Domestic violence results are in...
Has anyone else received the latest Johnny W booklet? “Violence Against Women – Australia Says No”
Apparently I missed the referendum…
But enough jokes. I was at Mum and Dad’s yesterday and Mum told me that part of the reason the campaign was postponed was because it contained stuff about emotional violence. Apparently Johnny W didn’t like that too much, so he made them go back and change it so that people wouldn’t have to start thinking about violence within any new frames of reference. I suppose at the time he must have thought that emotional violence was okay because sometimes you have to use it gain military information. To the campaign’s credit though, the booklet (which my household did not receive) does contain a lot of stuff about emotional violence, coercion etc.
I wonder how much it makes a difference. Does the sort of person who psychologically dominates their girlfriend 1) read government information booklets and 2) think it applies to them?
Physical violence is bad enough and the TV ads do a fairly good job of conveying how grey the issue can be (ie. “I don’t hit her, it’s just shoving and that”). But I think a few other ‘stories’ are in order. For example: “She pisses me off so much and I have to yell at her to get the message through. Then she quietens down.” or “He said he’d belt me one if I stayed out late with the girls again”. The serious masculine voice over man would then say “Threats of physical violence are still classed as assault in the eyes of the law.” Or maybe that’s too many syllables.
I also can’t help thinking of where men fit into domestic violence stats. Thanks to the campaign, it’s common knowledge that women are the majority of victims and that too many assaults go unreported. But I wonder how many men are victims of domestic violence? And how does it happen? Why? Under what circumstances? I find it hard to imagine the Andy Cap cliché of the wife in rollers and dressing gown waiting for her boozed up husband with a frying pan. In real life a drunken husband coming home to an aggressive would be statistically more likely to be the one doing the assaulting (or, to quote my hero Homer, ‘Ah, Andy Cap, you wife-beating drunk’).
I don’t suppose my questions will be answered any time soon …
Apparently I missed the referendum…
But enough jokes. I was at Mum and Dad’s yesterday and Mum told me that part of the reason the campaign was postponed was because it contained stuff about emotional violence. Apparently Johnny W didn’t like that too much, so he made them go back and change it so that people wouldn’t have to start thinking about violence within any new frames of reference. I suppose at the time he must have thought that emotional violence was okay because sometimes you have to use it gain military information. To the campaign’s credit though, the booklet (which my household did not receive) does contain a lot of stuff about emotional violence, coercion etc.
I wonder how much it makes a difference. Does the sort of person who psychologically dominates their girlfriend 1) read government information booklets and 2) think it applies to them?
Physical violence is bad enough and the TV ads do a fairly good job of conveying how grey the issue can be (ie. “I don’t hit her, it’s just shoving and that”). But I think a few other ‘stories’ are in order. For example: “She pisses me off so much and I have to yell at her to get the message through. Then she quietens down.” or “He said he’d belt me one if I stayed out late with the girls again”. The serious masculine voice over man would then say “Threats of physical violence are still classed as assault in the eyes of the law.” Or maybe that’s too many syllables.
I also can’t help thinking of where men fit into domestic violence stats. Thanks to the campaign, it’s common knowledge that women are the majority of victims and that too many assaults go unreported. But I wonder how many men are victims of domestic violence? And how does it happen? Why? Under what circumstances? I find it hard to imagine the Andy Cap cliché of the wife in rollers and dressing gown waiting for her boozed up husband with a frying pan. In real life a drunken husband coming home to an aggressive would be statistically more likely to be the one doing the assaulting (or, to quote my hero Homer, ‘Ah, Andy Cap, you wife-beating drunk’).
I don’t suppose my questions will be answered any time soon …