Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) is the ideological centrepiece of a million placards; scorched across newspaper headlines, and is the driving force for the most garish social media content you can imagine. “VAWG” is extraordinarily effective – but only in the ways we don’t want. It causes division, and needlessly politicises important social issues. It provides simple, answers to complex problems. And in terms of victims, VAWG erases men and boys, and gay women entirely. VAWG sends a clear message that the safety, wellbeing and lives of men and boys, and gay women, are secondary to heterosexual women and girls. And whilst VAWG is effective at stoking division, it is also ineffective in the very thing it tries to achieve. It doesn’t work. I hate to say it, but 50 years on, we should review and admit to ourselves; the Patriarchy model of domestic violence is a sham. Called ‘a fallacy’ by leading experts like Professor Don Dutton, it is broken, and debunked as an idea that ‘did not fit’ lived experiences, according to the very person who popularised it. It is not supported by science, or evidence, or any any reasonable academic. It has been thrown out of discourse, and research numerous times, but like a drunk and unwelcome patron looking for another drink, it always finds its way back in. Today, it is held up only by angry, thin skinned, social media bullies, sycophants, and the entitled; for their own ideological or financial interests. It’s not the 1960s anymore, but 2023. There are far better, evidence based, intricately desiged, and truly inclusive models of domestic violence, that are ready to replace the old. So who is ready to let go of VAWG? Who is ready to treat the issue, not the gender? ~ Images by Womaniser toys, Dave AJ, Kiwi Hug, Dan Cristian Padure. Sources Dutton Straus CEDV Pence National Research Council Department of Justice

2023-09-20