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If you find the statement that "All women are prostitutes" offensive,
now you know what a lot of
men feel about what some of the "anti-male" femi-nazis, have
to say about men.
Judging from some of the policies our Provincial government is promoting
here in BC,
it could easily be said they are guilty of some of the following. I
wonder if our equity committees
and harassment committees would address this topic with an open mind.
The following article was written by Dr. Tana Dineen, a columnist, for The Ottawa Citizen.
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"Committing 'data rape'" The Ottawa Citizen - Dec. 15, 1998
Radical feminist notions about male violence reflect a misuse of statistics
based on eugenic assumption. The word "eugenics" connotes evil. It evokes
images of death camps and
more recent "ethnic cleansings." But the term did not originate with
Adolf Hitler's anti-semitism.
It dates back more than a 100 years to the work of Sir Francis Galton,
who established the science of eugenics based on the notion that society
could be improved by selecting and encouraging its
brightest its citizens to flourish.
Dear to Galton, and others of his social class, was the belief that
intellectual greatness was inherited. His studies, in which all of the
subjects were eminent members of the aristocracy, bolstered arguments for
lowering the birthrate in the lower classes. One result was the imposition
of harsh sterilization laws in the early 1900's in both England and
North America.
Decades later, spurred by similar eugenic values, psychologist, Cyril
Burt, began publishing data to support the genetic inheritance theory.
His work, for which he was later knighted, had far-reaching impact. Throughout
the Commonwealth, governments mandated the measurement of "innate
intelligence." Based on their test scores, generations of children
were streamed into unequal educational systems. Only after a journalist
noted contradictions in Burt's writings and exposed his faked data, were
these laws challenged.
Nowadays, we condemn eugenics, oblivious, it seems, to the ways in which
it is once again
having a pervasive influence on our society. The underlying belief
that individuals, grouped by
some common factor, share genetic features which are either good or
bad, has not disappeared. Prominent researchers promote the bias. And laws
are put in place which, by discriminating against one group, promise to
make society a better place.
A case in point, currently shaping Canadian law, is a body of quasi-research
premised on the
belief in female superiority. The much touted 1993 Statistics Canada
survey on Violence Against Women claims that 51 percent of Canadian women
have been the victims of rape or attempted
rape and that 98 per cent have personally experienced sexual violation.
In reality, in their efforts to portray women as innocent victims of
male violence, the researchers looked at the numbers through a "feminist
lens" and committed what has been rightly called
"data rape."
Likewise, in another study, supporting this image of men as violent,
researchers reported that
11 percent of Alberta women were assaulted in one year, 1989, by their
partners. But the public was told only half the story; the rest of the
data revealed that men were being assaulted by their
female partners about as often.
There are dozens of studies worldwide which report virtually identical rates. When researchers look fairly at both sexes, it is the similarities between the genders, not the differences, which are remarkable.
But this is not what we are told. A study of "woman abuse" on Canadian college campuses shocked the public when it was reported that "81.4 per cent of women said they had been victimized by at least one form of physical, sexual or emotional abuse during the preceding year." What was not made clear was that the "abuse" may have been nothing more than a swear word or insult.
Regrettably these widely reported studies are having a profound influence
in the political arena.
Men are being successfully portrayed as the violent sex. Federal and
provincial ministries spread
the propaganda. Canadian laws are being rewritten in response to the
cry:
"Women must be protected."
What really needs to be acknowledged is the eugenic underpinnings of
the anti-male data.
This is the type of data which Hitler used to justify the extermination
of the Jews. It is the type of data which the British Upper Classes used
to justify sterilizing the retarded. Now, it is being used
to condemn men.
The radical feminists are using their version of eugenics research as
a weapon.
Feminist, Marilyn French declares that "All men are rapists."
Andrea Dworkin defines romance as "rape embellished with meaningful
looks."
Sally Miller Gearheart writes that the proportion of males must be
reduced to 10 per cent
of the population, with this low number to be maintained only to allow
for the propagation
of the species.
While such extreme opinions may not be officially endorsed, the stereotyping
of the male as
violent and beast-like is generally accepted. Consider the bias in
favour of mothers in custody disputes. The outrage if one dares to question
a woman's accusation.
Or how a woman can take a rifle, murder her husband and, then, manage
to convince the courts
that she was the victim.
These eugenic manipulations have gone too far. Such acts of violence against men should be identified for what they are: crimes against humanity.
by Dr. Tana Dineen, columnist, The Ottawa Citizen
Comments? Lemme have 'em. Mailto...
bitron@islandnet.com
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