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Showing posts with the label gender

How to Help When It's Men Who Are Harmed

  Recently, my regional newspaper carried an article which cited that 25% of domestic violence victims are men. That article was discussing a wider situation of a DV incident involving a same-sex male couple, which will immediately allow some people to claim that "See?! It's all still just violent men!" Except, that 25% will be an understatement, because men are often focused on what is practical, and, in the UK, it's not practical to report domestic violence when you're a male victim. Firstly, there are almost no  refuges or support groups for men. (And, with support groups, especially online ones, when men set them up, they very quickly get inundated with women demanding access, because "something" about any of the hundreds of resources for women "doesn't appeal" to the women demanding access to spaces intended for men - when those same women would be outraged if men tried to access women's spaces with the "justification" of...

Reality's Barriers: How the Social Model Fails, and Why Inclusive Design Matters

  The social model of disability  states that there is no "disability", in the sense of individual limitations, only "social barriers".  In its neutral form, this is simply an invitation to business and government to come together, and be guided by individuals affected by social barriers in how to create a better world. Unfortunately, very few things' neutralities survive their first exposure to human beings, and the social model of disability is no different; even in a "perfect" world, with maximal intersectional inclusion, there would still be people who had a negative experience, despite not behaving in anyway that "deserves" punishment or exclusion. (Although, in a truly maximally intersectionally inclusive world, it could be argued that no one  would "deserve" punishment or exclusion... It depends on whether there is any real possibility of educating and socialising out intolerance in others, which is very much the "elepha...