Battered Men...

I have CNN's American Morning running in the background, and I was trying to ignore the segment on Liza Minelli and David Gest's divorce problems. Frankly, I don't put much stock in celebrity reporting, particularly about postmarital problems.

Thank goodness for TiVo's rewind feature (for those of you who haven't entered the world of PVRs, it allows you to rewind live television). I could not believe I actually heard the following question CNN's Bill Hemmer put to Carolina Buia, a reporter from "Celebrity Justice," the program that is publicizing the details of the Minelli/Gest allegations.

HEMMER (after reading one of the allegations Gest makes against Minelli, involving her punching him repeatedly in the head): What are we to make of this? David Gest is a very successful man. Is it money, or is there more to it?

Putting aside both the celebrity and the as-yet-untried legal merits of this particular situation, I cannot imagine a national news station ever implying that a woman would charge a man with savagely beating her so that she could get money.

Ms. Buia actually managed to salvage the question by discussing the underreported prevalence of domestic violence against men.

BUIA: Well, from the suit, I mean, he alleges he is just a victim of domestic abuse, and actually it is shedding light on domestic abuse against men because normally you don't hear about this. But apparently 1/3 of the cases of domestic abuse are against men, and at least 800,000 cases a year are reported against men.

Unfortunately, Hemmer did not rise to her serious reply, and, after commenting "Is that so? I did not know that," he went on to question Buia, rather dismissively, about physical complaints that Gest says in the court papers resulted from the beatings.

Domestic violence is a serious social problem, but there is a limit to the amount of progress that can be made when a major media outlet dismisses 1/3 of the problem. It is even more limited when the victim's advocacy groups ignore the possibility of domestic violence against men.

Most cell phone stores have a box where you can donate your old cell phone to "Call to Protect," a group that distributes cell phones to victims of domestic violence so they can call 911 if they fear their safety. Unfortunately, this program is in partnership with The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence. I don't know much about the organization, but here is the testimonial that Rita Smith, the group's executive director, gave to the "Call To Protect" website:

"The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence has gained a great deal from our partnership with The Wireless Foundation, the most important benefit being that lives have been saved. In addition, all battered women at risk who have been given a cell phone have been able to gain a higher level of safety and peace of mind as they try to rebuild their lives." (emphasis mine).

With that attitude, I wonder how many of these emergency phones are going to the 1/3 of domestic violence victims who are men. When even the victim's advocacy groups ignore the male victims, the problem is not going to go away. Although NCADV's site does the "he/she" thing when discussing the batterer, their sections on "getting help" and "safety planning" are blatantly worded to assume that the victim is female (e.g. Step 10 of the plan after the victim leaves a relationship: "Go to a battered women's shelter").

Again, it matters very little if the particular allegations David Gest makes against Liza Minelli hold water or not. What matters is that apparently no one--not the media, not the victim's advocates--is taking the problem of domestic violence against men seriously.