Dr. Leslie Tutty, speaker invited to the Alberta FV Roundtable pre-meeting, May 6th, 2004

Dr. Leslie Tutty - Professor in the Faculty of Social Work at the University of Calgary and Academic Research Coordinator for RESOLVE Alberta.  Dr. Tutty's research has focused on prevention and interventions in family violence, including evaluations of shelters and support groups for abused women, treatment for adult and child victims of sexual abuse, and groups for men who abuse partners.

Consider:

RESOLVE news
RESEARCH AND EDUCATION FOR SOLUTIONS TO VIOLENCE AND ABUSE

Volume 2 Number 4 Page#5 December 2000

RESOLVE Alberta Update

Leslie Tutty noted that, as a society, we seem to prefer black and white perspectives. As such, two myths are currently promoted about intimate partner violence. The first is that it is only men that are violent and women are always the victims. There is clearly evidence that women partners can be abusive to men, particularly when considering emotional abuse. There is little research on the nature of female violence,^[1] a gap that often leaves men hiding their victimization or feeling ashamed because males have been socialized to be strong. The second myth is that men and women are equally violent.^[2] The research evidence of this is based solely on that conducted using the Conflict Tactic Scales developed by Murray Straus. In numerous studies across North America, including Canada, women admit to committing as many violent acts as men do. However, other research shows that women are much more likely to admit to these problems than men are.^[3] Further the experience of front-line workers such as counsellors and police suggests that women outnumber men victims by about ten to one.^[4] In summary, Dr. Tutty suggests that we need to shift our thinking that only men are violent, but not by concluding that the genders are equally abusive.

My notes:

1. Contradictions never bother feminist advocacy researchers, not even if they contradict themselves within the same paragraph.  Sorry, Dr. Tutty, but you can't have it both ways, claim that, "There is little research on the nature of female violence," and that, "In numerous studies across North America, including Canada, women admit to committing as many violent acts as men do."
      The objective reality is that there are numerous studies that identify that women are as or slightly more likely to abuse their male partners than the converse and that men are far less likely than women are to report being abused.  Moreover, a good number of studies identifies that men are somewhat more likely to admit being abusive to women than the converse.  Why should that not be so?  Men don't ever get to live their mistakes down, while the generous nature of men not only leads them to ignore abusive behaviour by women towards men but soon to forget about it if it occurs.

2. That is most definitely not a myth.  The absolute truth is that women are as or slightly more violent to their male partners than the converse.  See also: References Examining Assaults by Women on their Spouses or Male Partners: An Annotated Bibliography, by Martin S. Fiebert , Department of Psychology, California State University, Long Beach.

3. Not true!  Research shows that men are far less likely than women are to report being abused and more likely than women to admit being abusive.

4. Famous last words by feminist advocacy researchers: "The experience of front-line workers such as counsellors and police suggests..."  With such assertions all objective research can then safely be discarded.  The "experiences" of front line workers are notoriously biased.  That is why respectable and reputable social researchers never base their findings on reports by "front line workers."

A search of the Internet for <"Leslie Tutty" abuse women> will provide you with about 147 search returns containing links to articles, books and quotes by Leslie Tutty that show men as abusers of women or children.
   A search of the Internet for <"Leslie Tutty" abuse "men"> will provide you with about 102 search returns containing links to articles, books and quotes by Leslie Tutty that provide information on men as abusers of women and children and on what men need to do to end being such bad people.

Mind you, battered husbands are not being completely ignored by Dr. Tutty. Internet searches for <"Leslie Tutty" "battered women"> and for <"Leslie Tutty" "battered men"> provide 39 and 3 links respectively.

One of the latter three links leads to this commentary:

Health Canada, under the leadership of an extremely incompetent and father-unfriendly minister named Alan Rock (the man who brought us unfair child support legislation, reintroduced the biases of the family law, and actively campaigned against shared parenting while the Minister of Justice) has received considerable criticism because 100% of their budget for family violence is spent on women exclusively, and much through the most anti-family of the Canadian groups. Stung by criticism, Health Canada put out a literature study, available in PDF format, named Husband Abuse: An Overview of Research and Perspectives which was prepared by Leslie Tutty for the Family Violence Prevention Unit, Health Canada in 1999. I suspect that Ms. Tutty did not choose to ignore the mounds of Canadian and international material, and [they] are often alluded too. However, this report dismisses such material in its conclusions, and instead relied considerably on non-factual material put out by gender-biased groups [a.k.a. notoriously biased "front line workers" —WHS]. The conclusion? Male victims may exist but they are few and far between, especially as compared to the financial needs of the women's groups. As Tutty points out:

In contrast , those who argue that the relative risk of husband abuse is significantly less than that of wife assault tend to come from a feminist perspective . From this view, because men in our society are seen as having more power than women, aggressive behaviours by women against men in couple relationships must be seen differently from men’s violence toward women .

It is [quite] clear who is pulling the purse strings in this study.

That cannot under the best of circumstances be considered a balanced approach to social research pertaining to family violence, but it is without a doubt an approach that is very profitable for Leslie Tutty.

Dr. Tutty should fit in well with the FV Roundtable, whose objective it is to raise awareness and fear about the relatively trivial "problem" of family violence, thereby to maintain the flow of funding for the women's shelter industry and related programs for women.

Full list of invited speakers, including background information

Index to pages for Alberta FV round-table discussions

See also:

• Feminism For Male College Students — A Short Guide to the Truth, by Angry Harry (Off-Site)
• Video on violent women

The White Rose
Thoughts are Free

__________________
Posted 2004 04 19
Updates:
2006 03 04 (added link to Feminism for Male College Students)
2007 12 27 (reformated)