Erin Pizzey

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Erin Patria Margaret Pizzey Template:Postnominals (Template:IPAc-en;<ref>Template:Cite AV mediaTemplate:Cbignore</ref> born 19 February 1939) is a British men's rights activist and novelist<ref name=atlantic>Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> known for her advocacy on behalf of both men's and women's rights and for her work against domestic violence. She is recognized for founding the world's first and largest domestic violence shelter in the world, Refuge, then known as Chiswick Women's Aid, in 1971.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="35years">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite AV media</ref>

Pizzey says that she has been the subject of death threats and boycotts because her experience and research into the issue led her to conclude that most domestic violence is reciprocal, and that women are as capable of violence as men. These threats eventually led to her exile from the UK.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Pizzey has said that the threats were from militant feminists.<ref name="Cook2009-123">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="PizzeyIndependent1997">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="PizzeyScotsman99" /> She has also stated that she is banned from the refuge she started.<ref name="RTT474992">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="australian" />

Early life

She was born Erin Carney in Qingdao,<ref>Pizzey names Qingdao in China as the place where she was born and where her father was stationed (meaning China and not Qingdao, because her wording was corrected in the print edition of that interview in Der Spiegel 11/2023, p. 78) in an interview for Der Spiegel on 8 March 2023 (accessed on March 9, 2023). In an interview for The Independent published on 7 February 2008 (accessed on 9 March 2023), she had named Tianjin as the place where her father was stationed when she was born and again 10 years later when she was left by her parents at a boarding school in Britain. Given the increasing Anglo-Japanese tensions during the Second Sino-Japanese War when Tianjin was occupied by the Japanese (except for the foreign concessions) Pizzey's father might have sent his wife in late 1938 to still unoccupied Qingdao to give birth to his child.</ref> China, in 1939, along with her twin sister Rosaleen. Her father was a British diplomat and one of 17 children from a poor Irish family.<ref name="PizzeyIndependent1997" /><ref name="1990/911990">Template:Cite book</ref> In 1942, the family moved to Shanghai; shortly thereafter, they were captured by the invading Japanese Army and exchanged for Japanese prisoners of war.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> She is the sister of writer Daniel Carney, who settled in Rhodesia and is known for his 1978 novel The Wild Geese.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Pizzey moved with her family to Kokstad in South Africa, then at the age of five, to Beirut. At the end of World War 2 the family went to Toronto, Canada. They moved to Tehran, Iran, and finally settled in England in 1948. Pizzey attended St Antony's junior school and then Leweston School at the age of 11, gaining four O-levels. Her parents were posted to Africa, where she attended Dakar University, Senegal, studying French and English.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Overview

Early activism

In 1959, Pizzey attended her first meeting at the UK's Liberation Movement (WLM) at the Chiswick house of a local organiser, ArtemisTemplate:Who<ref name="waytorevolution">Template:Cite book Details.</ref>Template:Rp At Artemis' urging, Pizzey agreed to convene a "consciousness-raising group" at her home in Goldhawk Road.<ref name="waytorevolution" />Template:Rp This collective became the Goldhawk Road Group.<ref name="waytorevolution" />Template:Rp

The head office of the Women's Liberation Workshop (a women's workshop within the WLM) was in Little Newport Street,<ref name="waytorevolution" />Template:Rp in Chinatown, Covent Garden, straddling the City of Westminster and the Borough of Camden. Along with her friend, Alison, and other members of the Goldhawk Road Group, Pizzey found herself at odds with Artemis and GladiatorTemplate:Who, who led a clique of younger women within the WLM Workshop head office.<ref name="waytorevolution" />Template:Rp Pizzey distanced herself from this clique when she witnessed what she described as "irregular and disrespectful behaviour" towards the money donated by desperate women across the UK.<ref name="waytorevolution" />Template:Rp She confronted them over this behaviour,<ref name="waytorevolution" />Template:Rp which, according to her, included claiming that telephones were tapped, and labelling of people they did not like as MI5, police and CIA informers or agents.<ref name="waytorevolution" />Template:Rp She also was concerned about overhearing discussion of plans to bomb the London store Biba; she reported on this to the police after warning the people involved. Subsequently, Pizzey became aware that the police had the group and offices under surveillance.<ref name="waytorevolution" />Template:Rp Pizzey said that she and her fellow members of the Goldhawk Road group were seen as troublesome, because they did not accept others' behaviors and views.<ref name="waytorevolution" />Template:Rp

Refuge

Pizzey set up a women's refuge in Belmont Terrace, Chiswick, London, in 1971. She later opened a number of additional shelters, despite hostility from the authorities. She gained notoriety and publicity for setting up refuges by squatting, most notably in 1975 at the Palm Court Hotel in Richmond.<ref name="RenzettiEdleson2008">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite news Template:Dead link</ref><ref>Template:Cite book Preview.</ref> Pizzey's work was widely praised at the time. In 1975, MP Jack Ashley stated in the House of Commons that "The work of Mrs. Pizzey was pioneering work of the first order. It was she who first identified the problem, who first recognised the seriousness of the situation and who first did something practical by establishing the Chiswick aid centre. As a result of that magnificent pioneering work, the whole nation has now come to appreciate the significance of the problem".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> While being prosecuted by local authorities<ref name="SimmonsVsPizzey">Template:Cite journal Pdf.</ref> and appealing matters to the House of Lords, she was recognised for her work.<ref name="SimmonsVsPizzey" />

