Romany, are you telling us the whole story?

Which country were you in when this happened?

No, of course I'm not telling you the whole story. Am I really expected to go into more sordid detail concerning my personal life in order to validate an opinion?

The point is not my own experience - it is the commonality of experiences. This is the side of violence towards women that doesn't get written about in the Sunday papers or aired on ACA. I've known women chastised and vilified for even mentioning it.

What country was I living in? What an extremely strange question. Would it be ok if I had been living in, say, Antarctica at the time? Or excusable for residents of The Hebrides?

If what you are thinking is that this sort of thing doesn't happen in Australia let me assure you that it does. I have interviewed women from Toorak to Taree, from Caloundra to Childers - old women, middle aged women and young women. I 've also visited them in psychiatric wards, shelters, emergency rooms, nursing homes and their own homes. There is an article currently on OLO which describes a woman who is pregnant being kicked and beaten to make her miscarry. It took place in Australia. Do you think perhaps that was an isolated incident?

If the reason you doubt such things happen is because you've never read about them on your all-male sites, nor had any female friends sit down and confide such things to you this is hardly a basis for considering I'm making it all up. And you should give genuine and heartfelt thanks that you've led such sheltered life. For some people reality bites.

I'm all for holding bullies and creeps down. I'm even all for giving them a taste of their own medicine. Male or female. However, I am not all for gender bashing excused by statistical 'evidence' or personal experience. I'm appalled that such violence as Romany experienced exist in the hearts and minds of people. Not surprised, just appalled. Then again I don't think all people are equals. I am not willing to brand all men or all women as being complicit in the behavior of a minority of others. I personally know of a woman who slowly poisoned her husband to death over twenty years. Is this a less violent nature than Romany's experience. I don't think so. Is it any reason to vilify women or call them cavewomen. I don't thinks so. But, then again I don't support gender arguments and I think as long as feminist and whatever the hell their male counter part calls themselves participate in gender warfare not much will be done at any usable social level because the majority of people are not as these people want to portray every one with their broad gender discriminations.

It seems that if someone becomes suspicious of the statistics, then they are likely to be abused, and called such things as “Neanderthal”, “misogynist”, “ silly silly person” etc

So :-
Become suspicious of the statistics -> get abused.
Do not become suspicious of the statistics -> do not get abused.

In other articles recently, it has been said that men vote for female politicians based on their sex appeal, men only think of work sex and sport, men are elephants, and now men are cave men.

So as a man, I should not question

Instead I should believe that I vote for female politicians based on their sex appeal, I only think of work sex and sport, I am an elephant, I am a cave man, and of course I should believe that I abuse “women and their children”.

And if I don’t believe any of that, then I am likely to be abused.

I wonder if you can run a country on that?

Sam said

If you think DV orders have ‘great legal standing in family court’, I suggest you check this out with a Family Law solicitor.

The Family Law system is clear about the custodial rights and settlement rights of each of the parties and DV history does not come into it – unless the violence is extreme, can be clearly proved and is deemed by at least one court-appointed professional to be likely to cause bodily injury or death if allowed to continue. Before any decision can be made on any reported history of violence, both parties are usually required to take a separate Family Counselling assessment and a separate psychiatric assessment.

In any custodial battle, the children are given their own independent lawyer – whose role and interests are entirely separate from those of the parents and their legal representatives. It is this lawyer’s role to independently assess the affidavits of the spouses and their witnesses, and to request professional assessments on both parents.

There’s little left to surprise Family Law professionals. They’ve have seen and heard it all … many times over. Don’t assume that the system is so defective and so gullible that they take every DVO application at face value when deciding people’s futures – particularly children’s

This whole discussion has been perpetuated by certain morons who think that abused people should wear their scars like a banner in order to give credibilty to their suffering.
Some abused people can talk about their horror stories and even begin to heal, others internalise them and sometimes revisit them with violence on others.
I think that in the year 2007 we stop denying its' existence and learn mutual respect for all until proven otherwise.
Sorry, all those with little pee pees who think atrocities might make them bigger.
I do not think it works.