The South African Salvation Army knowing full well that one in six women are victims of abuse in their own homes used the image and a very clever headline, Why Is It So Hard To See Black And Blue to promote their very good cause.
There's more about fighting the good fight here.
Violence against women and children
makes me see red...
I am please that the Sallys have picked up on that little apparently banal piece of social media. Not everybody did.
ReplyDeleteIt actually was really good at drawing attention to the worldwide plight of the at least 15% of women who are suffering battery at the hands if their physically superior partners.
It is interesting to suggest that the gun is an extention of such mindless violence.
Is mindfulness possible in the search for universal peace? ....Jennybee
Yet again they gloss over the fact that almost as many men in the UK and USA are victims of domestic violence as are women. Children are slightly more often physically abused by women than by men and as we are discovering often sexually abused.
ReplyDeleteIt is sad that this is not even acknowledged by campaigners. And yes fewer men are killed by their partners but their abuse is more sustained both at a physical and mental level.
The press aid in this. When a woman kills it was because she was provoked, when she kills her children she was mentally ill. There is always a ready excuse.
When a man does either it was because he is male and therefore evil.
My friend, Phil, died nearly 12 years ago now. His wife stabbed him in the heart with a steak knife.
He was a kind and gentle man and a gifted woodcarver.
At the trial we learnt his wife had flew into a rage because he refused to drive to the shops to get her a chocolate bar. He had had 2 pints and did not want to put his licence or anyone else in jeopardy.
We also learnt that over the years he had been treated for :
Cigarette burns, a broken foot, a broken arm three times, concussion, a fractured skull, a perforated ear drum, numerous slash wounds several to his back and two previous stab wounds to the abdomen.
His wife admitted having been the cause of all of them but said she acted that way because she felt he didn't pay her enough attention.
Is that an acceptable excuse?
Apparently so because despite a catalogue of abuse and the deliberate murder of her husband she recieved 6 years, 3 months of which was spent on remand. She was released having served a total of 3 years and 2 months.
No long ago she was back in our local paper having stabbed her new partner and his son. Thankfully both survived.
Mean abusive people can be from either sex and abuse takes many forms. It is a shame that half of the adult population is not worthy of campaigners time and effirt.
Equality will be nice. Let me know when it arrives!
Sadly, posters such as this do little or nothing to change the behavior of the perpetrators just like the anti-smoking, drug and drinking ads that have everyone who is not doing such things nodding in agreement to their message. The part of the public sector who could do something to bring about change or those who are the actual problem remain unmoved.
ReplyDelete