Domestic Violence on the Small Screen

The release of Women's Aid's new Domestic Violence short, "Cut", starring Keira Knightley has put many questions out there. About the relevance or useful nature of using celebrities in DV campaigning, was the video to graphic, will it have an effect?

The video was good, that's clear, beautifully shot, that quick spot to the camera, the sweeping zoom out.. but is the message lost on high production, on the big names, would an anonymous woman have wrenched more heart strings, made people pick up the phone..?

And on questioning these things I came across a post on feministing.com about a domestic violence video around verbal abuse. I found it effective, I've never seen anything like it before and so it clung to that little curious bit of my brain.

Verbal abuse seems like something we accept on a societal level. It's a strain of domestic violence that is really approached, and that could lead to women thinking the mental abuse caused by verbal tirades isn't a serious problem.

Personally as long as the issue is in the main arena, being questioned; as long as we're taking damaging behaviour and the abuse of women to task that's positive. But you can only spend so much time preaching to the choir, which minds won't change because of either of these videos....

Let us know what you think.



Charlotte