Nice to see a bit more balance
THE State Government’s new domestic violence ads are a breath of fresh air that rightly portray females as also being perpetrators.
Regular readers of this column are quick to point out I’m “always” antiLabor, but I’ve only been writing it as long as the ALP have been in office.
If the LNP were making similarly inane decisions, they’d be copping it too, and they do at a federal level. But credit where credit is due. The Federal Government came under fire in 2016 when it released anti-domestic violence ads portraying a young boy bullying a girl, with the insinuation he would grow up to be violent to his future partners.
Critics objected to the gender-specific nature of the ads, and judging by the latest domestic violence stats, the criticism was spot on.
Queensland Police figures show women are becoming more violent more often, while statistics for men have fallen.
About 26 per cent of domestic violence orders made in 2016-17 were against women, and females were responsible for 15 per cent of breached orders. In the North and Far North in 2016-17, there were 1454 reports to police of domestic violence towards males, up on 1439 the year before.
There were 4170 female victims of domestic violence in 2016-17, down from 4285. In the same period, there were 1529 domestic violence applications made against women – up from 1509 – and 4043 against men – down from 4123.
Females accounted for 555 DVA breaches, up from 518.
Of similar concern is that the number of females committing crimes against people in the North has jumped from 981 to 1032 since 2015.
As we’re seeing with girls’ school performances outstripping boys’ and the number of women graduating university compared to men, maybe focusing on changing how one gender is treated is causing outcomes to be skewed in the opposite direction.
By implying for so long that only men perpetrate domestic violence and ignoring women’s capacity for it, is that why we’re seeing DV figures for men falling and women rising?
We’ve had decades of authorities portraying men as aggressive, controlling thugs who need to check themselves, and men appear to be getting the message.
But at the same time, popular media portrays men as deserving targets of female scorn and abuse, and now we’re seeing women’s commission of violent crime and abuse rising.
These portrayals appear to have affected society’s perceptions too.
YouTube is littered with examples of actors pretending to engage in public violence.
When women are bashing the men, passersby point and laugh, but when the actors switch so it’s the man roughing up the woman, everyone runs in to stop him.
Instead of saying “boys, don’t hit girls” we should be saying “everyone, don’t hit anyone”.
The State Government should be applauded for its ad depicting a carping shrew of a wife belittling her husband in front of their daughter.
“Don’t marry a dud!” she tells the little girl.
The tagline is: “It doesn’t have to be physical to be abuse.”
The stereotype of the overbearing wife berating the henpecked husband is usually depicted comically, but for many men it’s a sad reality.
Most movies and sitcoms nowadays feature a powerful female saying things to their bumbling male underlings that wouldn’t be tolerated if the positions were reversed.
But if men complain about being picked on and hurt by women, the world responds with ridicule.
Society tells men they just have to abide the psychological and physical torment meted out by the “fairer sex”. To retaliate is not allowed. But on the other hand, the kind of stoicism that makes men less likely to complain is frowned upon by those who say we shouldn’t teach young boys not to cry.
So men should be vulnerable enough to cry and go to the doctor, but they’ve just got to suck it up when their partner treats them like garbage? No wonder men are confused.
While men vastly outweigh women in domestic violence statistics, the same statistics clearly show a rising propensity for women to engage in violence and non-physical abuse. It’s good to see the State Government finally admitting this.