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by SacredNaCl on 01:00 PM February 14th, 2005 EST (#1)
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It's what these folks really want to do...
They want to co-opt the government side of the men's movement. See, these are the kind of folks who are going to actually get the contracts for running shelters for men if they ever do get any, and "programs for men" and what not.
Hear me out on this, they have an agenda, but it isn't that wimpy PR hit that is the real agenda. It's still a feminist front, but it's one where they can pull some funding out and say "Look, we are helping men with these things and those grievences are no longer true..See? Men have services too", of course they will be the kind of castrate men and throw them into feminist inspired gulags with deluth model brainwashing "services".
Don't take my word, read their homepage.
The mission of the Men's Resource Center of Western Massachusetts is to support men, challenge men's violence, and develop men's leadership in ending oppression in ourselves, our families, and our communities. Our programs support men to overcome the damaging effects of rigid and stereotyped masculinity, and simultaneously confront men's patterns of personal and societal violence and abuse toward women, children, and other men.
In 1988, the MRC incorporated as a non-profit organization and began offering an array of programs, projects, and services. The Men Overcoming Violence (MOVE) program began in 1989; it was among the first programs to be certified when the state began doing so in 1991. The Youth Programs began in 1990 as the High School Education Project; both the Support Groups and Fathering programs (now merged) started in 1993. Through these activities thousands of men, women, and young people have been affected by the MRC's message.
Here at the MRC we take new hope and new energy from the friends around us, near and far. We revel in the newly emerging men's resource centers inspired by our 23 years of showing up as pro-feminist, gay-affirmative, male-positive, and anti-racist men in our communities. We rejoice in the collaboration and cooperation we share with our sister organizations here and farther afield."
The scary thing is, they already have inroads to get funding through things like "fatherhood" projects that don't really focus on getting dad his kids, and "marriage" programs that skip over the sell yourself down the river bit...
What they are offering has nothing to do with the valid grievences of the men's rights movement, but everything to do with divide and conquer, and becomming a false mouthpiece that the press turns to for the supposid "male" position.
These kinds of things were already laid out in various strategy meetings of feminist organizations. Look around and you'll find a few of them on the web. Contacting these weenies wont do you any good, realize who they work for. Contact the allies you have in the media and let it be known they are what they are, a false front and don't speak to men's real issues. We need our own PR organization, maybe F4JUSA will fill that void, it doesn't seem like any men's organization is able to step up the plate and get enough people organized and behind it to supply that voice right now, but we sure don't want the "Men's Resource Center" or it's clones to become it or we wont get the real issues addressed.
Chess anyone? Warning rant coming...
I can already see the tactics spelled out, they will take any issues of domestic violence and turn them to "The greater violence men suffer is outside of the home and it's mostly at the hands of other men..crime/war/prison/yadda". They will ignore the main issue men have, which is what is going on in the home -- access to children, divorce, child custody, domestic violence against men, mutual conflict, disparate justice, false accusations, discriminatory laws in education/workplace/military service/..etc, mens health, the child-support/family court gulag...etc
The only thing you will hear from them is going to be "Men have been harmed by rigid stereotyped & traditonal..yadda". Yeah, okay, lets go get naked in the woods and beat on a frickin' drum, not.
No one cares about that ****, we care about being able to have our family, earn a living, see our kids do well and be a part of their lifes, and end the insane walking on eggshells dance political correctness/affirmative action/sexual harassment has done to business & society at large where saying an honest opinion about anything can get you sued, smeared, falsely accused, imprisoned, bankrupted, blacklisted, and worse... There are just far too many ways out there to ruin a good man, and I have to belive a lot of it is intentional. Men's issues to me are about returning society to a place where you can get married, raise a family, and don't have to worry that you will be financially destroyed, imprisoned, your children kidnapped because of it. That you can be judged on your merit and truly treated equally when you deal with society at large. I don't mind a bit of chivalry when its voluntary, but I don't like it when its forced and always at my expense.
