To think the 'Disrespect NoBody' ad campaign is horribly sexist?

[p4rmaviolet]

Not sure if this has already been discussed but has anybody else seen the 'Disrespect NoBody' TV adverts that are supposedly raising awareness for healthy relationships and domestic violence?

Every single scenario in the advert is targeted at men abusing women whether it be physically or emotionally. Y'know because men are never victims?

From the government's budget. Reducing deaths and injury by targeting those killed and injured most frequently.

I think DV and motorbike safety are closer parallels than either with cabin crew/pilots!

This isn't an awareness campaign for DV though. It's an awareness campaign for DA, which can often be totally different. Part of it is probably the misconception that abuse has to involve violence whereas in fact it can be verbal and psychological. As such they're challenging prejudices and saying that domestic abuse is more than 'just' physical violence

I guess it underlines the need for the campaign in the first place so few contributors to this thread seem to have noticed what exactly it is the advert they're so adamant mustn't be changed is actually raising awareness for

It isnt sexist its based on facts it is aimed at younger people i think how to have healthy relationships information has to be a good think domesticviolence amongst teenagers is just coming to the forefront before it was hidden and not spoken about

You are right its about abuse not just violence got my wording wrong.

This isn't an awareness campaign for DV though. It's an awareness campaign for DA, which can often be totally different.

You're right. I am using the term DV incorrectly, it is DA.
Sadly, I was indoctrinated into professionals jargon long before the DA label was introduced - and all domestic abuse was classed as violence, back then.

But the whole 'abuser - male, victim - female' stuff is also unhelpful to women in same-sex relationships who, like male victims of domestic abuse, probably aren't helped by the associated stigma.

The misconception is that there needs to be a physical element to abuse. We've seen in this thread many people continue to be totally unaware that this isn't a DV awareness campaign. Therefore a woman in a lesbian relationship that's abusive will suffer the same problems as a man in a heterosexual relationship. And that's this idea that unless the abuser is a male AND victim female that it 'doesn't count'

The biker thing has got me thinking.

I am a woman, I hadn't noticed that the biker campaigns (almost?) always feature men but I have got the message from them anyway, I wouldn't watch an advert and think I am safe and it doesn't apply to me just because it features a man. I don't think I am unusual in this, women are used to men being front and centre and adjust to that. We as a society are not used to women being highlighted in anything other than a token fashion so when they are we aren't used to accepting that it applies to men too.

Brew - have you seen the ad!?

But the point of the advert, in a nut shell, is to say:

"Abuse is more than just violence, it can be verbal, psychological, etc"

Again the fact that so many people here have assumed it to be an anti-DV campaign just underlines why it's an important campaign in the first place because so many people seem utterly dismissive of any form of domestic abuse that doesn't involve violence. People in their desperation to defend the advert have actually exposed themselves to have the very ignorances that the campaign is there to challenge in the first place.

so when they are we aren't used to accepting that it applies to men too

It's different in cases like this. Men are not likely to be getting good information from posters highlight abuse with Womans Aid phone numbers on, for example.

"Brew - have you seen the ad!?"

I have, my only problem with it that it exclusively provides male-on-female examples of domestic abuse and I think that's unhelpful to male victims of domestic abuse and also victims in same-sex relationships.

A man who's in a psychologically bullying relationship with a man or woman - and women who're in a psychologically bullying relationship with other women are probably the last to seek help because of the stigma associated with doing so. I don't think it's particularly untoward to think it's a shame that the advert didn't go out of it's way to depict anything other than heterosexual-based domestic absue

"It's different in cases like this. Men are not likely to be getting good information from posters highlight abuse with Womans Aid phone numbers on, for example"

True, maybe the Mankind number and the Women's Aid number should be on all DA awareness material, no matter the sex of the people featured.

True, maybe the Mankind number and the Women's Aid number should be on all DA awareness material, no matter the sex of the people featured.

This is actually a great solution, i'm suprised it hasn't been suggested before.

Think of it like this:

Most STI's are passed on through heterosexual sexual contact. The vast majority.

If there was a government awareness campaign called 'protect yourself' - that ran a TV add depicting 4 or 5 examples of people who've contracted STI's where every single example used was of someone getting infected through a heterosexual relationships, would:

"So what? Most people affected by STI's are straight, if gays want their own campaign they can pay for it themselves"

...be considered acceptable?

brew it comes back to best use of limited resources.

