Weekly Activism Blog #2

Activism

This week I went to my first training for the Harbor House. The presenter’s name was Carol Wick, who did a fantastic job. I wasn’t sure if I would really learn anything new because I am enrolled in a domestic violence course currently. I was thinking we would just learn some basic stuff that I probably had already heard. I was very surprised with what I learned. Carol Wick used a lot of real life stories as examples and it was quite shocking. She told us a story about a woman who was put in jail for child neglect because her husband or boyfriend had killed her child. The crazy thing was that in her mug shot, you could see the bruises around her neck from getting strangled. The court punished her for not protecting her child when she couldn’t even protect herself.

Reflection

This past week in class we were talking about how our sexuality is regulated. One example given was adoption. We were talking about how adoption is a process for heterosexuals. Something interesting I learned this week was that for GLBTQ partners involved in domestic violence, a tactic of the batterer to gain control is to threaten to out the other person, which could cause them to lose their children if they had adopted. I had never thought about that before. That is just another thing that makes it harder for victims of domestic violence to get help, because of ignorant societal norms.  In Seely’s Fight Like a Girl, she says that “more than one-fourth of high school girls have been victims of physical or sexual abuse” (191). I have heard this statistic before and at the training learned that it is increasing. Now, one in three high school girls will experience dating violence, and if you are African American, it is one in two. These statistics are shocking and truly disturbing. This week has shown me the increasing importance of educating people and encouraging them to speak up. The Harbor House is really making an impact in so many different aspects of domestic violence, and my respect for their organization has grown immensely.

Reciprocity

Going to this training about domestic violence and being surrounded by others who are aware and see the importance in this cause has increased my desire to make an impact. My drive to help is growing and my passion for this issue. I learned that so many cases of domestic violence are ending in homicides, and neighbors or strangers who heard the yelling and fighting never called the police. This thought was crazy to me, and I thought to myself, “What would I do?” I want to be the person that will call the police when I hear something suspicious. I want to stand up for people who are in these terrible situations.

Works Cited

Seely, Megan. Fight Like a Girl. New York and London: New York UP, 2007. Print.