Letters to the Editor
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Domestic Violence Versus Illegitimacy
Of course, domestic violence is wrong. But what is the bigger problem: boys learning domestic violence from their fathers, or boys AND girls growing up without fathers in the home? If you look at the statistics, especially data like the correlation between educational performance, poverty, and criminal behavior, and even such things as the performance of public schools whose population draws heavily from single mother households, all points to the latter. Presuming that the Eliot Spitzer administration is behind this, it shows the influence of feminism in the Democratic Party. Since feminists are loathe to admit that illegitimacy is a problem (or its negative effects disproportionately negatively affect boys; they actually claim that the reason for the decline in male educational performance is because 11 year old boys are deciding that they would rather be plumbers than accountants), the Democratic Party sees the 1 boy in 50 that is being taught by his father to hit his wife as being a bigger problem than the 25 boys in 50 that aren't being taught anything by their fathers because they aren't in the home.
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Copyrant misses the point
"As for their effectiveness, I agree with a Copyranter commenter who said that "no kid on the street is going to stop and say, 'Wow, they're so right. They're not bitches. They're women.'"
Per your comments, THE TARGET IS NOT THE KID. It's the Dad. Not that Dads can't be as oblivious to this problem as their kids, but they shouldn't be. I think the ad is meant to grad Dads attention, like he was looking at his own kid in the ad.
"And it is a little odd to put the command "Respect women" in a to-do list that also includes "Eat your vegetables" and "Do your homework."
Why is this odd? These are the things we must all do to operate, and operate well in society. That's the very point. Should they have equated it with "Play your ipod" or "Smoke some crack"
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Since studies show that women start fights as often as men why doesn't the ad target parents and teach that violence is NEVER okay?
This is more man bashing. How come the ad series didn't teach PARENTS to tell DAUGHTERS AND SONS that violence is NEVER okay?
Boys ARE taught that it is never okay to hit girls. Are girls EVER taught that it is not okay to hit boys? No, just the reverse. Girls are taught that hitting boys is JUSTIFIED, and is FUNNY, and if a boy cries or runs away then they are wimps.
Society thinks it is funny when girls hit boys. Or when girls hit girls.
I blame the matriarchy, but I also blame you Catherine and violent women like you that won't just say no to violence.
Catherine, is it okay for girls to think it is okay to hit boys?
If not, then why not a gender neutral ad campaign?
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Ironic that Catherine Price thinks that fathers can have an influence on the children, when Broadsheet spends so much of its time
telling us about the virtues of single motherhood, and even single motherhood amongst teenage girls.
And yet, somehow, Catherine thinks the perceptions of boys towards women are shaped by the fathers she forces out of the family, and not by the boys seeing the behavior of all these girls around them fighting, lying, ....
Contrary to teh Broadsheet Feminists(TM) I certainly think that fathers are an important and positive influence on their kids. That is why Broadsheet should be linking to Glenn Sacks and other people that want to help keep fathers in the lives of their children, and why Broadsheet should be speaking out against NOW and their policy of sole custody of children.
I also think Broadsheet should start examining what happens when you tell young women it's always a man's fault. For example, you could end up an unemployable women's studies major.
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They taught me
I'm female and in elementary school I hit a boy that I was angry at. I got into a lot of trouble for that and I learned that nobody hits anybody no matter how angry.
Perhaps I'm the only girl in millions that learned that lesson, but I doubt it.
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Strawberry
you are indeed that rare creature
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Why should ANYONE be respected automatically?
women reserve the right to respect or not respect men individually.
Also, hitting women is always bad? What if she attacks you first? It is called self defense.
Society needs to change, but apparently it is heading the wrong way.
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No, but the bus can
when it runs over his ass.
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Effectiveness?
As to the effectiveness, I remember one of those don't do drugs commercials. I saw it at a very young age. There was a junky (to a four yearold: A very, dirty, sweaty guy, with long straggly hair), and he was running scared from something? I was never sure what that something was, that's what made it so scary, that and you could hear the beating of his heart and his breathing. Then it ended with him running into and not being able to climb a chain link fence, "Don't Do Drugs!"
Yikes! It worked on me, I always equate drugs with druggies running scared.
Maybe they should ease up on the whole boy and dad angle and go with something more tangible. That's what gets a message across, like a woman sitting in a hospital bed alone and beaten to pulp, then a voice over, "You said you would always love her, where did you go wrong? Domestic violence is wrong. It hurts more than just the victim, don't perpetuate it to your children."
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I would put it a different way
Before age 10, boys and girls are the same size; at age 11, girls are bigger, sometimes much bigger. My daughter, for instance, is just about to turn 10; she was over ten pounds when she was born and is almost 5'2"; she's a head taller than her friends, and when she was younger she used to play rough without realizing it. Am I supposed to say to a boy half her size that he can't hit her, but she can hit him? If you try to teach the lesson about not hitting girls, ever, to children age 10 or younger, it will be perceived as unjust by the kids, especially since girls today are a lot less dainty than they used to be. Instead, let's just make it "don't hit" (defending against an attack is a different matter; at least don't hit first).
What we need to teach all children (of both genders) is that you don't use your superior strength to hurt people smaller and weaker than yourself. Ever. Regardless of whether it's a boy or a girl. This is just not how you get your way.
Women get the brunt of abuse because we don't teach this, and they are on average smaller and weaker. Stopping violence against the weak by the strong will protect everyone.