For Immediate Release

Los Angeles - 12/4/11 - The National Coalition For Men's (NCFM) Los Angeles chapter will be protesting and handing out flyers on Saturday, 12/10/11 at 2:00 PM outside Verizon at 2530 Wilshire Blvd., Santa Monica, corner of Wilshire & 26th St., against Verizon's sexist, anti-father ads that depict all domestic violence as committed by men and fathers against women, and that says among children who witness it, the girls grow up to be victims while the boys grow up to be abusers. See it here: http://www.multivu.com/mnr/52044-verizon-foundation-national-domestic-hotline-video-launch-monsters

The following flyer will be distributed, which was created by SAVE, a national organization that is organizing similar protests nationwide this week against the Verizon ad: http://www.saveservices.org/wp-content/uploads/Verizon-Monster-Video-flyer-FINAL.pdf

NCFM and SAVE have asked Verizon to withdraw or change the sexist ad, but they refused, and in response they cite crime data showing far more women than men are victims.

To begin with, when we mention soldiers in Iraq, we say "men and women" regardless of the fact that over 90% of them are men. That's to make sure the minority are not excluded. Why aren't domestic violence victims given the same respect? There is a 40-year history of the National Domestic Violence Hotline (NDVH), which co-sponsored this ad, addressing this issue in a way that leaves male victims and their children invisible as usual. NCFM had to sue the State of California for its widespread discrimination against male victims. The lawsuit resulted in an appellate decision holding that "domestic violence is a serious problem for both women and men," that excluding male victims "carries with it the baggage of sexual stereotypes," and that it is unconstitutional to exclude male victims of domestic violence from the statutory funding provisions or from state-funded services. Woods v. Horton (2008) 167 Cal.App.4th 658. News-Enterprise, "Court Rules Domestic Violence Programs Must Be Open to Men" (10/15/08) (http://www.metnews.com/articles/2008/wood101508.htm)

And the crime data they cite is not accurate. The police data shows about 25% of police calls now come from men. But since men are less likely to report it, the oft-cited crime data from the Department of Justice is not reliable. By contrast, virtually all of the randomized surveys show women initiate DV at least as often as men, and men suffer 1/3 of the physical injuries, as Cal State University Professor Martin Fiebert shows in his online bibliography at http://www.csulb.edu/~mfiebert/assault.htm. For example: Science Daily, "Male And Female Adolescents Equally Victims Of Physical Dating Violence, Study Shows" (11/12/07) (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/11/071109210657.htm)

A 32-nation study by the University of New Hampshire found women are as violent and controlling as men in dating relationships worldwide. See: http://www.unh.edu/news/cj_nr/2006/may/em_060519male.cfm?type=n and http://pubpages.unh.edu/~mas2/ID41E2.pdf.

The Centers for Disease Control recently funded a major study of heterosexual relationships throughout the U.S. and found: "Almost 24% of all relationships had some violence, and half (49.7%) of those were reciprocally violent. In nonreciprocally violent relationships, women were the perpetrators in more than 70% of the cases," and both sexes suffered significant injuries. See: http://www.ajph.org/cgi/content/abstract/97/5/941

The same study also found: "More women than men (25% versus 11%) were responsible. In fact, 71 percent of the instigators in nonreciprocal partner violence were women" and "while injury was more likely when violence was perpetrated by men, in relationships with reciprocal violence it was the men who were injured more often (25% of the time) than were women (20% of the time)." (See http://pn.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/42/15/31-a)

When children witness either parent hit the other, regardless of how severe or minor, it becomes a model for them to follow. Domestic violence is an intergenerational cycle, and we'll never stop that cycle without being honest about it rather than covering up half of it out of political correctness.

Marc E. Angelucci, Esq.

Vice President

National Coalition For Men