Violence against women: Debunking misogynistic masculinist propaganda • FRANCE 24 English

Violence against women: Debunking misogynistic masculinist propaganda • FRANCE 24 English

[Music] Verica Bahal joins me on set. Good to see you Verica. Hi. Hi. So to mark the international day for the elimination of violence against women. Vica let’s talk about the rise in misogynistic propaganda online. What are some of the main arguments and do they hold up against scientific figures? Well Yanka the answer is no. The uh whilst most misogynistic rhetoric claims to be rooted in statistics and and science there’s often skewed figures or incomplete narratives. And this means that these arguments often don’t hold up when they are faced with the facts. Now, with that in mind, let’s go through now the rise in masculinist propaganda. Masculinism is a group of movements essentially that asserts that men are victims of a society that’s dominated by women. There are different branches, but essentially the idea is that uh there is a crisis of masculinity and men uh should no longer be victims of u of feminism and what feminism has brought women in society. Now, this essentially promotes misogynistic rhetoric. Now, this brings me nicely onto one of my main claims uh within masculinist discourse is that this idea that feminism has gone too far and in fact brought women more advantages than it has to men uh by way of protective laws, measures, and quotas that put men at a disadvantage. However, according to the latest gender index report by uh equal measures 2030, a coalition of national, regional, and global leaders from feminist network civilians and international development, their latest gender index found that over three billion women and girls still live in countries with poor or very poor levels of gender inequality. Also, here in France at least, uh there is still a gender pay gap and women are still earning less than men for the same job. According to INSY, figures showed that women’s an uh average wage income was 22.2 uh% lower than men’s um on average. And this is often due to women having to work uh part-time or take career breaks due to the uh burden of raising children. Women also bear uh the majority of uh the weight of unpaid domestic uh or or care work. Um and women are less present in positions in uh financial and economic decision-making positions. So I think what masculinists need to remember here is that uh any privileges women have gained that have put them uh in a better position in society, any legislation or quotas for example, these are all attempts to correct an imbalance that was already pre uh prevalent and present in society. It’s not an attempt to push women ahead. So we can definitely mark that claim as false. And Vic, obviously today is dedic dedicated to raising awareness of violence women face, but there’s rhetoric online that dismisses this violence. Tell us more. That’s right, Inca. Discourse in masculinist circles often claims that women lie about gender-based violence in order to destroy men’s lives. Essentially, the idea is that accusations of rape, uh, sexual assault, domestic violence, these, uh, are ways uh, that women can destroy a man’s reputation, his career, or seek attention. Uh, those are the kinds of things that I’m seeing at least on social media in these circles. Now in practice though most studies uh agree that false allegations of rape by women are very very rare. According to a 2019 report by the French Senate only around 3 to 5% of rape or sexual assault charges have been classified um as false or misleading. And across the ponds, uh, Channel 4, uh, uh, British British Channel 4’s fact-checking service found that in the UK, men are 230 times more likely to be raped than to be falsely accused of rape. So, we can see how the data is showing otherwise from what we saw in our claim. Now, there’s also the fact that a massive percentage of violence against women is never actually reported. The French Justice Ministry uh estimates that four out of five women never actually come forward. Um and just we also need to remember that just because a man isn’t convicted uh for a crime, it does not necessarily mean he’s innocent, but it also doesn’t necessarily mean that the woman accusing him is lying. Um and there are many reasons overall Yinka why a prosecution may not be successful. And Verica, there’s also the masculinist argument that men experience the same rates of domestic violence as women. Is that correct? Yes, that is another argument in these circles. They present domestic violence as reciprocal. They say that only pointing the finger at men for domestic violence is misandry. Uh in other words, prejudice against men. But a landmark report from the WHO has found that nearly one in three women, so that’s estimated 840 million uh globally um have experienced partner or sexual violence during their lifetime. Now, within the EU, these figures uh show at around 17.7% across the block. Um and in France 84% uh of domestic violence women uh domestic violence victims are women. So we can see how men are clearly in a minority here and women are the majority. We’ve also uh got links and studies given by women’s aid uh that uh pointing out that men don’t experience necessarily a domestic abuse as part of embedded structural inequalities against their sex and they’re much more likely uh to experience repeated victimization and to be seriously hurt. Um now all of this we have to we have to finish with this that all of this does not uh invalidate the very real suffering and the very real experience of domestic violence against men um and the and the suffering that they face in that um but it’s clear that this is not reciprocal as they claim and we need to remember that women are clearly um they remain the main victims uh in this case. Verica, thank you so much for that breakdown. Verica Pel there with our daily truth or fake segment.

To mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, Vedika Bahl talks through the rise in misogynistic propaganda online, and dismantles some of the popular masculinist arguments against women.propa
#masculinism #toxicmasculinity #violenceagainstwomen

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