May 2, 2008
“To violence against women, Australia says ‘No!’”
Posted by Troy Grisgonelle under Relationship misconceptions, Society & Culture | Tags: advertising, domestic abuse, gender equality, violence |This is the tag line of a government-sponsored ad shown on TV over the last year or so. Photos of women (actors perhaps) are shown while a (their) voiceover tells their brief story of abuse.
I ask, what about violence to men? It isn’t only women who get abused. And other than the physical and sexual abuse the ad talks about, what about psychological and emotional abuse people can be subjected to? Why isn’t the tag “To violence, Australia says ‘No’”? It’d take too long to run the ads to show men and women, adults and children? So run a few different ads: that’s what they did for this campaign.
I’m all for gender equality - by nature, we are all human - but we can seek a fair go for one half of the population can be done without victimising the other half. Sure, people must take responsibility for their actions - a violent or abusive past may contribute to their present behaviour, but it doesn’t excuse it; the cycle must be stopped somewhere - but that doesn’t mean that all men should be tarred with the same brush.
Think: if men did control everything, how were women ever allowed to vote or to work outside the home? Who allowed this to become law? Of course there is still inequality between the sexes in some areas but we should set this to rights.
Due to an outbreak of valid deductive logic, the former paragraph in this position has been overwritten by this current one.
Gender equality means that neither sex, or variant thereof, has any supremacy or superiority. It doesn’t mean to stop oppressing (I’m begging that question) one group and start on another.
copyright Troy Grisgonelle 2008
May 2, 2008 at 12:01 pm
And to pour lemon juice on the paper cut, a major insurance agency has recently advertised that they will give female drivers a discount on their premiums. So either they’re being sexist or it’s an implicit admission that generally, women are worse drivers than men. I can’t see any other option.
Actually the implication is that women are SAFER drivers than men, hence they cost the insurance company less, hence they get a discount.
This is one of the innumerable downsides of moral relativism. It doesn’t have to be consistent, as long as it feels right. Like a lot of things in the post-Christian world, anti-sexism isn’t about equality - it’s about Conspicuous Virtue.
May 3, 2008 at 5:14 am
You’re correct of course. Blast. I wonder that I didn’t induce that. *sigh* I didn’t consider “reward” as a possibility, only “encouragement”.
TG