Media coverage of Domestic Abuse

Pompey Magnus

(A) "The perpetrators of the USA's violent gun crime epidemic are ordinary African Americans who have committed terrible crimes.

(B) "The perpetrators of the global economic collapse are ordinary Jews who have committed terrible crimes.

(C) "The perpetrators of domestic and sexual violence are ordinary men who have committed terrible crimes."

We live in a society where the first two of these ridiculous generalisations would rightly be condemned as being only possibly uttered by a narrow minded idiot and would never be given the light of day in any media outlet worthy of consideration and yet the final comment is freely spouted in today's Irish Times by a former senior manager in the HSE, Dr Jacky Jones: (Society can cut domestic and sexual violence

Dr Jones manages to write an entire article on domestic abuse without even hinting that men are almost as likely to suffer either minor or severe domestic abuse as women are (26% of men compared to 29% of women according to the National Crime Council / ESRI) and men are just as likely to suffer actual physical abuse as women (13% each). Instead time and again she pushes the stereotype that men are the default setting when it comes to perpetrators. Not only that but she also claims that otherwise non-abusive men can be encouraged into abusing their partners simply by encountering "macho" terms for abusers like "monster"...WTF???

Dr Jones is no stranger to the media and she is no idiot, as far as I am concerned it cannot be put down to poor wording on her part. The media falls over itself to use gender neutral terms so as to not offend women and her article would have lost absolutely nothing if she had shown the same courtesy, I can only put her explicit use of masculine terms in a negative light to her pushing an agenda. This article relies on the discredited myth that domestic abuse is a gender issue, it most certainly is not and an intelligent person like Dr Jones knows that full well, however bringing gender into the equation serves her purpose and so she uses it.

A further hint at her agenda comes at the end of her article:
"Anyone who scoffs at the idea that these social norms operate should consult the latest CSO and OECD figures which show women in Ireland are still treated as inferior humans.

They spend more than twice as much time on domestic duties as men, they are 58 times more likely to be looking after home and family..."

What an interesting method Dr Jones uses to identify the characteristics of an "inferior human". Seems to me that the the two great allies in demeaning women who work in the home are brain dead neanderthals and our intellectual elite in their ivory towers (and there seems to far more of the latter around than the former).

This isn't just a minor annoyance of mine. Pushing the lie that gender plays a significant role in domestic abuse has real world consequences and anyone genuinely interested in helping to solve the problem for all victims would tread much more carefully around the issue than Dr Jones did in this article.

Similarly I find it repellent that we live in a society where if a woman stays at home during the day caring for her child she is a victim to be pitied according to a certain section of our intellectual elite yet if she leaves home in the morning to go to another house to care for another woman's child for minimum wage she is to be praised and congratulated as a liberated woman. These women should have the importance of their roles acknowledged by society and not be demeaned in a nasty little article in the media.

I can't believe that it is anywhere near a common attitude among Irish people, the fact that one of the figureheads of this movement here, Ivana Bacik, habitually fails to get elected among the "real world" electorate is quite telling. How long are we going to have to put up with this backward mindset before it finally dies off?

9959

Your name's John Waters, do I win?

Boombastic

Former senior manager for the HSE, enough said about being in touch with reality

9959

Sorry for being flippant in my earlier post, but I fear that a 'women bashing' theme will soon emerge.
This may not be your intention, as your OP is cogently written, but...

kneemos

Where do you go or talk to even if you are willing to admit to being abused by a woman?

Chucken

kneemos wrote: »

Where do you go or talk to even if you are willing to admit to being abused by a woman?

http://www.amen.ie/

Dangerous Man

Brilliant post OP. For years AMEN has been bashing its head against a brick wall when it comes to domestic abuse; the Government, the media and it seems people at large don't want to accept the fact that men are just as likely to be abused in the home as women.

It really is time for a serious men's movement in Ireland to campaign on issues that are of importance to men.

kneemos

We've all heard of the odd case but I never realised so many men suffered abuse.A taboo subject it seems.

Pompey Magnus

kneemos wrote: »

We've all heard of the odd case but I never realised so many men suffered abuse.A taboo subject it seems.

It is indeed a taboo subject and articles like that above perpetuate the taboo. Our society has a warped attitude towards domestic abuse. Just one example being in cases where a man is known to have left his wife and children by walking out the automatic assumption is that he is a cruel monster who has selfishly abandoned his family. How many people entertain the thought for one second that he may have been a victim of domestic abuse?

Our society and judicial system when it comes to child custody leave these victims in a no win situation whereby if they leave their abuser they are viewed as selfish and will have very little limited future contact with their kids or else they can stay at home, avoid the stigma of abandoning their family and silently put up with the abuse.

I hope that a more enlightened future generation will look back at our generation's inaction on this issue despite having the data at our disposal in exactly the same way as our generation holds in smug contempt the ones which silently stood by as their children were being abused. We are making exactly the same mistakes and can't even see it.

mauzo

I was on the way to court yesterday with My dad. Over access and domestic abuse with My sons father.

The whole way in the car there were women on the radio explaining their stories. It took me years of silence before I told my family what was happening.

There was one text sent in from a woman who said when she gets angry, she beats her husband and children. I hope that woman gets help, its not just husbands abusive their wives, a lot of it is the other way around and I think its harder for men to talk about it and seek help.