Please tell me if this domestic abuse campaign is as misogynistic as I feel it is...

[Learningtofeminist]

I’ve learned a lot on here about feminism, gender stereotyping and harmful tropes about gender. A friend posted this on Facebook tonight and it makes me VERY uncomfortable but I’m struggling to articulate why...

This just reminds me of what Andrea Dworkin said - men will often respond to women’s words as if they were violence.

Women's words can be emotionally and mentally abusive though.

The ones who do need help, are lumped in with a group of men who feel it's acceptable to hurl abuse at a woman because she 'poked' him one time too many, then call themselves the victims.

But if a woman was being mentally and emotionally worn down by verbal abuse, being controlled and manipulated, gaslighted, whatever it is that isn't physical abuse... If she suddenly stood up to her abuser and hurled a load of abuse at him, you would condemn her? You would prevent her from calling herself a victim? It's not wrong to fight back after you've been mentally abused and psychologically destroyed, everyone has a breaking point.

Why are people deliberately twisting what is being posted here?
Noone has implied women can't be abusive.
That advert appears to be misogynistic. "Toxic" women "destroy" good men, with no description of what toxic is or how men are destroyed.
As numerous people have said, the aim of DV charities is to help people leave damaging relationships, not to label the abuser or the victim as "toxic", "destroyed" or anything else.

@Rahres yes they can be. No one is denying that, and there is a lot that men can do about offering help,support etc.

Even that image in isolation, while disturbing, could be explained . But then you have the grotesque caricatures of women, the women as gold diggers portrayal, extremely violent and even bloody portrayals of women as abusers, moaning that Women's Aid should be People's Aid, claims like "women rely in men,children rely on men" and so on it paints a pretty ugly bigger picture and a quite obvious agenda.

@Rahres Saying that women's words can be emotionally and mentally abusive isn't a special pass to be handed out to men who decide they want to hit back. That image clearly showed the man's outburst as being an acceptable reaction to her 'poking' him. It wasn't raising awareness, telling men in his situation to seek support or shelter. It was saying 'look what you make us do'.

Awareness should be raised to say that if you're being 'poked', leave. Walk away and if you have children and are concerned for their safety, take them with you. That there'll be somewhere safe to go and people to listen to you. Not telling you to hang around, telling yourself that you're a victim and you can no longer be held responsible for your actions. That's terrible advice and any real foundation would steer well clear of endorsing that kind of action, because it's not good for anybody, including the abuse victim.

I had a poke around and I suspect that Facebook group has been created to be a stick to beat specific women with metaphorically.

But at a distance with plausible deniability.

On one hand of course emotional abuse affects men. On the other, accusing women of emotional abuse can be a form of harassment.