Another thread to take a look at -- simply astonishing

[Eloriel]

I can find few other words for it. I'm particularly astonished by the uneven deletions surrounding a series of posts in a back-and-forth starting about post #20. This MAY be the most astonishing -- and misogynist-appearing (if not in fact) -- thing I've seen on DU. That the mod(s) were involved in these horribly uneven deletions depresses me greatly. I posted my thoughts in #100 and #111):

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4135695

[Misunderestimator]

1. Well, I am certainly going to agree that the series of deletions

and the ones remaining interspersed don't make much sense... knowing enough about the posters involved. From my perspective (since I didn't see the posts that were deleted) it looks like someone was able to punch some buttons and bring out reactions that got the posts deleted. This is most OBVIOUSLY a BLAME the VICTIM mentality... and it's still out there for everyone to see.

Thanks for pointing it out, I hadn't seen the thread earlier. Unbelievable.

[Name removed]

2. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Eloriel]

3. You know what else I almost forgot about?

The very FIRST post in that thread is about men as victims of domesetic violence. That ALWAYS happens, always, to threads on DU about domestic violence, and the threads about rape raise the question that the woman could have (probably?) lied about it. And I'm freakin' sick of it too. Look how that first response hijacked the damn thread.

For anyone interested, btw, here are some stunning and extensive stats on domestic violence:

American Bar Association
Commission on Domestic Violence
http://www.abanet.org/domviol/stats.html

Here's the section on who gets battered:

GENDER
An overwhelming majority of domestic violence victims in heterosexual relationships are women.

* 90 - 95% of domestic violence victims are women.
Bureau of Justice Statistics Selected Findings: Violence Between Intimates (NCJ-149259), November 1994.

* as many as 95% of domestic violence perpetrators are male.
A Report of the Violence against Women Research Strategic Planning Workshop sponsored by the National Institute of Justice in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1995.

* much of female violence is committed in self-defense, and inflicts less injury than male violence.
Chalk & King, eds., Violence in Families: Assessing Prevention & Treatment Programs, National Resource Council and Institute of Medicine, p. 42 (1998).

* during 1992-1993, women were 6 times more likely to experience violence by an intimate partner than men.
Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report: Violence Against Women: Estimates from the Redesigned Survey (NCJ-154348), August 1995, p. 1.

* the chance of being victimized by an intimate is 10 times greater for a woman than a man.
Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report: National Crime Victimization Survey, Violence Against Women, 1994.

* 70% of intimate homicide victims are female.
Bureau of Justice Statistics Selected Findings: Violence Between Intimates (NCJ-149259), November 1994.

* male perpetrators are 4 times more likely to use lethal violence than females.
Florida Governor's Task Force on Domestic and Sexual Violence, Florida Mortality Review Project, 1997, p.44, table 7.


And for those interested, the incidence of women (and children) who make FALSE REPORTS of rape or sexual molestation is no different than any other crime: UNDER 2%. Yet we NEVER hear about all the false reports of all those other crimes, do we? (I don't have a link for that handy, but it's no doubt somewhere in the bowels of my previous research finds on the internet.)

[chicaloca]

6. wow. sad and horrifying, but I can't say I'm surprised. :(

The homicide stat brings up an interesting point as well. So many people argue that men are victims of women's violence just as often as women are of men but it's not reflected in statistics because men don't report it. Well then, dumbshits, where are the bodies? That's the surest evidence that a crime has been committed, yet you don't see the male bodies killed from domestic violence piling up like you do the female bodies. (And as we've seen, the women who kill usually do so in self-defense.) I do agree that men also face a whole lot of violence in their lives, but the fact is that adult men usually face violence FROM OTHER MEN. Not women. It's sad that many men won't face that fact, which could go a long way toward ending the violence that they face. But they apparently hate women so much that they'd rather point the finger at us than solve the problem.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

4. I say we all follow the rules and drop a note to admin with our concerns

Starting a thread about it down here just serves to make this forum look like a complaint forum rather than a place to discuss feminist issues free of trolling.

[Eloriel]

5. I already did. Thanks for the suggestion

I have to say, I'm also VERY concerned about the deletion of a whole thread -- see the other discussion about "did I offend" by undergroundpanther. That (thread deletion) needs to be addressed with Admin as well, I think.

Edited to add - but the real point to starting a thread about such threads here is to get others to JOIN the discussion if they feel so moved, not just to complain.

[Eloriel]

7. And, the response was --

one that included a quote from most if not all the posts deleted. Yup, there were DU rule violations, and pretty big ones, actually.

[Kathy in Cambridge]

8. Do you get responses back when you write about your concerns?

[zanne]

9. Are racist comments allowed on DU?

If they aren't, then sexist comments shouldn't be allowed either.

[Moderator]

10. Please address concerns to Admin or the Mods

This issue has been brought to the attention of Admin and Moderators; further discussion on the boards is not appropriate nor within rules of the Forum or DU in general.

thank you