25th November 2013: Day Against Violence Against Women

November 25th is here again, a reminder of the violence against women in the world

Here are two different ways to make you ponder on this issue. The first one is an advertisement for female abuse prevention which won an award in Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in 2011

The second one is a story called Hooked on You, written by Cristina Durán and Miguel A. Giner  Bou

Uploaded on Feb 19, 2009

Would you like to read this story in Spanish? Click here

Violence Against Women

In the last weeks, several women have been killed in Spain by men; all of them examples of violence against women. Our society has been discussing the origin and causes of these actions against women for ages; different people suggest different ways to put an end to it but none of them seem to work. In my view, as long as women are considered objects, either in real life or in games (played mostly by men), no campaign or message will do any good. 

Take this example: a video called "Kara: a PS3 new technology." I do not really know what kind of new technology the video advertises ( this is the definition of the video: Quantic Dream, the development studio behind titles like Heavy Rain, has showcased the new technology, entitled 'Kara' ) but I do know that I do not like the image of the woman (actually, a fembot) depicted there. Judge by yourselves:

• what kind of woman is pictured here?
• what will "she" be able to do?
• what is "she" not supposed to do?
• what is the message of the video, in relation to men and women?
• whose voice do we hear, a man´s or a woman´s voice? Does it matter? why (not)?

This is another example of a "fembot" in an advert. Why do you think they chose a fembot and not a real woman?

I got the idea for this post when I read the entry called "The Problem with Fembots...Again" in one of my favourite blogs, Sociological Images 

Child Soldiers

Here´s a video that will help you to understand the story Remember Atita better. In the documentary Out of the Shadow of War, three girls describe their traumatic experiences of being abducted by rebels and forced to be child soldiers in Liberia during the civil war.

The organization that helps these children is called "Plan International." It works with children and communities in fifty of the world´s poorest countries to help them realize their full potential. 

Arranged Marriages

Dear 1º BAC students,

now that you have read the story "Ekaterina" and we have talked about arranged marriages in class, let me share with you a video that will certainly impact you - to say the least. It is called "Too Young to Wed;" two women, a writer and a photographer, speak about their experience while investigating arranged child marriages. It is a disturbing video because, as you will see, some of the girls are really young (one of them is 5 years old!). 

This is certainly food for thought.

Violence Against Women: 25th November 2012

This year the celebration of the day against violence against women has a name: Malala, the 14-year-old Pakistani girl shot by the Taliban on her way home from school. They shot her because she openly campaigns online (she writes a blog) for education for girls in her country.The Taliban impose amazing rules on women (click here to read about it) and make their lives hell - what they did to Malala is just one more example. 

Would you like to have a look at Malala´s blog? Click here and remember that she was born in 1997, so she is probably as old as some of you.

Malala had also been giving lectures in her country, click here  to read more about this.

In my view, being aware of the problems that many women suffer all over the world just because they are women is the only way to actually do something to change our world. If we talk about it, if we become conscious of how unfair the situation is and say so, then maybe others will consider changing their minds and doing something about it... But it is no easy task since the situation is really tough in some countries. Do you want to know the worst places to live in if you are a woman? Click here and have a look at the photographs; the following paragraph will let you know what I am talking about:

Targeted violence against females, dismal healthcare and desperate poverty make Afghanistan the world's most dangerous country in which to be born a woman, with Congo a close second due to horrific levels of rape. Pakistan, India and Somalia ranked third, fourth and fifth, respectively, in the global survey of perceptions of threats ranging from domestic abuse and economic discrimination to female foeticide (the destruction of a fetus in the uterus), genital mutilation and acid attack. A survey compiled by the Thomson Reuters Foundation to mark the launch of TrustLaw Woman*, puts Afghanistan at the top of the list of the most dangerous places in the world for women. TrustLaw asked 213 gender experts from five contents to rank countries by overall perceptions of danger as well as by six categories of risk. The risks consisted of health threats, sexual violence, non-sexual violence, cultural or religious factors, lack of access to resources and trafficking. The collection of images that follow were provided by Reuters to illustrate the dangers women face in those 5 countries. -- Paula Nelson (*TrustLaw Woman is a website aimed at providing free legal advice for women’s' groups around the world.)

Luckily for us (and I mean women who live in developed countries) the kind of violence mentioned in the paragraph above is not what we face in our everyday lives, but in our society women are very often the target of male violence as well. 



The situation pictured in this song by Tracy Chapman, "Behind the Wall" makes your hair stand on end.

In fact, the situation Tracy Chapman describes in her song seems to be quite frequent all over the world: watch the first video in this link or watch the experiment in the following video, which won a price in the Cannes Lions Festival in 2011.

IIn most cases, violence against women originates because some men have the wrong idea of what a relationship is and tend to think of women as something you can possess, that´s why they often use the expression "you belong to me" (have a look at the lyrics in the first song in this link). 

We talked about all this in class last week, but I did most of the talking so now I would like to know what you think...

Bullying: A Song

Rachel Crow is 14. She sings this song, "Mean Girls"(mean= malicious) which she co-wrote to help girls fight against bullying from other girls. 

If you let the video play on after the song finishes, you will get ten more videos related to bullying prevention.

Bullying: One More Tragedy

I just don´t understand bullying, I don´t understand the lack of respect, the non-appreciation of others... There is a golden rule as far as social relations are concerned: you should treat others as you would like to be treated. Period.

But things do not seem to work like this. Do you remember one post in this blog called "School is not a bed of roses for some students"? Well, here´s a similar story: Canadian Amanda Todd killed herself on October 10th (five days ago) after years of bullying and blackmail. She was 15. Everything started for her after a revealing photo of hers was passed around online. 

She made this video to let her story be known and then killed herself. (Since this is a blog for learners, just for this time, ignore the grammar, vocabulary and spelling mistakes she makes and focus on the content of her message)

Any comments?