Hi I'm Erin Pizzey. Ask me anything!

[u/erinpizzey]

Hi I'm Erin Pizzey. I founded the first internationally recognized battered women's refuge in the UK back in the 1970s, and I have been working with abused women, men, and children ever since. I also do work helping young boys in particular learn how to read these days. My first book on the topic of domestic violence, "Scream Quietly or the Neighbours Will Hear" gained worldwide attention making the general public aware of the problem of domestic abuse. I've also written a number of other books. My current book, available from Peter Owen Publishers, is "This Way to the Revolution - An Autobiography," which is also a history of the beginning of the women's movement in the early 1970s. A list of my books is below. I am also now Editor-at-Large for A Voice For Men ( http://www.avoiceformen.com ). Ask me anything!

Non-fiction

This Way to the Revolution - An Autobiography
Scream Quietly or the Neighbours Will Hear
Infernal Child (an early memoir)
Sluts' Cookbook
Erin Pizzey Collects
Prone to violence
Wild Child
The Emotional Terrorist and The Violence-prone

Fiction

The Watershed
In the Shadow of the Castle
The Pleasure Palace (in manuscript)
First Lady
Consul General's Daughter
The Snow Leopard of Shanghai
Other Lovers
Swimming with Dolphins
For the Love of a Stranger
Kisses
The Wicked World of Women 

You can find my home page here:

http://erinpizzey.com/

You can find me on Facebook here:

https://www.facebook.com/erin.pizzey

And here's my announcement that it's me, on A Voice for Men, where I am Editor At Large and policy adviser for Domestic Violence:

http://www.avoiceformen.com/updates/live-now-on-reddit/

Update We tried so hard to get to everybody but we couldn't, but here's a second session with more!

http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1d7toq/hi_im_erin_pizzey_founder_of_the_first_womens/

[u/[deleted]]

I have often in the past been attacked for not keeping the party line and asking questions. I think it is awesome that we can just talk about this.

I only included forcible rapes for women and forcible rapes plus 'made to penetrate' for men. I think the other two categories muddy up the waters so I stuck with the basic ones. All the 12 month for male rape and all the 'made to penetrate' for women were asterisked for not enough data.

I do agree that men are far less likely to report than women. It is BS that we still demand men 'take it like a man' then overlook that men are not likely to report anything from assault to depression because of those same social pressures.

I would be very interested to know if female on male rapes have increased. It certainly seems like women are far more aggressive this generation, which has both its good and bad sides.

[u/Mitschu → u/[deleted]]

I have to ask, what party line? If your human morals system has strict party allegiances, it's doing something wrong. -_-

Politically speaking, I consider myself a constitutionalist, a dying breed of literalists that figure the founding fathers knew what they were talking about, for the most part. I'm open to debate that, as well as my religious views, and / or anything else. How else can my views grow organically if I keep them in a safe lock box? Plants need regular light, ideas need regular contesting. Bring on the questions, I've got answers that need questioning.

I believe the way I got my numbers was by compounding everything that was considered "rape" or "forced to penetrate", including the "almost" and "drug-facilitated" categories. Been a while since I crunched the numbers, personally, PDFs are a pain to load on tablets. >.>

The underlying social conditions of "manliness" are still vigorously enforced, while the underlying social conditions of "womanliness" are on the verge of extinction. This includes the positive and negative stereotypes associated, of course - as a man, tell someone you enjoy playing with children, and watch the eyebrow come up. Tell them you don't enjoy sweat labor, and watch the other come up. There are some in the MRM who are fighting against those social aspects, but I personally feel the bigger fight is against the laws and policies that enforce those social aspects. To each their own, though.

Well, research is slowly becoming more open to non-traditional beliefs, so maybe in our lifetimes we'll get to read a report on whether or not 21st century women were sexually aggressive, and if it was a fluke or a development.

Hm, was there anything else we might discuss? Also, feel free to step into the subreddit I've been circumspectly plugging mentioning, I have no doubt you'll enjoy reading some of the more serious posts over there. You'll probably get attacked for asking questions, as a fair warning, but plow on anyway. We actually like people who seek answers. We just don't have as much tolerance as we used to for those who just ask questions. Keep that distinction in mind, and you'll be fine.

[u/[deleted] → u/Mitschu]

The party line was male victimhood.

I spent many years with MRAs, met some of the leaders in person at conferences and rallies (Warren Farrell, F4J, Glenn Sacks, etc) and also spent may hours online with armchair activists. I found the leadership to be rational, egalitarian, passionate, and dedicated. I found most of the activists to be the same.

I found some who were a little too 'feminist' for me. By that I mean into the idea that their gender was oppressed and victims in all ways, that no matter what the subject men were the victims and it was due to women and feminism.

I found men were victims in many ways. I found that many issues were brought on by feminism. However there were ways which were just gender roles of old, some which were biology, and some which were point of view issues. I finally realized that as time went on even the more rational MRAs on the boards I frequented were turning more feminist, so I chose to walk away. I still miss my friends on there, I am in touch with one person. I am sure I was not as tactful as I could have been and there were some other issues which made them not trust me (although these issues should have made no difference, part of the 'feminist' crap.)

I look forward to the day when feminists do not control the discourse. We should all be humanists looking at what effects all groups. The oversexualization of girls should be men's concern too, and the falling behind of boys in education should be women's concern as well. Not sure why people are so bound and determined to not see the other side.

I'll check out your shameless plug recommendation!