You have every right to be angry about the things I say on domestic violence. You should be pissed off. You should be upset. You should be fuming.
But not at me.
Be annoyed at those who have lied to you for so long. Be frustrated and disappointed by the advocates who have let you down, and media campaigns that have led you astray.
Be disillusioned by those who irresponsibly throw numbers around – and think a few TikToks, or a screenshot of a tweet is meaningful advocacy.
Because it isn’t – or at least – not without actual verifiable facts.
Be angry at the shelters, the refuges and charities whose dogmatic views hide the truth for their own self interests, to leave men and boys in the cold.
No. Domestic violence is not a gendered issue.
And no I don’t need to make personal threats to those who disagree with me.
I don’t need to whinge and whine, and obfuscate the truth. I don’t need to toy with semantics, or blur definitions, or petty fog.
I don’t need to call those I’m arguing against ‘incels’, or tell them to take a shower, or brush their teeth, or make crude jokes about living in parents basements.
I don’t need to do any of that – because I have the truth.
Look it’s right here [https://tinyurl.com/yck8j6tb]
Just follow that link, go to page 20, table nine, seventh column in and five rows down to find it for yourself. That’s the number of US women who were physically abused in 2015 – 3,455,000.
Compare that to table 11 on page 22 – 4,255,000, the number of US men who were physically abused in 2015.
They are the facts.
The official numbers from the Centre for Disease Control themselves, taken from the biggest domestic violence survey of its kind, the NISVS.
(I know 2015 is quite old, but its the most recent survey they’ve released)
In my opinion the conversation ends there, so keep your dogma, keep your catch phrases and nasty words.
Hard discussions are coming, so the only thing that remains is to ask is will you be part of the change, or will you be part of the past?
~
Sources:
[1] tinyurl.com/yck8j6tb
[2] tinyurl.com/bdds8fhc
[3] tinyurl.com/mr3fndcu
[4] tinyurl.com/4knatkxc
Images by – Thomas Verbruggen, Nguyen Chieu