A useful website called Global Voices has posted an article translated from the Spanish about the latest EU survey on violence against women in Europe.
Needless to say, the phenomena investigated by the survey include behaviors that only a dedicated leftist would describe as “violence”. This is the EU we’re dealing with, after all — what else do you expect?
On March 5, the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) published the results of a survey on violence against women [pdf], the most comprehensive of its kind ever conducted. Undertaken simultaneously throughout the region, it is the first time comparative data has been available by country on the kinds of violence women suffer in their families, at work, in public and on the Internet as well as the effect it has on their lives and the way in which victims respond to aggression.
The report is based on direct interviews with 42,000 female residents of the EU aged 18 to 74, and it reveals some staggering numbers. According to one of the videos presented along with the report, “the results show the scale of violence against women in the EU is vast, and simply cannot be ignored.” In the words of the FRA Director Morten Kjaerum:
The enormity of the problem is proof that violence against women does not just impact a few women only — it impacts on society every day. Therefore, policy makers, civil society and frontline workers need to review measures to tackle all forms of violence against women no matter where it takes place. [sic]
Some of the conclusions of the survey include:
- 33% of women have experienced physical and/or sexual violence since the age of 15, while 5% have been raped.
- 55% of women have suffered some form of sexual harassment (unwelcome kissing, hugging or touching) since the age of 15.
- 75% of women in high level jobs or who are highly qualified have experience sexual harassment at some point in their lives.
- 11% of women have experienced inappropriate advances on social websites or have been subjected to sexually explicit emails or text (SMS) messages.
- 67% did not report the most serious incident of partner violence to the police or other organizations.
Surprisingly the countries with the highest percentage of victims of violence against women are in northern Europe: Denmark (52%), Finland (47%) and Sweden (46%), while Hungary (21%), Austria (20%) and Poland (19%) have much lower rates. Spain, at 22%, is well below average:
[…]
It seems counter intuitive that Scandinavian countries, which have higher rates of gender equality should also have higher rates of violence against women. Blanca Tapia, spokesperson for the FRA, explains in El diario [es] newspaper this apparent contradiction:
In countries like Finland, Denmark, Sweden or France, it is culturally more acceptable to talk about violence against women, so women are more likely to denounce it. Women in northern countries have greater gender awareness; they know they have the same rights as men and it is clear to them that there are certain things they do not have to put up with. They don’t let things get by them.
So because women in Scandinavia are more liberated, they are more likely to have the courage to report the abuse. Hmm… I’m not so sure I agree with that logic.
And it goes without saying that there are no statistics correlating the level of cultural enrichment with the rate of gender-based violence, so there’s no way to tell whether it is Swedes or “Swedes” who are whaling on their womenfolk.
As is usually the case with politically correct news articles, the most interesting content may be found in the comments. Not all the Spanish-speaking male readers are as ready to buy the feminized zeitgeist as their purportedly male counterparts in northern Europe:
We already know how these feminist surveys work, if you argue over the TV remote it’s considered macho violence
nothing new under the sun
another headline designed to manipulate our minds during this golden age of feminazis
There are also readers (possibly of the female persuasion) who affirm the, ahem, thrust of the criteria used to measure “violence” against women:
Of course a crude comment is a form of aggression. It is humiliating to have something crude said to you, and humiliation is a form of mistreatment. Any guy would be offended if another said something disgusting to their girlfriend, mother or sister—are you going to deny that? So if it offends or bothers you went it is directed at a woman you care about, how can some of you actually have the nerve to question whether the woman feels harassed?
This comment leads us into the penumbras formed by emanations from a relatively new concept known as microagression. Microaggressions are (roughly speaking) things said by members of non-protected groups that offend people in protected groups, which include women, wymyn, the differently-gendered, persons of color, physically challenged individuals, etc.
The word “microaggression” is actually not all that new. It was coined in the 1970s, but has only come into its own in the last few years. The term is apparently being groomed to replace “racism”, “sexism”, etc. and lump all the offensive behaviors into a single category that can be used as a more effective cudgel against politically incorrect miscreants who fail to keep their mouths shut.
I hope to have more to say about microaggression in a later post. In the meantime, read the whole article at Global Voices — especially the translated comments.
Hat tip: Green Infidel.
Ah, If you want to come to power, or keep power, or to look the wonder of the world for a few days just talk about women being oppressed and other female issues or say something positive about “the religion of peace” and win.
Who listen to anything EU would say and do? Only the delusional and the stupid. What has EU left in the continent without ruining it in the name of high values.
In these EU statistics is the abused Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff by EU itself included in those throw in the eyes sand statistics ? What about my statistics which say men and women and children are abused by EU itself. When EU rulers have no morals, values or scruples, the ruled will imitate what they see emanating from them. People imitate the “Big Brother” . To hell with the corrupt, Eurabia servant Big Brother.
Hey, you forgot us southern “wimmen”. I see it spelled like that to make fun of American southerners [a definitely unprotected group that one may flay with impunity], but in fact that spelling is indistinguishable from the way the word is pronounced. Or, as G.B. Shaw (would have) proclaimed, “wimmen need men like ghotis need a bicycle”. [/joke/ limps offstage].
As one who has experienced severe sexual abuse from men, I must say that the positive examples of the vast majority of the men I have known far outweigh the criminals I had the misfortune to encounter. It’s just that the damage done by the criminals, whose behavior tends to be serial, is so very lasting.
