The truth won’t always make you popular. It won’t win awards, brand deals, followers or friends. The truth is uncomfortable, difficult and shocking. Are you ready? Domestic violence is not a gendered crime. The data that shows women participate in abuse at equal rates as men is beyond debate, and consists of hundreds of studies, articles and surveys, captured from the last four decades. The research is solid. Not done by the marketing departments of private charities, but by the worlds greatest academic minds – Straus, Gelles, Steinmetz, Dutton, Fiebert Desmarais, Whittaker… This is not up for debate, any more. So the question moves on, no longer asking ‘do women abuse men too?’ And instead demanding, ‘who hid the truth for so long?’ Why didn’t we know this already? Who sent the bomb threats, stood outside the conferences, barred the entrances and pulled the fire alarms? And why? Who harassed our researchers? Who threatened the universities? Who stopped the promotions and picketed the events? And how many men and boys have suffered in silence as a result? So as the Depp v Heard trial rolls on, ask yourself – why are we so reluctant to see female perpetration? What happened to that kind of women’s autonomy? What about the men who are not world famous Hollywood movies stars with millions of dollars at their disposal? What about their suffering? Their visibility? Their justice? Who’s supporting them? Will this be a chance for us to finally look beneath the rock and see the ugly truth? A truth that for so many means the destruction of their political identity, and the end of their charade of bigotry. The end of ideology and the beginning of basic common sense. That women are not saints, but human beings; capable of the same good and bad as men. ~ Sources Straus Fiebert Demarais Cancel campaigns Images by Nathan Wright, Issy Baily and Anandu Vinod #justiceforjohnnydepp

2022-04-29