Throughout history, abuse in relationships has been an unfortunate reality.
The sources for it are innumerable-perhaps the Bible teaches a gender superiority
that leads to abuse, perhaps alcoholism enters into the picture, or perhaps
the abuser has an inborn trait in him that lends itself to harming others.
But for whatever, reason, abuse exists, and so do the problems surrounding it.
Men as well as women are victims of abuse. Consider these two items:
Problems
The national hotline for abuse records some disturbing statistics:
-Approximately 1/3 of college and high school students are victims of dating
violence at some point in time, and nearly 80% who are physically abused in
their relationship continue to date their abuser.
-Women in their late teens are early 20s are 3 times more likely to be victims
of abuse than any other age group.
-of women ages 15-19 murdered each year, 30% are killed by their husbands or
boyfriends.
As the relationship blossom into maturity, the statistics still hold true. The
only problem is that children become involved, and more lives are in jeopardy.
In addition, although it is not always considered, violence against men becomes
a greater problem. In another survey, 12.4% of husbands reported having experienced
some sort of violence within the previous year, and 4.8% (2.6) million nationwide
reported being the victim of severe violence by their wives (kicking, punching,
beating, or using a knife or gun).
These statistics reveal that relationship violence does exist in epidemic numbers,
and that it occurs often at a young age.
Knowledge
And yet for however much of a problem encountered, the knowledge available is
surprisingly thin. The same survey revealed that 81% of the parents surveyed
either believe teen dating violence is not an issue or admit they don't know
if it's an issue, and a majority of parents (54%) admit they have not spoken
to their children about dating violence.
In addition, the women's services clinic in Meadville has no over-reaching campaign
to reach out to the youth of today. They do make efforts; part of their business
is education, and they regularly send speakers to local schools.
But as a whole they do very little to seriously dispel the stereotypes of relationship
abuse, and when young people are placed in a setting of their own they have
more of an opportunity to act out in destructive ways. Placed away from their
parents, young people are left to a life that is far more than choosing than
ever. But it is this generation -Generation Y - that is notoriously resilient
to advertising campaigns, even if they are for noble causes.
Analysis
It is this age group that must be addressed.
We hope our accomplishments will be two-fold: 1). Stop abuse from occurring
among younger couples and 2). Prevent it from occurring before it starts. Increased
exposure to the problems of abuse will inevitably lower it; for example, when
students were forced to read books like Native Son at universities racism drastically
went down.
The Women's Services clinic operates under similar conditions. Their ideology
does not presume to tell abused women and men what to do, but gives them the
knowledge of how to do it. Thus, their ideology revolves around empowerment.
Women and men who have a detailed knowledge of the definitions of abuse and
their options for removing themselves from the situation do not necessarily
remove themselves from it. On more than one occasions, the Women's Services
clinic could do little but grimace at such decisions. But anyone hoping to help
them cannot force them to remove themselves. But given the ignorance of such
an important issue, the knowledge can go a long way.
When asked, the Women's Services Center gave two reasons as to why women stay
in abusive relationships. First, they fear the economic consequences, how they
will make ends meet without the principal bread-winner in the house, or how
they will fare when the case comes to trial. Will they be allowed to keep their
children? Or will they throw the book at them?
The second reason is the fear of physical retaliation by the abuser. In a relationship
where they are punished for no reason, the thought of what would happen if he
was given a reason (i.e, leaving him) is a frightening one.
And yet the Women's Services clinic is perfectly suited to handle both situations.
The Center offers legal assistance to women in their time of need, and a place
to go when they need it. What if these women had someone there to walk them
through the steps necessary to secure good standing in a courtroom situation?
Or if they had the knowledge to gain a restraining order, thus placing a legal
barrier between her and her abusive other?
Cleary, knowledge is power. If 100% of empowered people would not leave their
situation, there is great reason to believe that a sizable number of them would.
Mission Statement
Blue Dog Inc. Advertising will attack the problem of abuse by targeting the
"Generation Y," crowd, the college students who are going through
tumultuous times, and impressionable as to the evils of relationship abuse.
Furthermore, since the Allegheny College community is not really the target
of a systematic plan, there is great room to make a big improvement without
too much effort. And yet, such great potential!
Our mission is to increase the awareness among young men and women in the Crawford
County area about the implications of domestic abuse in order to prevent it
from happening, We also hope to increase empowerment among the abused by making
known the resources available to them, and informing them about healthy relationships.