I cannot believe what I my eyes were seeing when reading the two editorials in Wednesday's Issues & Ideas section of the National Post (B. Kay, "Welcome to the Matriarchy" and D.Dutton, "Domestic Violence isn't One-Sided"); reading these two articles was shocking and grossly misleading in the myths they attempt to perpetrate. It is dangerous and outright false to suggest that we live in a matriarchal society when over half of the women in Canada have experienced at least one incident of sexual or physical violence and 86% of the reported sexual assaults in Canada have targeted women. It does bear mention that a very low percentage of women who have been raped or assaulted actually do report the crime, for fear of being subjected to humiliation and public degradation (viz. the Duke rape case). Thus while Ms. Kay's assertion that women are not the sole targets ofsexual violence, they are more than four times more likely to be sexually assaulted (based on the inaccurate reported figures) than a man. How on earth can anybody with a shred of common sense suggest that this society even approaches being a matriarchy when women are subjected to such violence? A final note on Ms. Kay's highly damaging article: radical feminism is not predicated on the view that women are "helpless victims." Far from it; having spoken with a number of radical feminists who have been sexually assaulted, t oa woman none of them label themselves as "victims." They are survivors and they are striving to bring about a world that is more true equal and representativeof the values espoused in such documents as our Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Professor Dutton's article is just as damaging and misleading, and sadly, to be expected in its conclusions given that it comes from a man who is seeking to undermine womens' causes to retain the status quo. It is true that a small number of women are the offending parties in DV, but to hold up this type of story as reflective of the real world is complete malarkey. Look at the figure I cited above: 86% of sexual assaults target women. And that's just the beginning: 80% of sexual assault survivors knew their abusers. About 10% were assaulted by a friend and 41% were assaulted by an acquaintance. 28% were assaulted by a family member, while the remaining 20% were assaulted by a stranger. His effort here is nothing more than an attempt to prop up a myth so cherished by the patriarchy: women do it too. To turn the issue around is to deflect and ignore the real problem that is domestic violence against women. His casual dismissal of women who are murdered by men and mourned by those who truly care about all human life is appalling. When rape, sexual assault, and DV targets men on the same level that it currently targets women, this discussion may be more appropriate. Until such time, these are mere deflections to cover up the continued and ongoing systemic levels of violence against women.

Links:
METRAC, Sexual Assault Statistics
National Post Editorials: Dutton article; Kay article is behind the paid wall.