Yep, we should all “tackle” aggression. And while we’re at it, let’s also tackle the self-righteous who are busy attaching noxious labels to everything that scares them. Like declaring that all male <->female conjoining is rape. In a real world such a statement would render those who utter it as terminally unserious and best to be ignored – but especially it should remind us to keep the children safe from people who think like that.
I can’t wait for micro aggression to suffer the same fate as all those other terms. People who talk in “Label-ese” have to talk so carefully in order to avoid offending the Thought Police that they wear out those correct labels. Thus a new search for a better, more effective and less offensive word…the eternal search for correctness. This is true of both euphemisms and verbal attacks. In fact, what starts out as a new, good word ends up on the trash pile (labeled) “insensitive”. Just one example: the word ‘deaf’.
Not all things that go bump in the night are cause for alarm…that noise just might be you, falling out of bed.
The survey is built on interviews. I mean that it’s wise to be very suspicious regarding the figures.
This survey – what a peice of dezinformatsya!!
From “Not Guilty: In Defence of the Modern Man”, 1993, by David Thomas (p162)-
“Faced with the question of a woman who is confronted with dirty pictures, stupid remarks or unwanted passes from colleagues of equal rank, Veronique Neiertz, the French minister for women’s rights remarked, ‘What is wrong with a slap round the face? Be clear, it is blackmail to make sexual advances to someone who depends on you for their work…In the case of blackmailing the state has something to say. Otherwise, the relations between men and women are merely part of life’.”
Which is to say, if women are sufficiently strong and powerful to hold positions of authority and responsibility, they should be capable of dealing with overgrown boys without recourse to the law.
This brings to mind a French M.D. I knew. She smoked like a chimney, took her children ’round the world (with tutors…the Baron wasn’t one, sigh) and practiced homeopathy for maladies not life-threatening. But she hid that from Americans since we only trust the consensus of mainstream medicine, which of course never makes mistakes…
Anyway, she was deeply dismissive of what she called “the spoiled woman” who demands but gives nothing in return – and they exist everywhere. She found America troubling, but had married one so she decided not to practice here…
Definitely she was capable of dealing with “overgrown boys”…
I actually found that a ‘testosterone joke’ usually shut up any ‘microaggresive’ remarks aimed at my womenhood.
Maybe back in the 60s and 70s we had bigger worries – getting men’s jobs in STEM, getting decent pay for those men’s jobs when we got them.
Not having to wear skirts while doing STEM jobs, etc. Or maybe we were just less polite? PC had not been invented yet.
What about the very real violence against the non-muslim populations from Muslims?? I note there is nothing said about who is actually attacking the women?!?!?!
Correct, KuhnKat, and that omission is conscious.
Of course, if it is done by moozlyms against non-moozlyms, it is a non-event. Must maintain social cohesion!
From the microaggressions.com website, an example of what constitutes a “microagession”:
“My chemistry teacher was in shock when i got a 103% on an exam; however, she wasn’t shocked when two white kids did well. This was kind of hurtful, but after that the teacher never doubted me.”
Terrible that anyone could be in shock over a pupil getting 103% in an exam, eh?
In August last year, the most important part of the Equal Opportunity and Treatment Incidents (EOTI) from the United States Air Force was published here at GoV.
I analyzed the entire text, and sent it to Nicolai Sennels in Denmark for his comment as a professional psychologist. Nicolai didn’t have time to read the text, but he made a search on the word “Islam”. One (1) hit.
The True Merchandise of EOTI is to undermine the authority of competent officers. The True Merchandise of the survey is to undermine the authority of competent women.
‘ … it is culturally more acceptable to talk about violence against women, so women are more likely to denounce it. Women in northern countries have greater gender awareness; they know they have the same rights as men and it is clear to them that there are certain things they do not have to put up with. They don’t let things get by them.’
It may be that rather than being more likely to denounce ‘violence against women’ because it is ‘culturally more acceptable’, the women of the excessively feminised Scandinavians are more likely to have an aggressively anti-male – misandrist – attitude and thus to see ‘violence’ in the mildest of exchanges. I read somewhere, a couple of years ago or so, that the definition of domestic violence in the ‘U’K now includes withholding sex or money from a woman (not, though. vice versa).
“Ah, If you want to come to power, or keep power, or to look the wonder of the world for a few days just talk about women being oppressed and other female issues or say something positive about “the religion of peace” and win.”
Well said, Murad.
One gets the impression that all that counts in politics is to *show* how much one cares by demonstrating fluency in the accepted rhethoric.
What is amazing in all this is how little real problems and their potential solutions are discussed, or even acknowledged.
… the real problem being – as anyone familiar with this website knows, the very real violence that these precious “enrichers” inflict upon Scandinavian women.
Nononononono, you cannot speak of that. Verboten.
Saw this on coursera and thought that this is true, particularly the first sentence.
When everyone begins pursuing their rights to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness we are bound to step on each other’s toes. This begs the need for regulations. And this leads to the question as to “what is moral behavior”; and what are the ethics that emanate from the selected definitions of moral behavior. There is no dearth of defined moral behavior created by religions and their leaders, business persons, politicians, philosophers, and in some cases “the everyday person on the street”.
Here’s the link
https://www.coursera.org/course/techethics
LenaN. If one follows the law and its intention, there is no need for discussions about “what is moral behaviour”. It’s all those people breaking the law – breaking the rules of the game – that gives us problems.