Woman-Bashers Blame 鈥榃ar on Men鈥� for Canadian鈥檚 Suicide
April was a difficult month for Earl Silverman. Beset by financial difficulties, he shut the doors of the shelter for battered men that he had operated out of his home in Alberta, Canada, for three years. Then he sold the house, packed his belongings, and hung himself in his garage 鈥� a victim, wrote Harry Crouch of the U.S.-based National Coalition for Men, of 鈥渕urder by disinterest by the Feminist State of Canada.鈥�
Silverman, who in 1991 started a self-help group for abused men, was himself a victim of domestic violence. His abusive wife fled to a women鈥檚 shelter after he 鈥渉it her back,鈥� he said, but he was unable to find equivalent refuge for himself. For years, he filed complaints with the provincial government, arguing that its failure to provide equal funding for battered men was a violation of basic human rights. Exploiting activists鈥� suicides to inflame their misogynistic base is nothing new for the men鈥檚 rights movement. In 2011, Thomas James Ball, a leader of the Worcester, Mass.-based Fatherhood Coalition, doused himself with gasoline and set himself on fire outside the Cheshire County, N.H., courthouse, where for nearly a decade he had been involved in a legal battle with his ex-wife over domestic violence, child abuse, and child support payments. In a letter that arrived posthumously at the Keene Sentinel, he claimed that the federal government had 鈥渄eclared war on men鈥� and suggested they retaliate with violence.
Sympathetic bloggers celebrated Ball as a martyr and proclaimed as 鈥渆vil鈥� anyone who dared criticize his words or actions. They reacted similarly to Silverman鈥檚 suicide and singled out as a target of their rage Salon鈥檚 Mary Elizabeth Williams, who wrote, 鈥淭here are male victims鈥� but that Silverman, who claimed men and women are abused at equal rates (in fact, men are victimized far less frequently), appeared to have succumbed to 鈥渄emons鈥� that 鈥渉ad long plagued him.鈥�
鈥淲illiams stood on Earl鈥檚 carcass,鈥� fumed Paul Elam at A Voice For Men, one of the movement鈥檚 most prominent and vicious websites. 鈥淵es, he did have demons. 鈥� The only thing she forgot to mention is that the demons were her and those of her repugnant ilk.鈥�
Elam鈥檚 readers could not have agreed more. 鈥淓VERY FEMINIST is a little bit to blame for Earls [sic] death, just as they are more than a little to blame for the grossly disproportionate male suicide rate in general,鈥� opined one. Wrote another, 鈥淔actoring in the broader, systemic factors, I have no doubt whatsoever that feminism killed Earl Silverman, as surely as it is killing men every day.鈥澛�
