By Mandara Vishwanath
In a recent move to confront domestic violence against women, the Australian government released an ad campaign that situates the problem of domestic violence at a very young age — our childhood when boys are excused for disrespecting girls and girls in turn are taught to internalize and even deny sexist behaviour.
The $30 million campaign came in at a time when one in every six women over the age of 15 in Australia has experienced physical violence from a current or previous partner, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The new Sex Discrimination Commissioner, Kate Jenkins said she had made domestic violence her top priority, according to a Sydney Morning Herald news piece. She is concerned that the youth is learning to “accept and excuse violent attitudes towards women and girls.”
The one minute public service announcement titled Respect shows the progression of male aggressive behaviour from seemingly harmless playing around that escalates to explicit physical and verbal abuse of a woman by her partner. It is aimed at identifying the problem of domestic violence in growing children rather than as an anomalous criminal activity that comes from outside the family space. This is also why I think this ad will speak to audiences in India and elsewhere. The ad is remarkable in tracing the issue of domestic violence from childhood sexist behaviour to instances of physical abuse by male members within the family.
The first scene is of a family event in which a young boy slams the door on a girl walking after him causing her to fall down. Her mother apparently comes to her rescue by saying, “You’re okay. He just did ’cause he likes you.” Satisfied with the response and excused from any consequences, the boy smirks and runs away.
Such ‘childish behaviour’ is often excused as childish flirting or “boys will be boys” – a phrase that some of our politicians are only too familiar with. In the next scene, a chubby boy’s father tells him, “Don’t throw like a girl, mate. Come on.” The camera then focuses on the slightly embarrassed boy’s face and over to the girl playing with him who looks down in silence. This scene is especially important as it reinforces the stereotype of being ‘man enough’ only by physical strength and asserting power over girls.
As the advertisement proceeds through the time span of a boy growing up, an adolescent boy takes the picture of a girl bending down to take something at a house party. His male friend’s only protest to this action is by visibly, but silently, and uncomfortably shifting in his seat.
In the next scene, a couple is fighting loudly in a car following which the man storms out of the car, slamming the door behind him violently, a recurring motif that underscores how women are silenced. The woman, terrified and crying in her seat, tells herself, “You’re okay, he loves you.”
The last scene of the PSA, shows a man violently confronting his female partner, cornering her on to the floor of the room after yelling at her in an argument. The woman, having fallen to the floor is already victimized as she looks at her husband, scared to the very core. When she looks back, we see the young boy from the first scene standing in front of her. It is this final scene that conveys the campaign’s tagline, “Stop it from the very start.”
Very often, boys are not only encouraged but taught to be aggressive, even to their partners, siblings, relatives and friends as a way of asserting themselves. Such sexist behaviour is in turn internalized, forgiven and thereby encouraged by parents, teachers, adults and girls as a permanent and universal personality trait.
The commercial was aired for the first time on television on April 20th, followed by print material to tackle the growing problem of domestic violence at an early age. However, there have been no further updates on this campaign.
You can watch the ad here: