The hidden abusers

It was acknowledged that the scale and nature of these attacks had been severely underestimated and there were examples of women using excessive force with implements such as chair legs and cutlery.

A surprising 86% of survivors of sexual abuse were not believed when they said the abuser was a woman.

Many myths were exposed, such as the one that women only sexually abused when coerced by men - they in fact played the lead part. Also the myth that women are incapable of cruelty - what was shown was beyond belief."

As is evident by the research conducted by Lucetta Thomas and the Panorama program women are rarely prosecuted and generally escape custodial sentences.

Grace Tame in her reference to male survivors of abuse, referred to the clergy, Yet nuns who ran the boarding house dormitories for students and the orphanages also committed acts of abuse, against both genders. Yet this receives little media attention as it does not fit the gendered narrative and perhaps investigative journalists prefer to use motivated reasoning, rather than explore the issue too deeply and having to deal with the consequences of such revelations reveal. in case it causes a cognitive conflict, when their sense of reality is challenged.

The focus on men as abusers, enables the abusers who are female to remain hidden in the shadows behind closed doors. Dr Miletski is quoted as saying; "Nobody wants to think about it, nobody wants to deal with it, nobody wants to research it, nobody wants to study, nobody wants to read about it,"

This is well and truly the ultimate in Taboo topics. Many other topics that are classified as being Taboo, still receive enormous amounts of publicity and media attention. Grace Tame opened the door, now watch it get slammed shut.