See What You Made Me Do: Power, Control and Domestic Violence

by Jess Hill

However, in a cruel twist, the increased attention on men’s violence – amplified by the #MeToo movement – may actually be making perpetrators more dangerous. In homes across Australia, abusive men – furious that women are getting all the attention while their suffering is ignored – are taking out their humiliated fury on their girlfriends, wives and children. The backlash is real, and it’s violent. When I visited the Safe Steps helpline in Melbourne, then CEO Annette Gillespie told me they had recorded an increase in the frequency and severity of assaults being reported, and had victims calling in to say that awareness campaigns were making their abusers more volatile. ‘Women will call and say, can you get them to stop the ad on TV, can you ask them to stop talking about family violence? Because every time he sees that ad he goes nuts.’