Sorry for the rant, but you know I'm right.
Freedom Is Merely Privilege Extended Unless Enjoyed By One & All.
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by Anonymous User on 03:29 PM February 14th, 2005 EST (#2)
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SacredNaCl speaks the truth!
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by Anonymous User on 01:24 AM February 15th, 2005 EST (#5)
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"They want to co-opt the government side of the men's movement. See, these are the kind of folks who are going to actually get the contracts for running shelters for men if they ever do get any, and "programs for men" and what not.
Hear me out on this, they have an agenda, but it isn't that wimpy PR hit that is the real agenda. It's still a feminist front..."
I agree, these are male fronts for the gender feminists. They are on the VAWA payroll and preach the gender feminst party line. They preach the same gender feminist drivel that is the standard fair in the women's studies curriculum.
Ray
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by HombreVIII on 06:33 PM February 14th, 2005 EST (#3)
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is a male feminidiot organization. Look at how they fall all over themselves trying to find a way to logically justify their condemning the idea of father's being involved in their children's lives here.
There's no getting through to guys like this. Not only will they refuse to retract, ammend, or apologize for leaving men out when saying women don't deserve to be abused, (and thereby implying that men do), if you give them examples of men who've been abused you will not see the empathy they reserve only for women, but instead you will see them hurl accusations at you, the abused men, men in general, suggest that you alone prove how abusive men are, and act in every way like a femineanderthal thug. Our best bet is to expose them for what they are, and hopefully keep more boys from turning out that way.
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by Anonymous User on 11:41 AM February 15th, 2005 EST (#8)
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"There's no getting through to guys like this. Not only will they refuse to retract, ammend, or apologize for leaving men out when saying women don't deserve to be abused, (and thereby implying that men do),"
That's the same thing I told my friend after we concluded the day long event of the San Diego D.V. Council. My patient friend, none the less, gave the "pro feminist male" (one of the main speakers) a copy of Tom James book, Domestic Violence: The Twelve Things You Aren't Supposed to Know
The guy was argumentative and intractable (very closed minded, very obtuse) so my friend just said, "You'll have a lot of time on the flight home, just read it then. My friend selectively gave out 4 copies of Tom James' book at the event.
Ray
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by Anonymous User on 01:09 AM February 15th, 2005 EST (#4)
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The San Diego Domestic Violence Council bashes males too (IMHO). My friend and I attended a seminar, and luncheon event of the San Diego Domestic Violence Council today in Mission Bay.
All of the presentations and film clips presented by the San Diego Domestic Violence Council appeared to vilify males (in my humble opinion). I considered one of the presentations to be the worst. Three or four times the person used profanity in front of everyone in his captive audience. I was offended and considered his entire presentation personally abusive to myself, and my male gender.
He also mentioned how many "intimate partner" killings of women there were, but neglected to mention male "intimate partner" deaths at all, and he certainly didn't mention that much larger number showing male deaths of all kinds far exceeding female deaths.
My friend kept telling me, "It's better than last year."
After lunch my friend sat on a 3 person panel of the faith based group that was headed up by a moderator, and I videotaped the 1 hour event. I also got to make statements, and ask a number of questions in that group such as: pointing out that domestic violence law is hateful towards men, doesn't hold female batterers accountable, and abuses falsely accused males. My friend on the panel made a number of fair(balanced)/non-sexist comments, and even other people in that group, presented a far more balanced and honest approach to domestic violence than anything that had been presented in the combined big group.
That event and the people in that group seemed to me to display far more "humanity," than anything previous, and I even closed in prayer, when someone ask for a volunteer.
Here is the T-shirt I wore all day with no writing on the back.
Hate Target of Domestic Violence Law
The T-shirt I had on was black, and I had on black dress slacks. I sat in the front row where all the people at the podium clearly saw me. Oddly, I forgot my prescription glasses in my car, when I car pooled with my friend from his house so all day I wore my prescription "sun glasses."
