Would you intervene if you saw a woman attacking a man?

It's a good question FourForks.
I think there are 2 answers.
One is that there are always going to be decisions made about resource allocation, even at the simple level of the police deciding which 999 call to go to first. So choices might have to be made even though in an ideal world we'd be zero tolerance about everything.

The other thing is to do with what you think are the causes of the violence. Once you become aware of the vast difference in the amount of violence women suffer at the hands of men than vice versa, it starts to make sense to ask questions about why culture is encouraging men to be so violent to women, and whether we need to do something about the messages that are being sent out to them. If one group is attacking another group disproportionately then surely your best hope of finding a solution is asking what's different about the way those two groups are taught to behave. If we pretend that women hurt men pretty much the same amount as men hurt women, we'd miss those causes and thus damage our chances of doing something about it.

Honestly, I don't know what I'd do if I saw that.

If I was with Dh or some other people, I'd like to think that I'd step in and tell them I'm going to call the police.

Alone, I wouldn't want to risk getting punched myself by the male or female.
Very interesting and it has certainly got me thinking.

I have intervened with a group of young women who were pushing another teenager around. After that experience (only verbal but it still was horrible), I thought I'd butt out in future.

why does it matter who suffers more?

Because it's male violence against women - which is endemic in our culture - and leaves, on average, one woman dead in the UK at the hands of her partner or ex-partner, every 2.7 days.

MVAW is one of the most important feminist issues there is, imo. Ranging from low-level harassment on the street, to sexual assault and rape, to murder.

I'd intervene if I saw anyone getting attacked. It's never occurred to me to question the gender, just the violence.

I hope you can bear with me here, I'm not fully versed on a lot of feminist issues, I'm just learning.

but, sincere question, why does it matter who suffers more? both genders suffer dv in varying degrees of severity and frequency.

Yes Ronald Marianne Hester has done a lot of research in this area.

who does what to whom is good, I think

I don't think it's wrong for people to be afraid of physically intervening. You don't know what's going to happen.

This is an excellent read for those tempted to think the 40% figure is accurate

I think that it is a decent advert to highlight the problems that men facing dv or ipv/a face. Men clearly have an issue with it being taken seriously and have problems with coming forward.
These are the same issues faced by women

The problem as I see it is that they should really have shown the same result in the advert for both sexes facing abuse because in my opinion and experience no one comes to your aide.
Someone might call the police - I would - but again if I'm honest I'm unsure if I would if I saw the same thing happen to a man. That is awful.
This is me being really honest...and it is appalling as I often deal with people who have suffered seriously from DV/A

So perhaps their advert has a good point and has made me think about my prejudices

Am I the only person who was thinking it would have been easy for him to stop her, as he was bigger and stronger?

OBVIOUSLY this doesn't mean it's ok for her to be violent, just that he is much less likely to need practical help from a stranger (though he would be equally likely to need emotional support, I think).

is there any point in arguing that one type of dv is worse than another?

I'm thinking whether men or women are the victims, whatever the severity, it's all wrong and should be taken seriously.

Y Calmet, there's a popular belief that men are less likely to call the police to report violence against them, but research suggests that actually the opposite is true and men tend to report it sooner.

Karen Ingala Smith is very good on all this - if anyone wants info her blog is a good place to start.

I would call the police, but not step in.

In terms of women being violent to male partners, I read some research which showed that male victims report this much sooner than female victims, at a much lower level of violence.

It is virtually all women who die from domestic violence.

there was this as well. This was horrible.

Lots of people complaining when they are disturbed by a drum kit.

Total silence when it sounded like a woman being beaten. Not a single call to the police, nothing.

Horrific.

I wouldn't step in whoever it was- call the police and intervene in a more subtle way, yes, but actively stepping in and trying to stop it? I'm a bit of a scaredy cat, though. The only time I have witnessed domestic violence that I know of (ie- not just between random drunks or whatever) was between two men and I called the police. My birth mother was a victim of domestic violence and I never realised how much that affected me until I actually saw it.

turnip, yes, I think you're right there. the video is putting across both those points and it is manipulative.

it's reminded me of an incident on a night out when I stopped 2 women battering a young bloke. he had been propositioned and turned her down, so she went into a rage, clawing at his face and her friend joined in. I pulled him off to one side and stayed with him till the women left in a cab. he was really shook up.

Agree, Tunip.

Fourforks - depends what you think the video is saying.
If it's saying 'men can be victims of dv at the hands of women too and it's not a laughing matter' then yes, absolutely it stands.

However if you think it's saying (and this is what a lot of people commenting seem to be taking away from it), 'Look, people react differently when it's men and women! When women are the victims they step in to help but when men are the victims they just laugh!' then it's a load of manipulative dishonest bollocks.

I've seen women attacked in public and no-one step in to help.

sabrina, that was horrible to watch.

I don't really object to the stats posted, anything that gets people taking dv seriously is a good thing ultimately. A little galling that it has to be a male problem too in order to get people thinking about it but it works in women's favour too in the end.

Came to post what Turnip posted. It's most likely a fraud.

Aqualegia. Sorry you went through that.