Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Behind closed doors

The campaign against violence against women is in the news at the moment - and high time too as research shows that half of all women will be victims of physical violence or sexual abuse during their lifetime. Interesting timing for another story - about a television identity who has been accused of abusing a former girlfriend. His female co-host has now come forward to defend him saying the alleged verbal and emotional abuse was completely out of character and - in her opinion - "just not true". Truth of the matter could be that we all have moments of doing things that are "out of character" - which we are not proud of - like name-calling (my pet hate) which IS abusive. I once stopped the car and invited the friend travelling with me to exit the vehicle for name-calling. While the old saying "sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me" comes to mind, it also stands to reason that if name-calling didn't have the capacity to affect people - this phrase would never have been coined. The other thing is that none of us knows what goes on "behind closed doors" and while reports of her new partner banning your sister's friend and primary support in past times from her house may have overtones of isolation - it could be a perfectly reasonable and well-meaning directive. Or, more's the pity, it may be that some women don't realize what abuse is, because the've become so used to it.

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