Sincerely, Ray
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by Kyo on 02:22 AM February 15th, 2005 EST (#6)
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...23 years of showing up as pro-feminist, gay-affirmative, male-positive, and anti-racist men in our communities.
"Male-positive" is in third place, two spots behind "pro-feminist", and this organization pretends to support men!?
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by Anonymous User on 11:28 AM February 15th, 2005 EST (#7)
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"Male-positive" is in third place, two spots behind "pro-feminist", and this organization pretends to support men!?"
I sat at a table with the 2nd in command in the D.A.'s office, and at the next table was the D.A. of San Diego. Also at our table was a member of the S.D. Police Dept. that used to head the whole S.D. police domestic violence program. He's now in internal affairs. There was another prominent figure at our table, but I forget his name.
(I have to burn some DVD's of the tape I made to see other things we discussed in our small group session)
I would never have had the patience to have set through that whole excoriating experience, except for the fact that I was wearing my reply on my chest (over my heart) Hate Target of Domestic Violence Law . I must give credit to my friend, who has really showed incredible patience and courage to have stayed in that group, and showed them that they are (in a nut shell) not being honest about domestic violence.
Some of this I've already said, but again, in our smaller faith based, break out session I pointed out to the group that the overall domestic violence industry was nothing but a hate movement. I said that male privilege was a lie for most men, yet mainstream domestic violence ideology says all males are privileged and uses that as the bases of domestic violence gender profiling. I pointed out that they use a biased power and control wheel that blames all men for domestic violence. The small group told me they were now using a gender neutral wheel (at least in the faith based groups). I told them the overall domestic violence industry vilified patriarchy, blamed everyman as benefiting from it, and accused all men of benefiting from male privilege, saying it is the source of domestic violence. I told them the domestic violence industry cares less about dealing with domestic violence than it cares about ideology, and that the industry follows the standard anti-male propaganda preached in women's studies classes on college campuses. I told them they should be careful as to what anti-traditional family, hate based initiatives they let walk into their churches, synagogues, or mosques.
Earlier, in the big open session, my friend told me that at one point a woman he knew reacted to my T-shirt. He said, "A _ _ _ just scowled at you." I have no doubts A _ _ _ will think about the T-shirt once or twice more before she gets it out of her mind. I liked wearing that shirt so much, I'm making a second one today to wear to another Men's/Father's rights meeting tonight. This will be on much friendlier turf. I asked my friend, "How many of the approximately 200 people do you think saw the T-shirt?" His reply, "All of them."
The group had silhouettes of domestic violence. victims that had been killed. Two years ago when I went to one of their events all the silhouettes were of women, but yesterday I saw a couple of men. The female perpetrators of male murders appeared to get lighter sentences than the male perpetrators of the female domestic violence. murders. On one silhouette a woman got 7 years for killing her intimate partner, on another a man got 17 years for killing his intimate partner, and on another a man got 22 years for killing his intimate partner. On a 4th silhouette, a woman who killed a man committed suicide as I'm sure males have done also in some incidents.
At one point as we walked pass the silhouettes, as we were walking outside during a break, I said to my friend "This whole thing is bashing males. I feel like a minority person at a Klu Klux Klan rally. I wonder if their going to throw gasoline on one of those male silhouettes at some point and burn it?" I laughed so that I wouldn’t cry. Yea, in my opinion the domestic violence industry, with the exception of my very patient friend, and some in his faith based group are nothing more than the Femi Klux Klan. My friend kept telling me, "It has gotten better." I could see that in small ways it had, but it is still horribly bigoted toward all males, and now our taxpayers are trotting out “pro feminist“ men at their domestic violence events to vilify all males.
By the way, I've been told, that the San Diego Domestic Violence Council is a pilot program of what the Bush administration would like to do in regards to domestic violence policy in the whole country. I also heard a rumor yesterday (only a rumor) that the Bush administration will be refunding VAWA (Violence Against Women Act). However, some times rumors are precursors of actual events. If that rumor proves to be true, then this registered Republican looks at the whole picture and says, I see 100% proof that the Bush administration also funds terrorism, the kind that targets all men with hate, and the kind that spreads that hatred into churches, synagogues, and mosques.
