Erin Pizzey, Domestic Violence Pioneer
Written by: Rob
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Another of my favorite “real feminist” authors is Erin Pizzey. She was a pioneer in domestic violence activism, in 1971 setting up the Chiswick Refuge in London, UK as one of the first shelters for battered women in the world.
Early on in her work at Chiswick, she noticed that many of the women coming to her shelters were “violence prone”. They sought out abusive relationships and committed a significant amount of violence themselves. Often their violent ways triggered their partner’s abuses against them. Worse, these families raised their children to be a new generation of abusers addicted to violent behaviors.
Pizzey wrote several books about her experiences and findings. One of her early works was Prone to Violence
The false feminists were aggravated by Pizzey breaking the silence on female abusers. They worked hard to suppress her writings. Copies of Prone to Violence
In more recent years, Pizzey has expanded her efforts to get the word out about “emotional terrorists”, abusive women, and violent families via the Internet and collaboration with other activists and writers. She’s continued her work opening domestic violence shelters and advocating for reform to address the real roots of family violence. She remains strongly convinced that it is not men who are solely to blame for domestic violence. Instead, she believes domestic violence spread by violent families consisting of violent abusers of either and both genders who infect their children with an addiction to violence.
Unfortunately, far too many people still have yet to hear about her work. The popular but misguided “blame the men for it all” propaganda still reigns supreme. We encourage you to help the children of the future by spreading the word about Erin Pizzey’s findings and efforts to help stop family violence.
Further Reading
A Comparative Study Of Battered Women And Violence-Prone Women by Erin Pizzey
Women ‘exhausted’ by fight for equality, claims feminist icon
I think Erin Pizzey should be canonised, along with Jeremy Sandford who wrote the televison play-for-today ‘Cathy Come Home’.
Both were instrumental in breeding social awareness of domestic violence, inadequate social services and the establishment womens refuges.
The sixties were not all sex, drugs and rock-and-roll for everyone.
4 generations in my family have been devastated by a forced marriage between a 13 year old girl and a 35 year old murderer. The abuse has come from both sides, turning my grandfather into a serial pedophile because of maternal neglect (due to grief and general misery) and turning my mother into a sociopath due to his relentless sexual abuse of her. I think that Pizzey’s work may be especially relevant in this day and age now that we cannot deny the effect that ‘arranged’ marriage and forced sexual slavery have in creating human misery and the endorsement of domestic violence and corporal punishment of children (along with genital mutilation in early childhood) that pastoralist religions endorse. What is going on in the MENA countries right now is a nightmare of the repetition of the violent family patterns due in part to treating women and children like livestock and the hideous abuses of the cultures that are constantly in the news are evidence of the cycle of the generational creation of human misery that may have started with pastoralism but whose time must come to a close for the good of our species. Globally the dominant religions endorse family violence in myriad ways, and it is no wonder the societies themselves are completely beset with constant violence. Many have pointed out that these patterns, whether religious are autocratic, are tools of fascism, and to have them examined as such again currently would be useful.