Hey everyone! Just a reminder that October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month.
While you're all being bombarded with pink items reminding us that it is also Breast Cancer Awareness Month, remember that domestic violence affects women (and men and children) and should be talked about as well. I really wish it was as visible as all of the breast cancer stuff, because domestic violence affects a lot of people too.
Here are some interesting links to check out:
The National Resource Center on Domestic Violence is a great site and has a link to Obama's DVAM declaration.
There's also a really interesting link to the Domestic Violence Census, which provides the numbers, state by state, of individuals who accessed some sort of dv services on a particlaur day.
And finally, a link to the Silent Witness Project's page. If any of you are not familiar with this project, I recommend checking out the website - it's really cool. It seems to be a little out of date, but still interesting.
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thanks for this. I have seen domestic voilence hurt the people I love, and it saddens me to see how little this subject is adressed. thank you so much for bringing this to our attention.
Thank you for this post! As a survivor this month is very important to me and I agree it does not get the attention that is needed. I think it is easier to focus on breast cancer because it is tangible, there can be a cure. While the "cure" for DV is a harder to grasp. DV is not tangible. Even though breast cancer is also a cause, because my mom is a cancer survivor, but she is also a DV survivor. So for her it is doubly important. Thanks again!
Yes, the cure is harder to grasp, but we're working on it! I have been involved in my college campus' domestic violence/sexual assault/stalking resource center for a while now, and though I am not a survivor of dv, I know that it happens too often to so many people and that it is still seldom talked about. I encourage everyone to check out DVAM events in their area and keep up the good fight!
As a survivor I want to thank you for all your hard work, it takes everyone! And we will get the cure! I tell my story in hopes that I can save at least one person and I work with prevention to keep it from happening! Keep up the good work! :)
Though I'm happy to see this blog post, I wish that DVAM would get a little more play.
Sadly, the notion that "domestic violence affects a lot of people" is an understatement at best.
Honestly, as an organizer in the movement, I'm biased, but domestic violence is a true epidemic. 25 % of women in the US and 33% globally experience some form of violence in their intimate relationships. Kids in 70% of homes where there is intimate partner violence suffer physical and/or emotional abuse. The numbers look like there's a 25% victimization rate for LGBTQ folks (though better research is necessary as for most LGBTQ health issues). And as for male victims, we've little clue because of a lack in research on male victimization.
And right now we're just talking prevalence- not effects. As we're researching more we see domestic violence negatively impacting individuals with it's correlation to multiple negative health outcomes for acute and chronic diseases- like cancer. And, it's impacting systems, including healthcare, legal and financial sectors.
Then there's the negative effects on perpetrators...and their effect on our society.
I'm not saying that breast cancer isn't an important issue. I have women in my family who have battled, failed, and prevailed over the disease. Each woman was and is important. So is their disease.
Still, I question our nation's enthusiastic public support of this one-dimensional health issue while domestic violence and/or violence against women is overlooked despite its multifaceted social causes and effects.
Sexism anyone?