I couldn't agree with Christopher's comment more! The more we minimize the fact that boys & men are not only perpetrators, but victims -- the more we word our questions with gender-laden messages, the more we minimize the pain and experience of boys and men who HAVE been victims and who are NOT getting the services or attention they richly deserve. I believe the issues of abuse, sexual violence, domestic violence should ALL be HUMAN RIGHT'S issues, and not GENDER issues. Just because the majority is of a certain sex, please do NOT minimize the minority...it hurts them in ways that are so damaging, so divisive, the real message gets lost. We do NOT want to jump on that bandwagon - it's traumatizing our male victims (and those who love them). Originally Posted by Christopher Anderson:
One thing that MUST be addressed moving forward is gender bias in the ACES themselves. In the first wave, domestic violence was specifically defined as maltreatment of the mother. I'm not sure that this has been addressed in the questionnaire currently, and it's vital that we do so.