Acid

[inaclearingstandsaboxer]

This is my first thread started in Feminist chat.

Acid attacks have been going on for ages. They have been up until recently attacks on women and mostly done by men. Men who want to punish the women because they will not be controlled.
Nothing is done
Not a lot is said apart from 'oh dear that's awful'...

Then... men are attacked... men have acid thrown at them.

An there is a shit storm. There is a call for the banning of Sulphuric acid and the throwing of acid to be upgraded as a crime. The politicians are up in arms...

I wonder if any of this would've happened if the men hadn't been attacked? Ok I know there were a few in the space of an hour and a half but I know there have been many many more women disfigured over the years and nothing has been done about it.

Sorry if this seems a clumsy post!

Funny, that crossed my mind too when I saw the reports this week.

It's like everything, an attack by a stranger is deemed much worse than an attack by someone you know. But since women are disproportionately affected by violent attacks by a partner etc, then I can't work out if the effect is that attacks on women are viewed as less serious because they tend to be by someone they know or if they are less serious because they are women. Or maybe a combination of both?

It's like everything, an attack by a stranger is deemed much worse than an attack by someone you know.

Is it?

If a man was beaten up by his best friend, would that be deemed less serious because they knew each other?

If a man's expensive computer was stolen by a friend versus a stranger?

Would not everyone say that it is betrayal and much, much worse?

People certainly say that when a man finds out that his wife cheated on him not with a stranger but with his best friend.

So, to answer your question:

It is all because they are women. The seeing the crime as less serious because they knew the (male) offender is also because they are women. This is not done to men. And I am not so sure it is done to women who are attacked by other women.

Male violence towards women is considered justified by patriarchal societies if the male can, in any way, be considered the rightful owner of the woman.
I think that's at the core of it.

Yes. When I heard of the recent attacks, I wondered if it was a new ISIS-inspired attack, like the use of cars to mow people down. But no, it just appears to be male violence, but not against women. So it gets attention. If it had been 'islamic' it would have got attention, because the victim were male. But it doesn't matter when the victims are women. Never does

I think the idea of random attacks is scarier to the general public, because you're reading the news and think 'that could have been me', whereas when the person was known to the victim it's seen as an argument between two people - sometimes full on victim blaming (she brought it on herself) and sometimes more a case of people thinking they don't know anyone who would do that sort of thing so they can't imagine it happening to them.

If someone you know tells you that their friend beat them up, yes you'd factor in the betrayal, but I doubt you'd be more scared when walking home alone, whereas a random attack may have this effect.

I'm not saying that there isn't sexism at play here, just that a random attack is more 'newsy' in many ways. The way this has been reported has lacked the before and after photos, it's tragic she's lost her beauty angle that we often see - unless I have just missed it. And I don't despite that there is a high level of sexism in a lot of newspapers.

Well yes, because loss of beauty in women is the only thing that matters

No it is because of the high number of acid attacks in a short period of time. Many men have been attacked with acid before now and nothing serious has been done.
This has nothing to do with males or females. Its about people seemingly being easily able to get access to acid, meaning that copycat attackers are more likely.

Two thirds of acid attack victims are male.

Five acid attacks in the space of 72 minutes in London is always going to be newsworthy. I bet it would have been even more newsworthy if the victims had been female (as with missing white woman syndrome).

I agree BabyBlues acid attacks do get reported. It is the high numbers in a short period which is the significant element here.

I don't agree that reporting highlights the loss of beauty- the reporting clearly will show the terrible scarring often with damage to sight. If the victim is willing to allow photographs why should this not be reported?

In 2 recent Scottish cases one male attacker received a 20 year sentence. The most recent case was a 17 year old girl who filled another girl's viola case with sulphuric acid which split all over her when she opened it.

Two thirds of acid attack victims are male

Could you provide a source for this please?

I would agree that, until recently, acid attacks seemed to be predominantly against women by men wanting revenge. There were also cultural issues - forced marriages etc - that were often part of the problem. A lot of attacks weren't reported.

In the UK today, it's believed that the increase is due to a crackdown on knife crime and so is being used by gangs. In other countries, there's still an issue of sex.

The side by side pictures I have in mind are definitely a tabloid thing. Pictures that show scarring are more commonly standalone in the broadsheets. Physical descriptions are also more of a feature of tabloid reporting, though.

*Two thirds of acid attack victims are male

Could you provide a source for this please?*

I was interested in the answer to this too, and found this (which is a few years out of date):
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24835910

Statistics look very different in other parts of the world, though: globally, 80% are reported as female (from the same article).

Could you provide a source for this please?

Here (from a 2017 story): www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-39678059

What we know in the UK is that the majority of perpetrators are young men, as are at least two-thirds of the victims.

And the link in the above post, from 2013, says that men were nearly twice as likely as women to be victims of acid attacks, which doesn't really back up the OPs theory that men have only recently been targeted.

(I quoted the UK statistics as OP is clearly talking about the current situation in the UK.)

I bet it would have been even more newsworthy if the victims had been female

Most male violence against women is scarcely reported. There are too many examples to list from this year alone but considering a 15 year old girl being followed off a bus in her school uniform, dragged into bushes and sexually assaulted only made a small story on the local news site of the area it happened in recently I doubt women being victims would be "more newsworthy".

It's a easily obtainable and concealable weapon. There are many substances that can be used, all cheap and freely available.

I think that as the penalty for knife crime increases the number of acid attacks will increase an a new weapon of choice is gound

Apologies, found

Based on that article and the one from 2013, it seems that, on a UK level, it primarily effects working class white men (gang members). Although, interestingly, the motivation of the attackers is similar than that of men carrying out acid attacks on woman in other countries 0 revenge, punishment for lack of loyalty, wanting to cause a loss of status. Numbers clearly have been increasing in the past few years now so hopefully the police will find a solution.