Sincerely, Ray
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by Anonymous User on 11:52 AM February 15th, 2005 EST (#9)
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Here is the announcement for the San Diego Domestic Violence Council's event Another Man Against Violence Against Women , which was also held on Valentine's Day.
It seems like Valentine's day is now America's day to vilify all males as "criminals waiting to happen," at least in the hatefully bigoted domestic violence industry.
Sincerely, Ray
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by Roy on 06:20 PM February 15th, 2005 EST (#10)
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Ray,
Kudos for your role as a watchdog in keeping an eye on developments in the professional DV circles.
I've heard and read that a lot -- perhaps approaching half -- of DV counselors are fed up with the Duluth Model / feminazi BS and fully understand that the "shame and blame men" gulags do nothing whatsoever to diminish family/partner violence.
The counselors who want to be effective are tired of being gagged by feminist misandry and the whole PC circus.
Have you seen any evidence that those profiting from the DV Industry (counselors, women's advocates, lawyers, judges, etc.) are starting to reconsider how fruitless and ineffective the current approaches are?
Or is it still primarily about demonizing men?
"It's a terrible thing ... living in fear."
- Roy: hunted replicant, Blade Runner
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Have you seen any evidence that those profiting from the DV Industry (counselors, women's advocates, lawyers, judges, etc.) are starting to reconsider how fruitless and ineffective the current approaches are?
That's probably something you'll never see, simply because, as you said, they are the ones profitting from the DV industry.
They're not about to bite the hand that feeds them. Unfortunate, but true.
"Existence exists. A is A." -Ayn Rand
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by Anonymous User on 07:57 PM February 15th, 2005 EST (#13)
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"That's probably something you'll never see, simply because, as you said, they are the ones profitting from the DV industry."
That's why the mainstream, gender feminist, domestic violence types are such a virulent cancer on American society.
Ray
...and it all begins in taxpayer funded women's studies indoctrination programs on college campuses.
At several points I heard identical things going on at the SDDVC seminar, that I've heard in a male bashing, women's studies seminar at UCLA.
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by Anonymous User on 07:51 PM February 15th, 2005 EST (#12)
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"Have you seen any evidence that those profiting from the DV Industry (counselors, women's advocates, lawyers, judges, etc.) are starting to reconsider how fruitless and ineffective the current approaches are?"
In the smaller groups I saw some solid evidence of that. One man said he wished more male victims would come forward, but given the climate of the mainstream domestic violence industry, that would require a male victim who would be capable to accept more verbal beatings being landed by the man haters (at the least). That's painful, and sickening.
There may be some good people in those places now, but there are some very, very, very evil, manhating bigots in those places as well, and the later appear to have the power to set the schedule of main presentations and speakers.
"Or is it still primarily about demonizing men?"
The main session was all about demonizing men. I noticed nothing else. A few audience people chimed out to support the speaker, and the rest sat there with their mouths in their pockets. In the smaller faith based group a good percentage of the people talked as if they had good sense, but the mainstream still appears to me to be all about "bashing all males," and "all males are bad" and "males are violent criminals waiting to happen."
"
It was so great to be wearing that T-shirt, because a number of times I felt like speaking up, but didn't have to. I probably would have at some point if I hadn't had the T-shirt on. All I had to do was look at the bigots bashing men, make eye contact, or not, say nothing, and let them read the T-shirt Hate Target of Domestic Violence Law . In other words, "The Target of the Man Hating Domestic Violence Industry."
I like that T-shirt so much I'm hoping to make a big truck sign to drive around Los Angeles.
Wouldn't it be nice if I could drive from California to Washington, D.C. with a truck sign (that one or another one), then back to California? I'm getting a little ahead of myself now.
Sincerely, Ray
Please do not scroll up the page of the linked item. All the info I'm trying to convey is as the page comes up.
