NYTKIS

Naisjärjestöt Yhteistyössä – Kvinnoorganisationer i Samarbete NYTKIS ry (Finnish and Swedish for 'Women's Associations in Collaboration') is a Finnish feminist registered association (rekisteröity yhdistys, ry) that in 2024 conducted a survey that was widely reported in the Finnish media on November 12, 2024 and onwards. For instance, MTV3 3 reported that "According to a new study, every fourth man under the age of 35 in Finland believes that a woman can deserve violence against him because of, for example, her appearance." Many other news outlets also reported about this study. However, the study itself had a major flaw: what was actually asked was if the respondents agreed with the statement: "Women can deserve the violence against them, for example by a certain way of dressing, behavior or appearance" (page 17), to which 5 percent of men aged 25 to 34 said "agree completely" and 20 percent said "agree somewhat." Given that behavior can be violent, isn't it rather obvious that it may sometimes be OK to respond to violent behavior with violence? Even maybe if a woman is violent? Yet, on page 11 this finding was summarised as "25% of men under 35 think that women can trap violence against them, for example by dressing a certain way," ignoring the fact that "behaving a certain way" was also included.

On November 13, the taxpayer-funded Finnish YLE (Finnish Broadcasting Company) published an article about the criticism this study got, citing e.g. a research center's research and account director who said this about this question: "It's not exactly done correctly, but I would still give it a professional blessing. I would argue that people understand what is being sought. Criticism is a bit of splitting hairs." (Really? Asking if certain behaviours deserve violent responses is equivalent to asking if certain ways of dressing deserve violent responses...)

External Links

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