Faludi’s b

AUTHOR Susan Faludi
is all the rage now.

A trenchant feminist ideo
logue, she has pretended to
embrace men in her latest
book Seifjed: The Betrayal of
the American Man, and con-
ceded thar, like women, they
are hurting.

Whar Faludi has done, in
the tradition of the never ton
figorous intellectual i inquiry
feminists are so good at, is sim-
ply apply erroneous theories of
female oppression to men, Or
ta quate t the National Review:
Faludi’s “attempt to bring her
newfound brothers into the
once exclusively female society
of victims” has done “little
more than to raise the volume
on the most tiresome and least
enlightened form of human
expression, the Whine.”

Indeed, feminism as a cor-
pus of ideas has failed once
again co innovate. As National
Post columnist David Frum
points out in the newspaper’s
Sept. 28 issue: “When it is not
totalitarian and grim” feminism
is engaged in fashioning old
tired Marxist ideas into the
emotionally accessible and
‘comforting language of pop
psychology. In the same way
she approached her book
Backlash, Faludi ignores the

Hana
Mercer

fair

comment

sociological data by choosing
tor her sample the halt, the
lame and the dysfunctional
among men. Her grand theory
is not much different from the
one that forms the subtest of
the film Fight Clb. Ir's all
about consumerism and invari-
ably capitalisn

But this is precisely the
demagoguery of feminism, it is
a theoretical construct that has

sis in reality.

1 agree with Frum: Fahudi's
book is a bore.

Tam only saddened, nay
angered, that this shambie ofa
tome will become the accepted
wisdom or what ails men.

Maybe it’s time for Faludi
and her sisters to Take Back
the Night in a more meaning-
ful way, by conceding that we
love and need our men and
want them in our lives without
emasculating them with ideo-
logical pie in the sky.

Since Together Against
Violence Month is upon us —
a month devoted all too often
to demonizing men -— det me
take the opportunity te remind
readers of the fets behind the
Violence against women statis:
tics.

The main single-sex sur-
vevs, which continue to tiel
public policy as well as animat-
ing the radio and television
scare mongering, are the 1993
Canadian Panel on Violence
Against Women (CanPan) and
the 1993 Statistics Canada
Violence Against Women sur-
vey (VAW). Both suffer serious
methodological flaws shat have
been amply exposed by promi-
nent scholars of whom
Protessor John Fekete, recipi-
ent of the Trent University
Distinguished Researcher
Award, is the most aozable,

CanPan nets some inthm-
matory statistics claiminy, for
instance, that 98% of Toronto
women have been sexually
abused and that two out of
three women have been sexual-
ly assaulted.

It solicited its submissions
from the clinical population:
prisons, women’s shelters, rape
treatment centres, etc. and pro-
ceeded to generalize from this
biased sample and apply it to
all Canadian women.

A portion of the CapPan
report inchides unverified testi-
monials that were edited, or
more likely airbrushed by pan-
clists. These include accounts
ef ritual abuse, cannibalism and
human sacrifice!

That such urban legends,
long since exposed as fabrica-
tions found their way into an
ostensibly scientific investiga-
tion as the CanPan gives an
inkling as to this survey's credi-
bility.

Statistics Canada’s 1993
VAW survey is another singie-
scx survey “with exclusive
focus on temate victimization
by men as the only form of
violence under consideration”
(Petkau, 1998). Problems of
an unrepresentative sample, a
reliance on aneedotes, and use
of survey questions, which are
over inclusive, plague it.

For instance, everything
from hitting and grabbing to
being knifed or shot is lumped
in one category te which a
yes/no answer is required.

‘This amplifies the results
considerably. Factored into the
violence equation are obscene
telephone calls and data from
questions like “Has a man ever
leaned over you unnecessarily?”

This is consistent with gen-
der-feminism, which employs
the slippery slope logical fallacy,

Coun.’s name is mud after digging ‘dirt’

Dear Editor:
Re: Oct. 20 News story.
So, North Vancouver City
Coun. Bob Fearnley tried to
“dig deep” for what he
thowe ht would be good nega-
tive litical “dirt” on Mayoral
idate Barbara Sharp, only

Harvest
heiped

Dear Editor:

Thank you so much for
your generous donation to the
Harvest Froject’s 6th Birthday,
Open House/Silent Auction.
With your help we raised over
$4,700 to assist the Harvest in
helping those in need on the
North Shore. ‘The party. was
fantastic, with many dropping
by to celebrate with us six years

providing a hand up and help-
ing break the poverty cycle in
our community.

It is because of you we are
abic to continue our work
helping people and changing
lives, --:

Bless you for all your sup-

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Does Coun. Fearnley think
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The public is not tooled
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Friday, October 29. 1999 — North Shore News - 7

Le. that violence is situated on
Acontinuum, and that the
mild: mannered man gen to
the occasional caustic comment
deserves to share an axis with
QJ. Simpson.

Other distortions that have
amplified outcomes are the
reliance Gn fite-time-ever rates,
which show that a third of
Canadian women have been
assaulted, as opposed to inci-
dence reports that show that
only 3% of married /common
Jaw women had been assaulted
in the previous 12 months.

Unbeknownst to the public
there have been dozens of two-
sex surveys conducted in
Canada and the U.S. in the
past 30 years, which “show that
women in relationships with

K misses what's reaily ailing men

men commit comparauively as
many acts Of plivsical violeitce
as men do, at every level of
severty.” (Fekete, 1994).

“By keeping this frem the
Canadian public,” Prof. Fekete
told me, “SratsCan has been
part of one of the most aston-
ishing episodes of dishonest
science in Our times.”

Finally, the fact chat women
are more likely to be injured in
domestic violence points only
toa difference in physical
strength and not to a ditter-
ence in culpability.

H'we women can match
men in every way thar is fine
and good, We will also have to
convede that we can be fust as
sinister as men.

— quonr@attennada.swt

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