As everyone knows, today is Super Bowl Sunday. Hundreds of millions of people across the world will turn on their TV sets to watch the New England Patriots take on the New York Giants.
Perhaps less known, Super Bowl Sunday is also the day that typically sees a peak in incidents of domestic violence. (Update: The MyDD commenters took me to task for this statement, which turns out to be a half-myth. The reality is that there is a small bump in domestic violence on Super Bowl Sunday, but the bump is minor compared to other holidays. Sorry about that.) Indeed, the time period stretching roughly from Thanksgiving to Super Bowl Sunday is acknowledged by police, domestic violence shelter administrators, doctors, and other first responders as a time when domestic violence skyrockets.
Before reading on, please make sure to stay safe, and look out for your friends and loved ones. If you or someone you know might have a violent situation at home today, the phone number for the National Domestic Violence Hotline is 1-800-799-SAFE (7233).
Today, I want to discuss what the progressive movement can do to address the issue of domestic violence. This is a terriffying problem which makes life hellish for millions of people a year, and as a movement which values equality and respect for all people, we should not turn a blind eye towards it.
To begin with, there are certainly important political reforms which we can pursue. These reforms include, cerainly, training for doctors, police, and other first responders to detect potential symptoms of domestic violence, and to provide help to those who may be suffering from it. They also include increased funding for hotlines and shelters, as well as other forms of housing assistance for domestic violence survivors, like Section 508 vouchers. The reforms don't stop there - there are a variety of ways in which policymakers can be creative in addressing this issue. For example, see Transplated Texan's candidate diary regarding Joe Biden's proposal to train 10,000 domestic violence lawyers.
Furthermore, we can encourage the media industry not to glorify violence, especially violence against women. I think this kind of work will include numerous kinds of pressure, like letter-writing campaigns and boycotts. It also includes critical review of TV and film, as the folks at Screening Liberally and Alternet do on a regular basis.
We can make efforts to teach children not to use violence in schools, and we can create educational programs in high school and college to teach young adults about the warning signs of domestic violence, how to control violent impulses and treat romantic partners with respect, and how to get out of potentially violent situations.
Finally, I believe that we need to make efforts to reform family life more directly. That is, we need to make efforts to help families which are struggling with the early warning signs of potentially violent situations, like excessive control by one partner over the other, unequal or unhealthy power distributions, emotionally abusive behavior or language, and so on. In my opinion, such efforts would best be rooted in small groups which allow partners to work out these sorts of problems together, with the guidance of therapists or counselors who could help them unlearn potentially dangerous behavior, and work out new and more peaceful behavior. Such groups would probably be ideally established within the context of institutions like churches and labor unions, which can help families work out their problems with peers who share similar values and lifestyles. This idea is a twist on the consciousness raising movement which helped women in the 1960's and 70's identify and overcome inequality at home.
To be sure, this would require a massive effort on the part of social institutions which espouse progressive values. In addition to addressing specifically the problem of domestic violence it would, hopefully, help address a wide range of potential problems in family life, ranging from drug and alcohol abuse to financial stress. Such an effort would be a supplement, never a replacement, to crisis services like hotlines and shelters. But it would hopefully reduce the need for those crisis services considerably.
What I'm suggesting is, I'm aware, a pretty serious departure from the kinds of reform efforts progressives usually discuss. For the most part, we are content to lobby government, participate in elections, criticize the media and other institutions, and, on the whole, restrict our activism to the public square. I think this tendency is the result of a larger discomfort with the idea of intruding on family life, and respecting cultural differences. But family life is an incredibly important institution, and it has enormous impact on our everday lives. To avoid interfering with this sphere of life is to turn away from measures that could save lives and prevent a lot of personal destruction. Of course, we need to respect cultural diversity, and that is why I believe that efforts to reform family life should start within the context of voluntary private affiliations - church and union membership, and the like - where problems like domestic violence can be addressed in a culturally sensitive way.
I'd love to hear additional thoughts on this issue, including as many different ideas as possible about what our government, media, schools, workplaces, and religious communities can do to reduce and, perhaps one day, eradicate this problem. Above all, stay safe and keep an eye out for loved ones.
