One of the more bizarre characteristics of the mass media is the different level of emphasis that they place on reporting deaths. Teenager killed in gang brawl, an accident on the railways – they’ll be headline news. Someone killed in a motoring accident – lucky to be reported at all. But the actual numbers are out there, and every so often we get to see one that (hopefully) makes us stop and think. Today’s number came in an article about a group of MPs that wants more done to discourage domestic violence by means of education. Here’s the number:
Two women are killed every week in the UK by husbands, boyfriends or former partners, the report said.
I’ll repeat that:
TWO . WOMEN . MURDERED . EVERY . WEEK
in Britain, by their family
Remember that next time someone tells you that feminism has outlived its usefulness.
Because I can’t imagine not asking — is there a statistic for how many men are murdered by family? Or how many children?
Well, the article is about domestic violence. Men being killed by family would count as domestic violence. So either the numbers are not worth mentioning or there is an Evil Feminist Conspiracy suppressing the truth. When children are murdered by family it generally makes headline news, so I think we can assume that those numbers are also much lower.