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by Anonymous User on 02:46 PM February 16th, 2005 EST (#18)
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"One man said he wished more male victims would come forward."
Well, even aside from all the reasons the system gives for men not to come forward, in California, at LEAST 4,649 men per year seek domestic violence shelter, as this official California government document shows at
http://www.library.ca.gov/crb/02/16/02-016.pdf (see Table 2, page 12)
That is a MINIMAL number because it only reflects the number reported by a few shelters participating in a survey.
One shelter in Los Angeles actually reported that MORE male victims than female victims sought shelter (see page 14 of same report).
That is an official government document and can be submitted to a court with a request to take judicial notice. The 2nd District Court of Appeal has now taken judicial notice of this and other documents that we submitted in the case of NCFM v. California, which has now bee fully briefed and is pending.
So even the claim that very few men are coming forward is simply not true. Yes, the vast majority of male victims do not come forward, but there are MANY men coming forward nonetheless, and they are being COVERED UP AND SILENCED by the system.
Marc A.
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by Kyo on 03:04 AM February 16th, 2005 EST (#16)
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Right on, Ray!
It takes a lot of guts to wear T-shirts like yours to meetings like those, and I wouldn't be surprised if, hidden among the scowls, there were a few people admiring you for it.
But I have one question: what exactly does "Hate Target of Domestic Violence Law" mean? "People hate the target of DV law (i. e. men)"? Is it an imperative, "You should hate...", used sarcastically? Your other shirts are clearer than this one, though I really like the male symbol with a bull's eye on it!
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by Anonymous User on 10:26 AM February 16th, 2005 EST (#17)
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"what exactly does "Hate Target of Domestic Violence Law" mean?"
Thanks, it was an "artistic" statement meant to provoke debate. Men are the targets of the hatred of the domestic violence movement and its ensuing laws. There should be other T-shirts made with sexual harassment substituting for domestic violence, others saying political correctness, women's studies classes, etc. Men are targets for hate from all kinds of gender feminist spawned prejudice in our society today by reason of having been born male.
Police use a variety of targets on their shooting ranges, most of them male I wonder if anyone has ever thought about having an equal # of female targets requited for cop target practice? I can hear the critics now, "Oh. but that promotes acceptability of violence against women."
The domestic violence industry has been an abusive part of the promotion of violence against males through the evil they have practiced for over a decade and it is an injustice to their victims that this is not recognized and they are not held accountable. The domestic violence movement has been, and still is in many ways a hate movement in every sense of the word, and it has used (and is using) men, exclusively as the target of that hatred. Much more change is deperately needed to stop the domestic violence movements "pogrom" against all males.
Sincerely, Ray
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by harryal on 07:58 PM February 15th, 2005 EST (#14)
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Ray,
A few things about your post regarding the recent San Diego Domestic Violence Council's Men's Leadership Forum annual conference:
1. The event was sponsored by Verison Wireless, Blue Shield of Caliornia, and The Waite Family Foundation. A subcommittee of the San Diego Domestic Violence Council, "Men's Leadership Forum," coordinated the event.
2. All four PSA film clips were disgusting and vilify males. The two from Canada were pure abuse, hateful, and banned in Canada.
3. Don McPherson, retired NFL quarterback, the feature speaker, was disgusting. I hope he reads the copy of "Domestic Violence, 12 Things You Are Not Supposed to Know" that we gave him. It appeared to me that from his perspective anyone who disagrees with anything a woman might say or do is a misogynist, one of his favorite words apparently. I will do everything possible to make sure he or no one like him is invited next year.
4. The conference was better than last year, much better actually. Though DV providers were not allowed to hand out literature. As we know, the absence of literature is directly related to not being allowed to pass out literature at last years announcement of the Bush administrations award of $20 million dollars for the establishment of 16 Family Justice Centers throughout the nation, including the one in Sitka, Alaska.