In the case you describe, if the advertising professionals advised that an exclusively heterosexual campaign would successfully reach x-thousand heterosexual people, then why would the Government decide to spend money on a campaign that reached fewer heterosexual people, and not as many people overall, because the number of non-heterosexuals that it reached would not make up for that?

It has nowt to do with limited resources though. There were multiple examples of domestic abuse relationship in that advert. It would have used no more resources having one of the actors in the advert being either a male as the victim or a female in same sex relationship as a victim of domestic abuse.

brew you've missunderstood me. I don't mean it would be more expensive to make an advert that includes male victims; I mean that an advert that includes male victims would have less impact - fewer victims would be helped.

If the advert cost £100,000 to make, and by solely targeting M-on-F DA, it reaches 100,000 women, then it's cost £1 per victim reached.
If it included both M-on-F and F-on-M DA, it may only reach 75,000 women, and 10,000 men - a total of 85,000 victims, at a cost of £1.18 per victim reached.

It's better value to target the group that is in the majority.

I think everyone needs to relax for a second and have a look at the FACTS. No one is insinuating one sex should be represented and not the other. Lets have a look at UK domestic abuse and violence figures first just to clear up all these false stats everyone is throwing about.

Office for National Statistics - Intimate Personal Violenceand Partner Abuse 2014, found here

<a class="break-all" href="http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20160105160709/www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171776_352362.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20160105160709/www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171776_352362.pdf

Summary of data:

There were 7.1% of women and 4.4% of men who reported having experienced any type of domestic abuse in the last year, equivalent to an estimated 1.2 million female victims of domestic abuse and 700,000 male victims. (Bare in mind these figues are under-reported, especially for male domestic abuse)

• There were 7.1% of women and 4.4% of men* who reported having experienced any type of domestic abuse in the last year, equivalent to an estimated 1.2 million female victims of domestic
abuse and 700,000 male victims.

• Overall, 30.0% of women and 16.3% of men had experienced any domestic abuse since the age of 16, equivalent to an estimated 4.9 million female victims of domestic abuse and 2.7 million
male victims.

• The decline in domestic abuse between the 2004/05 and 2012/13 CSEW surveys was statistically significant. However, the current figure (5.7%) continues a fairly stable trend seen since 2008/09.

• Women were more likely than men to have experienced intimate violence across all headline types of abuse asked about.

So straight off the bat this is a clear issue that faces both sexes, women more than men but a significant number of men not some tiny percentage that a few people seem to be throwing about here.

Whilst the advert of course was limited by funding it does not cost much to even acknowledge that men face the same forms of abuse and deserve some representation for it in awareness campaigns. I might also add that male domestic abuse, etc is not broadcast in awareness campaigns even to a small degree as it is with female abuse, etc

Earlier data - Homicides, Firearm Offences and Intimate Violence 2010/11: www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/116483/hosb0212.pdf

But all data will be wrong because not every case is reported. It could be that what is reported is half of what actually happens on both genders. Or that abuse to men is much more prevalent bringing it closer to the numbers of abuse to women, which could also be higher than reported.

Looking at those graphs, around 11% of men and around 24% of women have experienced non sexual partner violence

Around 2.5% of men vs around 19% of women have experienced domestic sexual assault, including attempts.

Figures for family abuse and stalking are closer, though women still suffer more, but isn't this campaign targeting partner assaults, sexual and non sexual, rather than family/stalking?

The sex of the perpetrator and the severity of the assaults are not shown in that data though I think the latter is in the full report.

"Bare in mind these figues are under-reported, especially for male domestic abuse"

Why especially for male abuse ? IIRC, there is some data to show men report after fewer incidents than women, though I am on my phone so can't look right now.

And what about the male "victims" who are also perpetrators? This is a significant proportion of them but there is no data to represent it.

My mother physically and mentally abused my father. She stabbed hin in the arm with a knife, she made his life hell. None of us ever talked about it (the children) as it seemed such a taboo to have a violent woman terrorising a man.

So it does happen and it is important particuarly for the children that it is acknowledged.