Alexandra Lysova, a criminology professor at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, was awarded the prestigious Nora and Ted Sterling Prize in Support of Controversy for her research on male victims of domestic violence. [Note: I, Blair, had the pleasure of meeting Professor Lysova this past September when I attended the Men and Families Conference in Toronto.]
The Sterling Prize was first awarded in 1993 and remains committed to recognizing work that provokes and contributes to the understanding of controversy, while presenting new ways of looking at the world and challenging complacency.
– Simon Fraser University
Professor Lysova received the prize at a two-hour event on October 19 at which she and several others spoke on the topic of men who experience domestic abuse. The other speakers were Benjamin Roebuck (Professor of Victimology and Public Safety, Algonquin College), Douglas Todd (Columnist, Vancouver Sun) and Michael Healey (National Program Manager, Nexus Recovery Programs). The complete recording of the event is here.
The video below is a short promo about Professor Lysova receiving the Sterling Prize.
Professor Lysova said, “In my work I started to look at violence against women and children, but I heard men’s voices as well. I’d seen this in the statistics, that there are men who experience abuse, and I was surprised to see how much this topic was avoided. I think if we stop talking about the issue, it does not go away. It stays with us. What’s the point of playing politics around this — or trying to win an argument that it’s only women who are victims — if it doesn’t help us prevent abuse better?”
‘I’m 67 years old — and just learning about this?’
Marie Hooper is an elder from the Kwikwetlem First Nation. She gave opening remarks at the Sterling Prize ceremony for Professor Lysova. Consider her powerful, humble words below.
“This is a very, very sensitive subject. I’ve actually just started researching it, and I was quite shocked by what I was reading. My hands go up to all you people who are researching this because I normally speak about murdered and missing women, but I haven’t ever spoken about men being physically, mentally, spiritually abused. I must say, the last few days I’ve really been in tears. I thought, ‘I’m 67 years old. How come I didn’t know that this is going on and that it exists?’…
This is a topic I’m very interested in learning about and bringing back to my nation and our neighboring nations. It’s all about getting educated…Anyone out there abusing men — I’m not going to put up with that. I’m going to put my foot down.”
Trending toward greater inclusivity
On the specific topic of violence against Indigenous people in Washington state, Washington Initiative for Boys and Men has observed a trend toward greater inclusivity in how the subject is regarded by politicians and news media. Whereas bills the legislature passed in 2018 and 2019 concerned only Indigenous women, the most recent bill, HB 1571, which passed in 2022, talks about “Indigenous persons who are missing, murdered, or survivors of human trafficking.”
We have also documented how KING 5 News last year began using inclusive language in their coverage of the issue. Their prior coverage gave the impression that it is only Indigenous women who are going missing or being murdered at alarming rates, when in reality the problem affects Indigenous males at similar rates.