Half a truth is a whole lie.

There is a Yiddish proverb: "Half a truth is a whole lie."
As if in response to Ian Kay, three articles have appeared in publications across the nation containing identical phrases of half truths by Pru Goward in her demand for Sheik Hilaly to be deported; Adele Horin in the Sydney Morning Herald reporting on an article by Dr Michael Flood.
(The excerpt below is from the SMH. The topics and wording were nearly identical for all three authors.)

A survey of 2000 people shows there has been a significant improvement since 1995 in attitudes towards violence against women. But it also shows many people still trivialise or condone it.

The survey, conducted for the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation, is part of a wider report, Two steps forward, one step backward. It found 40 per cent believed rape resulted from men's inability to control their need for sex, and half believed, despite the lack of evidence, that women falsified claims of domestic violence to gain a tactical advantage in custody battles.

Michael Flood, a researcher at La Trobe University and a contributor to the project, said: "Too many people believe men are uncontrollable sexual beasts and women are liars and temptresses. " Men, especially from migrant communities and those with traditional views about gender roles, were more likely to have "violence-supportive" views.

The survey says "attitudes have improved" on a range of measures since a similar poll was conducted in 1995. For example, smaller proportions now believe that "women who are raped often ask for it" (6 per cent compared with 15 per cent in 1995), and nearly all people believe domestic violence is a crime (97 per cent compared with 93 per cent in 1995).

There is also wider acceptance that it is a crime for a husband or boyfriend to force his partner to have sex.

The results reflect recent findings by the Australian Bureau of Statistics of a decline since 1996 in the numbers of women subject to physical or sexual assault.

However, 15 per cent still believe "women often say no to sex when they mean yes", about the same proportion as in 1995. And there is low recognition that emotional, social and financial abuse are serious: almost one in four did not consider yelling abuse at one's partner was serious.

The rise from 9 per cent to 20 per cent in the numbers believing women are as likely as men to be perpetrators of domestic violence was an area where views had hardened, despite contrary evidence.

Dr Flood attributed the change to campaigns by men's rights groups.

Yes, Dr Flood, and the men's rights groups should be commended for attempting to overcome institutionalized prejudice that has destroyed tens of thousands of families and lives.
The reality is that women are equally likely to resort to violence in a relationship, and even more likely to resort to 'domestic violence' as more recently defined by the Family Court of Australia and the Federal Magistrates' Courts -- as criminal acts.
Yelling at one's partner should not be a criminal act. It is a normal human reaction to an emotional situation. However, in the press to condemn such normal human emotional expressions, thousands of men are being condemned for not arguing with their abusive partners.
Not only men resort to emotional, social and financial tactics of abuse. Women are at least as likely to become addicted to abuse as men.
For more than two months, the papers have shown a marked (17% - 37%) increase in domestic violence, Dr Flood, especially in Victoria where the police have adopted rules which generate increases.
Forced sex will always be controversial within a relationship. If clear evidence of force is presented, then it is certainly a crime. But to swing wide the door for increased allegations based on mood or opportunity is foolish.

I'm sure it would surprise Dr Flood and his friends if he were to ever realize how vindictive a woman becomes if a man no longer finds her attractive. Yes, women press for sex, too. And if it is denied - often because the woman has become too abusive and controlling - she becomes the legendary "woman scorned."
In the simple-minded prejudice of the cause celebre, no woman is ever scorned.

Few people doubt that domestic violence is a crime, as reasonably understood by the general public. However, the new definitions of 'domestic violence' attempt to make it illegal to argue with a female partner, since the definitions are only being applied to men.
And only an idiot thinks that women "ask for it" to be raped.

In a grand hypocrisy, the changes you applaud are only canonizing the perception that men are sexual beasts, and the racist stereotypes that follow such stupidity.