The Campaign
It is way too hard to pick a favourite advertising campaign, however, the last one that really got my attention was the Australian Government ‘Stop it at the start’ domestic violence awareness campaign, from BMF. Australia’s rate of violence against women is already disturbingly high and seems to be growing, at a time where gender inequality is so talked about. Too often we see headlines about women being murdered by their current or former partners. And that’s just the ones we hear about. Thirty-three women have already been killed this year.
Why I Love It
Growing up as a female we are taught to accept that boys can be cruel. And cruel can become dangerous as boys become men. We are taught that you can’t listen to headphones when walking or jogging at night because you need to make sure you can hear if someone is following you (and you better be able to run). Going out with friends you need to cover up, so as to not encourage men to stare at you, or even worse, touch you. Even carrying pepper spray we are told it could be used against us, so don’t bother. We just can’t keep blaming women for the actions of men.
It wasn’t until I started to talk about these issues with friends that I realised so many of us had experienced some kind of abuse in at least one form or another. And these are strong women I would not have ever expected to be sharing these awful and heartbreaking stories. So how does this happen?
In Conclusion
We all know domestic violence is wrong but we need to set examples with children whilst they are learning and developing, that this kind of disrespectful and aggressive behaviour, at any level, is not okay. And just as importantly, to make sure girls aren’t taught to accept it. There is a lot more the government needs to do but getting people to acknowledge and talk about it is a start, which is exactly what this awareness campaign is doing.