After Pizzey left Chiswick Women's Aid (renamed Chiswick Family Rescue on 31 March 1979), the organisation she had founded and moved abroad, it was rebranded as the charity Refuge on 5 March 1993.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Although Refuge traces its existence back to Chiswick Women's Aid, Pizzey's name could not be found anywhere on the Refuge website for many decades.<ref name=atlantic /> It was not until 2 November 2020 that Sandra Horley, the chief executive of Refuge since 1983, mentioned Pizzey's name for the first time again on the Refuge website in a press release upon her retirement.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Reciprocity of domestic violence

Soon after establishing her first refuge, Pizzey asserted that much of the domestic violence was reciprocal.<ref name="waytorevolution" />Template:Rp She reached this conclusion when she asked the women in her refuge about their violence, only to discover most of them were equally violent or more violent than their husbands. In her study Comparative Study of Battered Women And Violence-Prone Women,<ref name="Pizzey1971-Study">Template:Cite web</ref> (co-researched with John Gayford of Warlingham Hospital), Pizzey distinguished between "genuine battered women"<ref name="Pizzey1971-Study" /> and "violence-prone women";<ref name="Pizzey1971-Study" /> the former defined as "the unwilling and innocent victim of his or her partner's violence"<ref name="Pizzey1971-Study" /> and the latter defined as "the unwilling victim of his or her own violence".<ref name="Pizzey1971-Study" /> This study reported that 62% of the sample population were more accurately described as "violence prone". Similar findings regarding the mutuality of domestic violence have been confirmed in subsequent studies.<ref>Template:Citation

In her book Prone to Violence, Pizzey expressed concern that so little attention was paid to the causes of interpersonal and family violence, stating, "to my amazement, nobody seemed to genuinely want to find out why violent people treat each other the way they do".<ref name="PizzeyShapiro1982pg19">Template:Cite book</ref> She also expressed concern for the view expressed by government officials that solutions to the issue of domestic abuse and violence could be found in socialist or communist countries. Pizzey pointed out that marital violence was a great problem in Russia, and China addressed the issue by proclaiming wife-beating a crime punishable by death sentence.<ref name="PizzeyShapiro1982pg19" /> The book looks at what appeared to be learned behaviour, often starting in childhood, linked to hormonal responses. Pizzey described such behaviour as akin to addiction.

She speculated that high levels of hormones and neurochemicals associated with pervasive childhood trauma led to adults who repeatedly engage in violent altercations with intimate partners despite the physical, emotional, legal and financial costs, in unwitting attempts to simulate the emotional impact of traumatic childhood experiences and manifest the learned biochemical state linked to pleasure. The book contains numerous stories of disturbed families, alongside a discussion of the reasons why the modern state care-taking agencies are largely ineffective. Promotional events for the book were met with protest,<ref name=GlasgeyHerald82>Template:Cite news</ref> and Pizzey reported that she herself and co-author Jeff Shapiro needed police protection during the promotional events for the book.<ref name="Cook2009-123" /><ref name="PizzeyIndependent1997" />

Backlash, threats, and harassment

In 1981, Pizzey moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, while targeted by harassment, death threats, bomb threats<ref name="PizzeyObserver2000">Template:Cite news</ref> and defamation campaigns,<ref name="PizzeyScotsman99">Template:Cite news</ref> and dealing with overwork, near collapse, cardiac disease and mental strain.<ref name="waytorevolution" />Template:Rp In particular, according to Pizzey, the charity Scottish Women's Aid "made it their business to hand out leaflets claiming that [she] believed that women 'invited violence' and 'provoked male violence'".<ref name="PizzeyScotsman99" /> She stated that the turning point was the intervention of the bomb squad, who required all of her mail to be processed by them before she could receive it, as a "controversial public figure".<ref name="waytorevolution" />Template:Rp<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Having moved to Santa Fe to write, Pizzey promptly became involved in running a refuge in New Mexico, as well as dealing with sexual abusers and paedophiles.<ref name="PizzeyScotsman99" /> Pizzey said of this work, "I discovered that there were just as many women paedophiles as there were men. Women go undetected, as usual. Working against paedophiles is a very dangerous business."<ref name="PizzeyShackleton2000">Template:Cite web</ref> While she was living in Santa Fe, one of her dogs was shot and two others were stolen, which she claimed was a result of racist neighbours.<ref name="PizzeyObserver2000" /> Her family suffered new harassment following the publication of her 1982 book Prone to Violence. Pizzey linked much of the harassment to militant feminists and their objections to her research, findings and work.<ref name="PizzeyScotsman99" /><ref name="PizzeyObserver2000" /><ref name="FoxNews1">Template:Cite news</ref> Describing the harassment, Deborah Ross of The Independent wrote that "the feminist sisterhood went bonkers".<ref name="PizzeyIndependent1997" />

