As October takes her first breaths, I dismiss the steady source of corporate income, the pink ribbon. In it’s place, another ribbon, this one purple, and not a ribbon that Estee Lauder would be interested obtaining legal counsel over. The purple ribbon stands for domestic violence awareness, and October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month.
Domestic Violence is endemic in the United States, enough to have caused the label “pre-existing condition” to be placed on it by the insurance industries operating in some states.
Society, more specifically American Society, has been slow to recognize domestic violence as an ubiquitous societal problem. Viewing domestic violence as a personal problem makes this ribbon an unlikely cash cow, leaving the ribbon unsought by corporate giants, the cause largely ignored by the coorporate world. We still view Domestic Violence much in the same way we used to see AIDS (often still view AIDS), as a lifestyle issue, something that can’t happen to anyone. Breast cancer we view as something that can happen to anyone, even to people who make stellar lifestyle choices.
Domestic Violence can happen to anyone.
Domestic Violence occurs across all demographic groups. Official (reported) rates of nonlethal, intimate violence are highest among women aged sixteen to twenty-four, women in households in the lowest income categories, and women residing in urban areas. However, the current information is insufficient to determine, but significant enough to suggest that’s because middle and upper class women have more access to care, an easier road to moving on and out, or are less likely to report the violence, than women who are less educated and less financially secure.
The aforementioned attitude is the reason the purple ribbon is not nearly as popular on Yogurt, mid-level to upscale department store logos, high end cosmetics, or blogs. And this despite the estimated 4 to 5 million women, in the United States alone, affected by this societal scourge every year.
Some would propose — including Oate’s main protagonist Skyler, (channeling Geertz), in her less than lauded My Sister my Love — that human nature, but for human culture, is virtually non-existent. As a society we must begrudgingly, with sadness, and with feigned disbelief if necessary, admit this to be the case. It is not the nature of the beast causing continued violence, it is not a lifestyle issue, it is the culture, the social construction, that allowed it to begin, and permits it’s to continue. We have no choice but that of changing the culture.
Take some time this month to educate yourself on the domestic violence endemic in your country.
Links:
Sources: National Domestic Violence Hotline, National Center for Victims of Crime, and WomensLaw.org.
The Domestic Violence Awareness Project
United States Department of Justice Office of Violence Against Women
National Domestic Violence Hotline
WOMEN LAW.ORG
Women’s Health Dot Gov — State Resources
Recent News:
Democrats vow to ban domestic violence as ‘pre-existing condition
Books:
No Visible Wounds: Identifying Non-Physical Abuse of Women by Their Men
The Verbally Abusive Relationship: How to Recognize it and How to Respond
Domestic Violence at the Margins: Readings on Race, Class, Gender, and Culture
Peace
