menshealthaustralia.net

 Ombudsman finds domestic violence campaign 'misleading'

A national men's group is claiming victory over what it calls a feminist agenda on domestic violence. An independent investigation has upheld the group's complaint about a public awareness campaign in South Australia. The Ombudsman's inquiry found parts of the $870,000 campaign contained errors.

The Don't Cross The Line campaign has been running in newspapers, on television and radio and on a website. The Ombudsman in South Australia found some statistics initially published on the site were false and misleading.

Advocacy group Men's Health Australia made a complaint against the Office of the Status of Women over 10 matters on the website. The Ombudsman's final report substantiates seven of them and another two in part. The Government had said one in 17 women was a victim of domestic violence annually, but the figure related to violence generally.

Michael Woods is one of the men's group's supporters and is from the Men's Health Information and Research Centre at the University of Western Sydney. "It is a shame that a government department is unable, despite being notified a year ago, to address its own shortcomings and it required this sort of action," he said. "The ideological commitment of people in that department must be so strong that they would reject scientific data in favour of their own biases."

Read full ABC News article. Listen to longer report on ABC Radio's The World Today (MP3). View transcript.

 Beliefs on violence

Letter to the editor, Adelaide Advertiser, 1st September 2010:

Your article "Domestic abuse shame" (The Advertiser, 20/8) claimed that "the poor attitude of Australian men to violence against women is evidenced by a 2006 Victorian survey which found one in 20 believed women who were raped often 'ask for it'." This survey actually found that 6 per cent (about one in 20) people (not men) agreed with the statement "Women who are raped often ask for it". So, yes, there are still a few people who hold unacceptable beliefs about sexual violence against women.

However, there are far more who hold unacceptable beliefs about violence against men. The National Crime Prevention survey found that young people are more likely to say a woman is right to, or has good reason to, respond to a situation by hitting, than a man in the same situation. Overall, for situations where men might hit their female partners, 49 per cent of young people said that he would be right to, or have a good reason to hit her, in at least one of the situations presented. In situations where women might hit their male partners, 68 per cent of young people said that she would be right to, or have a good reason to, hit him in at least one of the situations presented. And while males hitting females was seen, by virtually all young people surveyed, to be unacceptable, it appeared to be quite acceptable for a girl to hit a boy (25 per cent of young people agreed with the statement "When girl hits a guy, it's really not a big deal").

 SBS TV Insight Seeks Australian Men to Talk About Sexual Harassment

SBS TV’s Insight program is Australia’s leading current affairs forum. On Monday September 13, Insight is hosting a forum on Sexual Harassment in the Australian workplace and beyond: is it still active in the community?

Insight wants to create a forum that’s fair, balanced and diverse. Insight is asking Australian men to join our audience to share their personal experiences of sexual harassment in the workplace. Have you been on the receiving end of sexual harassment yourself? Have you witnessed sexual harassment at a workplace where it’s the norm? Have you regrettably crossed the line, only to realise you took it too far – and you’re now willing to speak out about it to help other men? Or do you think political correctness gone too far by limiting normal human behaviour?

 Online study looking at Self and Health Behaviours

You are invited to participate in an online study looking at Self and Health Behaviours. This project, conducted as part of a PhD in psychology at the Australian National University, is investigating how people understand themselves, and how this relates to their health attitudes and the things they do.

EVERYONE IS WELCOME. Participation involves answering some questions about yourself, your attitudes and your behaviours. It's completely anonymous and voluntary. It takes about 20 minutes to complete the study. If you would like to participate in this study, please follow this link: https://anupsych.qualtrics.com/SE?SID=SV_8xhKKcxHqlBBSTi . If you would like more information, please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

 Postcard protest - shared parenting

Postcard Protest – three strong messages!

• Men are victims of domestic violence – take note
• Mothers abuse/kill more children than bio-dads
• Parents - learn to share the care of your children

Send these messages to your politicians... Tell your Federal politicians you object to any attempt to roll back the shared parenting changes based on false claims of violence and abuse of children – if any changes are made at all to the family law scheme, they should be to guarantee separated parents, who present no risk to their children, 50% shared parental responsibility and 50% equal time!

 Iran backs down on stoning execution of woman (what about the men?)

Above is a link to the latest (justified) outrage about plans for a woman to be stoned-to-death for adultery in Iran. However, what you don't read about, and probably haven't heard about, is that Iran declared an official moratorium on executions by stoning-to-death for adultery in 2002. Since then, five men and one woman have been stoned-to-death for adultery.