27 September 2021
4:08 PM
Exactly fifty years ago, the world’s first refuge for women fleeing domestic violence opened in London. After her small Chiswick terrace quickly filled to overflowing, the next twelve years became a constant scramble for founder Erin Pizzey as she set up dozens of women’s refuges by squatting in abandoned houses, before eventually attracting proper donors and real money.
Her success caught the attention of the fledging Women’s Movement which was struggling financially after their initial housewife fan base grew tired of their provocative antics. They realized that domestic violence was their perfect cash cow, an issue destined to attract generous support from women and the natural chivalry of men. So, they moved in on Erin’s operation and took it over, ultimately erasing her from the history of the women’s refuge movement.
That’s the great irony. Erin Pizzey’s own efforts became the trigger for an almighty, world-wide enterprise, an industry which she now describes as “one of the most fraudulent movements history has ever seen.”
She’s spent the last half century speaking out about the billions of dollars being spent across the world, employing armies of feminist bureaucrats to deny the essential truth that women are rarely innocent victims of dangerous men but more often active participants in family violence. Having grown up in a violent home, with a mother who once whipped her with the cord from an iron, Erin knew about how women contribute to generational violence. She wasn’t surprised to discover that many of the women filling her women’s refuges were as dangerous as the men they had left – lashing out at their own children and other women in the homes.
This brave woman’s determination to speak out about two-way violence led to death threats and constant harassment from the feminists, which eventually forced her to leave the country and spend many years living overseas. She’d planned a trip to Australia in 1976, having been invited by our women’s refuges but the invitation was withdrawn when the feminists discovered she’d spoken about women’s violence in the New Zealand leg of her trip.
Spending her working life being de-platformed, ostracized and abused doesn’t make for an easy life. There’s a fundraiser designed to help the now 82-year-old who is unable to afford a new car after discovering her old one failed to comply with new low emissions laws. I hope many of you will contribute something in appreciation of this heroic woman’s efforts to seek fair treatment for abused men.
Across the Pacific the Americans are also taking up the fight in a big way – this week launching a Tell the Truth about Domestic Violence campaign. This international media and advocacy campaign fightback is being driven by CEDV (Coalition to End Domestic Violence) which aims to ensure that domestic violence laws, policies, and practices are based on science, not ideology, and support the needs of all victims.
They’ve put together a heavily referenced document – Thirty Years of Domestic Violence Half-Truths, Misrepresentations and Lies – which exposes the role of the US Department of Justice in funding and promoting the ongoing disinformation campaign.
Take the famous 2009 statement by Attorney General Eric Holder claiming that intimate partner violence was the leading cause of death for younger African American women. It was five years before the Justice Department admitted that was wrong. In fact, it comes in seventh or eighth on the list, well down from causes like cancer and heart disease.
CEDV rebuts many of the key DV fibs, like men beating up wives on Superbowl Sunday or the recent promised “second pandemic” of lockdown violence. They have put together useful fact sheets to be shared by sympathetic media in the participant countries like Mexico, Portugal, Canada, as well as the UK and USA.
Meanwhile, in Australia we’re confronting a pivotal moment in our own disinformation campaign.
Next year the funding for the National Plan to reduce Violence against Women and their Children runs out – having wasted an extraordinary $3 billion largely on promoting feminist ideology which has no bearing on true causes of domestic violence. (Look at this extract from a submission by the one in three campaign to a recent inquiry, presenting abundant evidence refuting the central claim that DV stems from gender inequality.)
The stage is set for this huge juggernaut to just roll on, with the femocrats trotting out more of the same dangerous, anti-male propaganda.
But now there has emerged a powerful weapon which could just steer things in a different direction, if the silent majority makes itself heard.
In April a bi-partisan parliamentary report was released which included two pathbreaking recommendations, namely:
- “…that the next National Plan be named the “National Plan to Reduce Family, Domestic and Sexual Violence”
- “…that the next National Plan be inclusive of the diversity of victim-survivors. In particular, the next plan should recognise the rights and needs of women; children in their own right; men; older Australians; LGBTQI people; and people living with a disability.
Well, wouldn’t that set the cat amongst the pigeons? Requiring our domestic violence policies to properly address all victims of violence would mean moving away from failed policies falsely claiming that misogyny and gender inequality are principal drivers of domestic violence.
The Social Policy and Legal Affairs Committee that made these recommendations noted that the previous National Plan’s policies had been totally unsuccessful. “The $3b domestic violence effort has failed,” declared the Australian Financial Review after the Committee published their report. As the Committee stated, “It is clear that the national plan has not achieved its objective of a significant and sustained reduction in violence against women and their children.”
Hmm, well, therein lies the problem. The DV bureaucrats are endlessly expanding the definition of domestic violence – most recently by including coercive control – to expand their power base and keep themselves in business but that means they can’t possibly meet their own milestones for success. It’s a conundrum worthy of a Yes Minister episode, with Humphrey Appleby patiently explaining to his Minister that, “It’s not that we don’t want to see fewer victims, but …”
This important report appears to be languishing in too-hard baskets in relevant Minister’s offices. Cowering politicians are clearly nervous of arousing the ferocious women’s mob that ripped some of their kind apart earlier this year and hoping that by keeping quiet they might make it peacefully through to the next election.
But if we let that happen, the new National Plan will be set in stone – filled with even more measures which do nothing to actually protect women let alone all the diverse groups of victims, including men. The social engineering proposed by this mob is becoming even more ambitious: new school proposals covering financial literacy for girls as well as expanded gender equity and sexual consent courses; safe and affordable housing for victims of violence and more women in STEM initiatives.
Naturally there will be unlimited funding for the huge propaganda bureaucracies like ANROWS (Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety). Take a look at the catchy title of their latest offering: Crossing the line: Lived experience of sexual violence among trans women from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse backgrounds in Australia. The cost to taxpayers of this drivel was $262k.
Most of the community would surely support an inclusive policy that addresses all these victim groups, from men to battered lesbian women to vulnerable elderly or disabled people, and perhaps most important of all, children growing up with violent mothers. This has to be a popular measure – but what we must do is convince politicians that this is what most people want.