Date: Fri, 17 Jul 1998 11:21:56 -0700
From: erin pizzey
I knew several years ago that the figures for
lesbian DV
were going to be reported. I was at a conference and met a research worker from
America who told me about their research and said he doubted if their findings would ever
be published.
My point is and always has been that I had many lesbians coming into the refuge who
were savagely beaten by their partners.
I was aware for the last thirty years of the violence between women. How, I kept
asking, could the feminist movement claim that men were 'perpetrators' when the figures
for women attacking each other were as high or higher than the figures for men abusing
women? At the moment, there are studies (Lie and Gentlewarrior) but we need to find
much more evidence.
I pointed out on a programme called Woman's Hour this Week that women were
violent to each other, in an argument with a very senior feminist from the English
Federation Of Women's Aid (the federation controls most of the refuges in this country and
the funding. They are heavily
radical feminists [more accurately
called redfems —WHS] She argued that this was not
so and the women were beaten by their husbands or partners when they tried to leave them
for another women.
Are there figures for
gay men's
violence towards each other? I would imagine so, but could be quite wrong, that
the figures are less than for gay women.
erin pizzey
(about Erin Pizzey) |