5. The people on our faith based initiative panel did not just present "...a far more balanced and honest approach," we presented a wholly balanced and honest approach and worked hard to make sure we could do that, which we did with the knowledge, acceptance, and support of the San Diego Domestic Violence Council at large. There is disagreement within the Men's Leadership Forum about such things.
6. There were three others others at our table. Pat McGrath is the Chief Assistant District Attorney in charge of the South Central region. He is second in command to District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis, who was also at the event as a featured speaker. The San Diego police officer was Dan Plien, who until recently was second in charge of the San Diego Police Department Domestic Violence Unit. The third person at our table was Dr. David Wexler, Director of the Relationship Training Institute. Dr. Wexler is the author of an integrated skills program (batterer intervention if you prefer) called DV 2000. Not one of the three came close to even implying anything derogatory about men, nor did they utter one word of gender bias. I know all three. I also know all three have major concerns about the way the DV industry operates. I also know that two of the three make concerted efforts to effect gender inclusive reforms. The other has been transferred out of the industry and now has nothing but a passing interest. How many men's rights activists do you know that have an opportunity to sit at a table with DV industry honchos like these, particularly in a major city like San Diego? It is that ability that facilitates change.
With respect to Dr. Wexler, three years ago I completed his DV 2000 week long workshop which anyone interested in being a DV program provider must take at least once a year. To my knowledge there is only one other such program in California. Accordingly, Wexler's training for DV providers touches hundreds, if not thousands, of DV industry operatives each and every year. Workshop trainers are all professionals who have worked in the DV industry for years, including Dan Plien. Wexler's presentation was gender bias free, as were several others. I approached him about the others, complimented him on his gender neutral position, and fast found him to be very open about discussing abused men.
After several more discussions and considerable coordination, we arranged for Phil Cook of SAFE, author of Abused Men The Hidden Side of Domestic Violence, to be flown to San Diego as a presenter at the next workshop. To my knowledge that was the first DV industry training event in California to invite someone like Phil Cook. The next year I suggested Carol Ensign, Director of the Antelope Domestic Violence Council which operates the only shelter in California that accepts abused men. Dr. Wexler went out his way to arrange for her to speak as well. Perhaps you did not hear Dr. Wexler when at the table he said Dr. Fortes is speaking at the next training session. These are important events. It's one thing to lobby for legislation and file lawsuits, but quite something different to change the thinking of large groups of people indoctrinated to a certain belief system, all three are important and work in concert. To change the thinking of a "system" one has to get inside, as well as develop an acceptable reputation, which has nothing to do with "joining the club" and all to do with persistence, fairness, and equity.
Second, the batter intervention program designed by Dr. Wexler is the best I've seen. If anyone takes the time to read the manual, the introduction clearly states his disenchantment with programs such as the Duluth model of anger management and other ideologically based programs. Just this year he received permission to operate the programs, which are probably six to seven years in the making. Why did it take so long? It took so long because of resistance in the DV industry, a portion of which still supports only the feminist ideological view. Additionally, California law requires the use of the Duluth model. How Wexler overcame that I don't know, but it must have been one heck of a fight. Aside from which, presentations for Cook and Ensign softened the playing field and surely created some allies for Wexler. The contributions Wexler has made in California with respect to helping make the DV world more equitable and gender inclusive are huge, just not well known outside the DV industry. He is without a doubt a person I respect immensely for his contributions and willingness to see the whole picture.
7. I loved your t-shirt, though the Mensbiz logo still needs to be larger.
8. I clearly remember you advising the faith based group to be careful as to what anti-traditional, hate based initiatives they let walk into their churches, synagogues, or mosques. I think once you take the time to read the materials that the committee developed, largely with my input, you will find that there is not one gender biased statement or bogus statistic therein, not one, none, nada, zero, zip. Our program, while it needs more development and refinement, to our knowledge, is the only such program in the nation, if not the world. It stands a very good chance of receiving major funding and going national. The faith based community is not restricted to the same degree the secular DV community is by associated laws, like mandatory reporting requirements. Consequently, there is more room to maneuver. Not only is there room to maneuver, there is room for others on the committee, other DV operatives disenchanted with the failed system of domestic violence. Our committee and it's product are the foundation upon which we can completely redesign from the ground up the domestic violence platform. No anti-traditional family, hate based initiatives will walk through this committee and come out alive on the other side.
