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Posts Tagged ‘law’

Domestic Violence Awareness Month

Thursday, October 8th, 2009

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.

logo-home-dvam

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

NRCDV

NCADV

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