to present one side of the debate. If exposing female violence is anti woman, then exposing male violence is anti male.

If you claim to support equality, human rights and social justice, then you must support expanding the debate beyond misandric propaganda. If you do not support this then you are supporting totalitarianism and equality, human rights and social justice are just meaningless terms.

Some of your statements about me are manipulative and abusive and I am past caring about what some people like you may say or write about me.

One of my ah ha moments is the realization of how critical and judgemental some members of your gender are!

Warren Farrell wrote a book titled "Women don't hear what men don't say" he should have titled it "Women don't want to hear what men are saying."

Toby Green (Psychologist) wrote that some women actually believe that they are better people than men.

Before you buy a white ribbon read this.

DISHONESTY IN THE DOMESTIC VIOLENCE INDUSTRY, 2006
Micheal Woods
Senior Lecturer
University of Western Sydney
http://menshealth.uws.edu.au/documents/Dishonesty%20in%20the%20DV%20Industry.doc