“TheTinMen is a liar!” It’s a familiar sight. But what people don’t realise about TheTinMen, is that I don’t do the research. I just gather the best of it, and present it back to you. Sorry to burst your bubble – But I am not a prestigious professor, whose pioneering work gave birth to an entire field of research, I am not building consortia of scholars, travelling the world, gathering life’s greatest insights. I am not founding journals, research labs, or accepting life time achievement awards. But those whose research I share with you… are. So, to those accusing me of misleading people, of hyperbole, or of flat out lying… Understand you’re not actually accusing me of lying at all, but the giants of whose shoulders I so meekly stand. I suppose, my biggest ‘lie’ – of which I stand accused by even the most noble of advocates – is my insistence of ‘gender parity in partner violence rates’. It’s the one that really gets steam blowing out of peoples’ ears. But, again, it’s not me who’s making that claim, but someone more experienced and knowledgeable than either of us, and likely, anyone else that’s ever lived. For partner violence, that person is the late Professor Murray Straus. The literal founding father of the field of family violence research, whose work provided the bedrock we stand upon, and whose research ranks him alongside other godlike scientific minds like Hawking, Einstein and Friedman. And yes, “gender parity” is the claim he spent a lifetime proving to the world. So put down whatever BuzzFeed article you’re waving around, forget about whatever that sassy finger snapin’ influencer told you, and answer me this… Is Straus ‘lying’ too? Or do you know better than him as well? In my view, to deny the true scale of male victimisation, as so many do, is not only to deny the lived experiences, immiseration and desperate need of millions of men; it is to deny a mountain of compelling data, akin to that of a flat earther waving away NASA photography. So yes, understand what I say is unpopular, of course it is… But does that make me wrong? Well, for that, you must make up your own mind… ~ Straus Study

2025-01-17