Oct 12 2008
What about Domestic Violence?
So unless you have been living under a rock for your whole life, you know that October is national Breast Cancer Awareness month. I think that’s awesome. There’s nothing wrong with promoting awareness of a deathly cancer, and getting women (and men of course) to do everything they can to prevent it, and of course to try to find a cure.
But what about Domestic Violence? October is also national Domestic Violence awareness month. I bet most of you didn’t know that. I sure didn’t until recently. I only learned it last month while reading a magazine for women. It listed days of October and what activity each day had nationally for women, and it said that October was Domestic Violence Awareness month. What really gets me is that everyone is so big to promote the PINK for Breast Cancer Awareness but I can’t even tell you the last time I saw ANYTHING to promote Domestic Violence Awareness (other than on my Myspace page, lol). It really bothers me for a few reasons, but I guess first and foremost, Domestic Violence can be prevented AND stopped. Breast Cancer can not. I understand that that’s part of the reason to promote awareness about Breast Cancer, but why not promote something that can be stopped? It just don’t get it at all. Both issues affect primarily women, so I don’t understand why more women aren’t standing up and saying, “Hey, what about Domestic Violence?” Is it weird for me to be so upset about this? I just think that Domestic Violence is an epedemic and more people need to be aware of it so they can get out of it and stop it from happening and help others. I grew up watching Domestic Violence happen on a regular basis and have also myself been a victim, and no I have never had breast cancer, so maybe that’s why it bugs me so much that you never hear anything about Domestic Violence awareness.
Over one million women are physically abused each year in the United States. That doesn’t count women that are mentally, sexually and verbally abused - I’m sure that number is sky high. That is WAY more than the less than 200,000 women each year that are diagnosed with Breast Cancer. One in five female high school students reports being physically or sexually abused. That is an insane statistic. It’s affecting women at such an early age, something has to be done to stop it and to bring awareness. So I don’t understand, with those statistics, how Breast Cancer awareness overrides Domestic Violence awareness so much. I am urging all of you to please support Domestic Violence awareness. Everyone’s all about the yellow ribbon to support our troops, and the pink ribbon to support Breast Cancer awareness but please, show your support for Domestic Violence with a PURPLE ribbon.
I have a BA in psych and almost an MSW, and I think a major reason why people don’t support or promote awareness of thing slike domestic violence,s exual assault, and some mental disorders is that they don’t want to face the reality that it’s happening — everywhere. I worked in a safe house and I directly saw the effects domestic violence have on women, and I think it should be talked about more. I think more should be done to promote domestic violence awareness and helping women to break free of it. I also think there shuld be more awareness surrounding classes and therapy for perpetrators of domestic violence, especially now that those who are in shelters has increased 65% since the economic troubles in America.
We all need to break free of the fear of talking about the harsh reality of domestic violence and abuse so that we CAN begin to prevent and stop it more effectively.
Sierra
http://anxiety.today.com
http://purrfectpets.today.com