Following the abuse and threats in Santa Fe, Pizzey moved to Cayman Brac, Cayman Islands,<ref>Template:Cite book Details.</ref> where she wrote with her second husband, Jeff Shapiro. Subsequently, she moved to Siena, Italy, where her writing and advocacy work continued. She returned to London in the spring of 1997, homeless due to debt and in increasingly poor health.<ref name="PizzeyIndependent1997" />

Later work

Pizzey remained active in helping victims of domestic violence. She is a patron of the charity ManKind Initiative from 2004, when she received a Roger Witcomb Award.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In March 2007, as a guest, she attended the ceremony of opening the first Arab refuge for victims of domestic violence in Bahrain.<ref>Template:Cite news (Sossandra Mirror.)</ref>

In 2013, Pizzey joined the editorial and advisory board of the men's rights organisation A Voice for Men, serving as an Editor and DV Policy Advisor and from January to August wrote thirteen articles for the group's web site.<ref name=atlantic /> Her two April 2013 articles pertained to two interviews she gave on the Reddit community "IAmA", in which she promoted her Facebook page, and the "AVFM Online Radio" podcast on BlogTalkRadio.<ref>April 2013 interviews on /r/IamA: 14th and 27th</ref> She announced her first interview a week prior on /r/MensRights.<ref>Ask Me Anything planned 6 April 2013 by Erin Pizzey</ref>

In November 2014, Pizzey became owner/manager of the AVFM WhiteRibbon.org website (since renamed Honest-Ribbon.org), which has been criticised by the original White Ribbon Campaign as "a copycat campaign articulating ... archaic views and denials about the realities of gender-based violence".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Cosmopolitan">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Pizzey was interviewed for and appeared in the 2016 documentary film The Red Pill by Cassie Jaye about the men's rights movement.<ref name="australian">Template:Cite news</ref> Pizzey is a patron of registered charity Compassion In Care which works to "break the chain of elderly abuse" and she wrote an introduction for the book Beyond The Facade by founder Eileen Chubb.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In 2022, Pizzey was listed as Honorary Lifetime President Emeritus to CPU: Children Parents United Charity founded by Greg Ellis.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The charity appears to be shut down as of April 2023.Template:Citation needed Pizzey has also been a patron of the shared parenting charity Both Parents Matter in the last few years.

Libel case

In 2009, Pizzey was successful in a libel case against Macmillan Publishers over content in the Andrew Marr book A History of Modern Britain. The publication had falsely claimed she had once been part of a militant group, The Angry Brigade, that staged bomb attacks in the 1970s.<ref name="bbc">Template:Cite news</ref> The publisher also recalled and destroyed the offending version of the book and republished it with the error removed.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The link to the Angry Brigade was made in 2001, in an interview with The Guardian, in which the article states that she was "thrown out" of the feminist movement after threatening to inform police about a planned bombing by the Angry Brigade of the clothes shop Biba. "I said that if you go on with this – they were discussing bombing Biba [the legendary department store in Kensington – I'm going to call the police in, because I really don't believe in this".<ref name="Guardian_261101">Template:Cite journal</ref>

Personal life

Pizzey married Jack Pizzey in 1959. Jack Pizzey was a naval lieutenant whom she first met in Hong Kong. They had two children, a girl, Cleo, and a boy, Amos.<ref name="PizzeyIndependent1997" /> She divorced him in 1976, and divorced her second husband, Jeff Scott Shapiro, in 1994.<ref name="1990/911990" /> Pizzey lives in Twickenham, South West London.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> She was diagnosed with cancer in 2000.<ref name="Guardian_261101" />

In 2000, Pizzey's grandson Keita Craig, who had schizophrenia, hanged himself in a prison cell. Pizzey and her family campaigned against the coroner's verdict of death by hanging and in 2001 a jury at a second inquest unanimously found that Keita's death was contributed to by the neglect of prison staff. The case was the first to reach a verdict of neglect in a suicide case.<ref name="Guardian_261101" /><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Pizzey was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2024 New Year Honours for services to the victims of domestic abuse.<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Books

Non-fiction

Fiction

  • The Watershed
  • In the Shadow of the Castle
  • First Lady
  • The Consul General's Daughter
  • The Snow Leopard of Shanghai
  • Other Lovers
  • Swimming with Dolphins
  • For the Love of a Stranger
  • Kisses
  • The Wicked World of Women

Awards

  • International Order of Volunteers For Peace, Diploma of Honour (Italy) 1981.<ref name="Rappaport2001">Template:Cite book</ref>
  • Nancy Astor Award for Journalism 1983.<ref name="1990/911990" />
  • World Congress of Victimology (San Francisco) 1987 – Distinguished Leadership Award.<ref name="1990/911990" />
  • St. Valentino Palm d'Oro International Award for Literature, 14 February 1994, Italy.<ref name="1990/911990" />
  • SAFE "Woman of the Year" Award Winner, 2022.<ref>Template:Cite web

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See also

References

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