Response to email from Adam
December 6, 2007
Thank you for your comments. We agree with you wholeheartedly that children, women and men are all entitled to their inalienable human rights and that all violence against all people is wrong. We agree with your comments in relation to men’s health and the disease burden and mortality rates resultant of prostate cancer, depression and suicide. We agree with your support for Beyond Blue and your endorsement of the work Jeff Kennett has done in raising the profile of depression amongst Australian men, and men’s health as a priority. I agree that the profile of prostate cancer needs to be raised in proportion to the size of the problem. As for the discrepancy between publicity on prostate cancer and breast cancer, perhaps we need to question why men have been less active in drawing attention to this issue.
Even while wearing my white ribbon, I have been wearing a ‘Mo-vember’ myself because I am passionate about men’s health! I believe that many men’s reluctance to seek early medical assistance is based on unhealthy, traditional and ‘lesser’, narrower conceptions of what it is to be male (e.g. stoic & tough). I believe that the traditional narrower conceptions of what it is to be male contribute to the vulnerability of Australian men to poor mental health outcomes, including depression and suicide. I personally aim and struggle to become more fully ‘man’ in a broader sense. I believe that by broadening the spectrum of possibilities available to men in representing their masculinity, we allow for greater expression of our humanity. In years gone by, men were discouraged from displaying affection and emotion. By being able to kiss my children goodnight and tell them that I love them, I am experiencing a more satisfying experience of being a man. By crying when I am moved by compassion, sadness or love, I am more fully human.
I am sorry to hear of your personal experiences of being on the receiving end of bias. I was also sorry to hear of your friend who was physically assaulted by his x-wife. I am not so macho, or so naive as to believe that women can not and do not perpetrate violence against men. However, I do recognise that violence perpetrated against men by women is statistically very much less frequent, whereas male violence against women is perpetrated at such a level that nearly one out of every two women will experience physical or sexual abuse by a man in their lifetime. In regard to your comment about ‘kangaroo courts pumping up domestic violence statistics’ that are ‘rubbery’, I would like to point out that both the ABS Personal Safety Survey 2006 and the AIC Mouzas and Makkai Survey 2004 both rely on a randomised sample and do not draw on statistics from the criminal justice system.
The White Ribbon Campaign draws attention to male violence against women as a serious issue that affects too many Australian women. The rationale for this focus is supported by nationally representative statistics. However, this is not to say that we are blind to other types of violence, such as violence against children or violence against men and we would fully support anyone seeking to campaign on a platform of non-violence.
Entry Filed under: General, Violence as a Men's Issue. .
3 Comments Add your own
Leave a Comment
Some HTML allowed:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <pre> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>
Trackback this post | Subscribe to the comments via RSS Feed
1.
Adam | December 18, 2007 at 10:05 am
Thank you for your response. I would like to take the opportunity to respond to a few points that you make.
In regards to the question of why men have been less active in drawing attention to the issue of prostate cancer…we clearly live in a time where for many reasons the community relies on those vested with power and influence to drive issues and bring them to the attention of the community. It would be harsh to suggest that the issue of prostate cancer deserves less attention because men are not as apparently as likely to rally together. When we look at the breast cancer ‘movement’ we see that the public awareness campaigns are predominantly driven by very well funded organisations such as the NBCF. Notwithstanding the terrible grief that this disease causes, it would be difficult to defend the suggestion that the issue is not used by savvy marketers and in turn many of our most prominent and prestigious business giants. In simple terms, women take the crown for discretionary spending, and so the major players get out the cheque books to capture their hearts and minds. Take a walk down any retail isle and you will see just about every conceivable product swathed in some form or pink with a reference to breast cancer. Even in traditionally male dominated arenas such as international cricket and football breast cancer is given greater coverage than prostate cancer. This in turn creates a fund raising movement which results in organised fund raising activities, and so it seems that women are naturally more prone to rallying for a cause and this is used by some to justify why the attention of male and female health is not equal. But if we are to accept that men are naturally less capable of rallying about such important issues, isn’t this even more reason for us all to band together to help them?
I share your sentiments about the wonderful experience of allowing ourselves as men to display the plethora of emotions that come with being a parent, however I don’t agree that men were discouraged from displaying emotion and affection in years gone by as opposed to today. In fact, I believe that we now live in a time where men are more emotionally suppressed than they have been for a long time. For example, imagine if a man behaved in the same way that Bob Hawke did when he was at full flight. Drunken, loud, bombastic and menacing behaviour are definitely not on the ‘how to win friends and influence people’ list for today’s modern man. From early childhood males are now struggling. Falling academic results and ballooning suicide rates are but a few of the ice burg tips that we should focus on. Never before have fathers been so precariously position in terms of their position as parents. At the whim of a vindictive female partner fathers can find themselves disenfranchised from their children and financially nobled. And if they become vocal and express their emotions as we are lead to believe the community encourages, they had better not display the very real human emotions of anger, frustration and despair or else they may most certainly find themselves at the wrong end of DVO. If they are lucky they will get a chance to have a hearing before a full order is made, but they will be afforded less legal recourse than a common criminal.
You make the point that the ABS Personal Safety Survey 2006 and the AIC Mouzas and Makkai Survey 2004 do not rely on statistics drawn from the criminal justice system. I see no need to address this issue further, because ultimately we are talking about sets of numbers, and no credible Organisation with genuine intent would seek to base a movement on statistics alone. As intelligent people we know that statistics should always be viewed with a critical eye. Statistics should only be used to support a position, and reason, genuine intent and common sense to illuminate. Otherwise as American Humorist Evan Esar observed in reference to statistics: “Definition of statistics: the science of producing unreliable facts from reliable figures.’
I appreciate that you would support anyone seeking to campaign on a platform of non violence, and so I would like to ask that as a leading community voice in regards to domestic violence that your Organisation comprehensively change its frame of reference to include men as victims and to reflect this in all of your campaign and marketing messages. Even if we are to accept that men are more likely to be the aggressors in domestic violence nobody can argue that they are not victims of domestic violence nonetheless. To refuse to be inclusive in this instance is clearly to discriminate on nothing more than gender. Good intentions aside, discrimination is never a good look.
2.
tareq | December 27, 2007 at 8:56 pm
Prostate cancer is very dangerous …
But We have to fight it ..
And i think we will find medicine for it
3.
White Ribbon Day Admin | January 14, 2008 at 9:00 pm
Thanks for your contribution Adam.
While you may not agree with the WRC approach of targeting violence against women exclusively, we do believe that this is justified given the evidence that men are significantly over-represented as aggressors of domestic violence.
While we may disagree on some points it is great to be aligned on opposing all forms of violence.