“Watch HouseLive.
”E-lert: Let’s Watch the House Vote on VAWA » SAVE: Stop Abusive and Violent Environments
FYI, more work to do!
The Violence Against Women Act reveals structural bias, political gains
Domestic violence is intolerable – and so are gender biased laws like the Violence Against Women Act; acts like this tell an incomplete story of domestic violence for political gain.
The VAWA first started replicating local and state domestic violence laws in 1994. It was hailed then as “landmark” legislation, turning a local issue into a federal one. In 2000 it visited the Supreme Court, where U.S. v. Morrison’s ruling found the law unconstitutional for violating the Commerce Clause and the 14th Amendment.
One formal intention of the VAWA is to fund domestic violence programs. Informal intentions are to provide the opportunity for fake bipartisan celebration while defacing opponents every time the bill is voted for re-authorization. Last Thursday, the U.S. House voted 286-138 in favor of the bill, reciprocating the Senate’s 78-22 vote last month.
Proponents are so adamant for this legislation that legitimate objections for debate are always squandered to demagoguery. This is the first of a long list of issues this law hides under its thick framing effect that automatically produces an improper assumption: anyone who’s against it must be pro-women’s violence.
Surface-level framing hints at underlying structural problems. Men’s domestic violence statistics are systematically ignored by leading anti-domestic violence organizations as if they aren’t relevant. The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence provides the most popular statistics on its website: one in four women will experience domestic violence in their lives, 1.3 million women are assaulted by their partner every year and 85 percent of domestic violence is against women – criteria justifying the VAWA. Hundreds of advocacy groups fall in line with the same angle: suppressing or downplaying the men’s numbers.
Due to this practice, many forget that significant amounts of domestic violence cases happen to both sexes as well as children. The same study that found that 1.3 million women were assaulted by their partner every year also found that 835,000 men fell victim to the same violence.