9. Three years ago there were no male victim silhouettes of domestic violence related deaths. The male silhouettes began appearing after a mention of their absence at a San Diego Domestic Violence Council meeting. Members of the Council made the decision. Had the full display been present you would have seen numerous silhouettes of men, women, and children. There is one for each person dead from a DV related incident. The number is what it is.
10. There are many good and well meaning people on the San Diego Domestic Violence Council. There are very few Femi-Kluckers. Interestingly, those that might be viewed as Femi-Kluckers are men. As a member of the council for the past several years I can picture only six members that might fit the Femi-Klucker persona, though all six are leaders and high up in the DV industry pecking order. So they have considerable influence, as you saw at the Men's Leadership Forum Conference. I assure you that there were many more before I joined the Council.
11. Three years ago the motto of the Men's Leadership Forum was "What Can Men Do to Stop Violence Against Women." One might be able to still find a reference to that somewhere on the internet, but the official motto is now "Violence Stops with Me." That's a large paradigm shift. Not only that, but the poster, of which one or two were included in your registration package, contains not one gender biased reference. In fact, the picture of a man holding an infant child appears to be the same picture used for the "Dads" section logo on Mensbiz! Though in the poster picture, the man has a wedding ring on the ring finger of his right hand. Apparently he's a gay father. Diversity is diversity.
12. Thanks for driving down from LA for the conference. I hate being the only men's rights activist at such things, though last year there were five of us.
Harry Crouch
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by Anonymous User on 01:19 AM February 16th, 2005 EST (#15)
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Harry:
It's good to hear you point out how things are changing. Without your efforts and NCFM's, and others I suspect things would be far worse.
I recall when we picketed two years ago at a SDDVC function SDDVC protest (top right) we had three or four signs critical of the Duluth wheel. I recall one saying "break the cycle of man hating known as the Duluth Wheel," or something like that. I forget what the others said. I recall one woman walking into the event, who read the Duluth wheel protest sign, and nearly went into shock. It's good to hear the activism and diplomacy are having some positive effect.
The signs (in the linked picture above) read (left to right): California is a Sexist Hostile Environment Towards Men, What Can You Do to Stop Domestic Violence Against Men, We Don't Subscribe to the Feminist Model for Men (carried by a woman). I see a couple of other signs in my photo album of that day that say: Feminist Lies Make Bad Laws, and Empower Judges and Cops to Recognize Battered Man Syndrome. I know we had others that we carried, many others. Many of those sayings are here Domestic Violence Section .
I recall that after we picketed the event that day, we put on our suit coats and went in and had a seat at our reserved table. That's right, we made reservations to the event we picketed. A lot of people were shocked again, but we were orderly, and polite, even though we wore little 4" X 6" photographs on our coats of many of the signs we carried. I recall one female speaker at that event acknowledging male victims of domestic violence from the podium and Marc thanking her afterwards. I recall too, as you say, that they only had female silhouettes of d.v. murder victims that year. It's good to see them including the male murder victims of domestic violence, even though the silhouettes I read showed a sentencing disparity between male and female murderers with women getting the lighter sentence(s), except for the woman who committed suicide after killing her intimate male partner.
It was an experience for me to again "interact" with this group (SDDVC), and I suspect it was an experience for them as well.
No matter what the "old hard line male bashers" in the domestic violence movement throw at us, this might well be our best year yet. You should ask that faith based group to pray for us every chance they get. We need all the help we can get.
Ray
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On Monday February 14, the Men’s Resource Center of Western Massachusetts is running a Valentine’s Day advertisement (see below) which states, “Women are entitled to live their lives free of fear of abuse and violence.”