More than 830,000 men fall victim to domestic violence every year, which means every 37.8 seconds, somewhere in America a man is battered, according to the National Violence Against Women Survey. While more than 1.5 million women are also victims, everyone — no matter their sex –deserves help
At BU we think it is a reasonable conclusion to make that a Barbados society mirrors what is described in the quote above. Are we not sick and tired of hearing Nalita Gajahdar and Cynthia Forde spouting their feminist crap? Well in the case of Cynthia Forde we understand why. Why do these women feel that by bashing men that it makes them part of the solution? Why can’t they accept that although the incidences of women abusing men whether physically, verbally and emotionally is not as prevalent as men on women, it does still happen! In the famous words of Rodney King why is it that the Bureau for Gender Affairs does not foster an environment where the genders can “just get along”. We all have grown up in our villages and terraces where we have heard stories of women who constantly “nag” and “cuss” our men. The men often time remain silent to ensure that there is peace in the household especially when there are children around.
Ralph Boyce: Men are abused too
by CARLOS ATWELLMEN MUST BE ABLE to control their emotions better, said president of the Men’s Educational Support Group (MESA) Ralph Boyce, but society must remember they also got abused.He told the DAILY NATION in an interview Sunday that women had greater access to education and employment and as such, were in greater control and were also subjecting men to verbal, emotional, as well as physical abuse.He was responding to statements made by Minister of State in the Ministry of Education, Youth Affairs and Sports, Cynthia Forde, which appeared in the SUNDAY SUN.Forde said women “had to know they had to stand up and not be dependent on the men” and “the approach by males to resolving challenges with women by using brute tactics” must stop.
Saying it was “wrong” to focus only on violence against women, Boyce called for a sustained programme which looked into why abuse took place.
“We cannot talk about numbers as any abuse is wrong, but it is also wrong to focus only on violence against women. If men are being targeted as the abusers, then money should at least be targeted into finding out the psychological reasons behind the abuse,” he said.
Boyce said MESA received $1 000 a year but $1 million had been allocated for women’s shelters. He said they had never been informed as to whether there would be any shelters for men.
Forde expressed her willingness to work with the National Organisation of Women and the Bureau of Gender Affairs, but Boyce said it was equally important to work with MESA.
“We don’t condone any violence and men need to realise the other person does not belong to them; but women must also learn that if someone has been kind, protective and fair to them, that person should be treated with some kind of emotion, justice and fair play,” he said.
Although at BU we do not always agree with Ralph Boyce and the Men’s Educational Support Group (MESA) we applaud his effort so far to highlight the many concerns of men. We accept that we still live in a male oriented society but this does not mean that the rights of men must remain in abeyance. It is interesting to note from the quoted article MESA receives $1,000.00 per year when compared to one million for women for shelter. There can be agreement, if only from observation, that the men appear to be the gender in need of the shelter given the many characters we see around Bridgetown. BU remains fearful that more and more men will become marginalized in this process as more females ascend to more decision making positions in the country. We did a little unscientific experiment, we Google “gender affairs Barbados” and we were shocked at the results which came back. The majority of the results dealt with women issues. It is also insightful that when BU dialed 431-0850 which is the number listed in the 2006-2007 telephone directory we heard a recording that “the number we had reached is not I service”, perhaps indicative of the importance which all concern place on this division within government.
their is so much negative stuff in the media, eg tv, newspapers, men derogatory jokes out their, that people just accept more and more that violence against men by women is acceptable, some of the so supposed funny emails that i receive from some of my female friends , that if you were on the receiving end of it and that if you were a man, you would be so offended. it is time people stopped accepting this as normal and funny, and started to see the real effect of their actions,just by hitting the send button, on that email and sending it to your male friends
The name was changed from Bureau of Women Affairs to the Bureau of Gender Affairs but that’s the only thing that has changed. NOW still controls the bureau and men bashing still continues. I don’t hear NOW talk about the men who you can see on the street taking their young babies for a walk or their young children to school, or being involved with their children especially boys by taking them to sports with them, or the fathers who are begging to see their children but the women using these same children as pawns on a Chess board. I don’t hear NOW talk about the women who drag around their young children and slap them up when they have them in B’town and not keeping up with their speed, or about the women who tell children how stinking their fathers are, or sending their teenaged children out at night to prostitute or worse still encouraging men to the house for these little girls, men that sometimes older than the very girl’s father. These are just a few of the things NOW needs to talk about but most importantly is, if it really is a Bureau Of Gender Affairs, then be neutral in their comments and their reports.
Just a test. I see that my last post was discarded so I am checking to see what the problem is.