Teen Power and Control Wheel

Dating Violence Among Teens can look like:

• Intimidation: Bullying you to get their way
• Anger: Controls you with her/her anger
• Threats: Threatens you, your friends or your family
• Social Status: Using popularity to control relationship
• Blame: Blames you for his or her anger
• Peer Pressure: He or she spreads rumors or secrets about you
• Sexual Coercion: Deliberate pregnancy or forced sexual acts
• Isolation: Prevents you from spending time with you friends or family

To read more about dating violence among teens visit WomensLaw.org Teens page or more about what abuse can look like in Teen Relationships check out ABC's Teen Dating Violence: Warning Signs.

Teen Power and Control Wheel

"Stockholm: An Exploration of Love"

This wins the award for Most Disturbing Media in 2009. Recently released for sale on Amazon (and then quickly banned), "Stockholm: An Exploration of Love" is an interactive video games which puts the player in position of kidnapper with the goal of physically and mentally torturing a woman in order to get her to fall in love. The game is named after Stockholm Syndrome, a psychological disorder that happens when a victim becomes emotionally attached to his/her captor.

Visit the official website to read letters from the creators about what they call a "masterpiece". Here is an excerpt from the Director of the game,

"By portraying men as weak and docile, [TV shows like Friends] suggest to us that men are supposed to be weak and docile. By portraying love as sacrificing the dominance of spirit that makes a man, and instead opting for extreme domestication, they trick us into thinking that love is supposed to be domestication. I’m not really comfortable letting something like that stand unchallenged, and that was one of the primary reasons I made Stockholm. The point of Stockholm is not that kidnapping is the true path of love. The point is that the sugar coated nonsense that TV and movies are forcing down our throat is not the only true path."

So is he suggesting that the opposite of domestication is rape and torture? Or that a domesticated man is an equivalent victim to a raped woman? I'm not totally sure. But what I am sure about is that this video game is horrifying and I would be seriously afraid of men who play it.

To read more about the relationship between video games and real life crime, read here, here or here.

"Stockholm: An Exploration of Love"

Knightley PSA Banned

I'm sure most of you have heard about the PSA Keira Knightley acted in a few weeks ago which received over 1 million YouTube hits. In case you haven't, it depicts Knightley coming home to a violent boyfriend and graphic scenes of him beating her.

The Independent Media reports that British TV, which had planned to show the ad, will only air it if the most violent scenes are cut.

There is much controversy about this.

On one hand, it is important to unmask the mystery of domestic violence and educate people about an issue which deserves serious understanding and attention.

On the other hand, is it necessary to depict such a violent scene as the one in the PSA to achieve this goal? This PSA is incredibly violent. As someone who gets queasy just seeing blood, I was so distracted by the violence that the purpose for me was nearly lost in my nausea (of course, since I work in the field I don't need much more education on the subject.)

However, others argue that the need for such graphic depiction is essential to the message. Rook22 says in his blog, "Perhaps seeing Knightley knocked down will resonate with someone who's neighbor is a victim of domestic violence, but they have been reluctant to help."

Necessary or needlessly graphic? What do you think?

Knightley PSA Banned

Men Working to End Domestic Violence

Domestic violence, which is primarly treated as a women's problem, has some new activists on board with a new message. Those activists are men and they are reaching out to help. A Call to Men, a wonderful organization dedicated to galvanizing a movement of men to end all forms of violence against women, sates "that ending violence against women is primarily the responsibility of men. Although historically it has been almost entirely women who have been at the forefront addressing this issue, we think it is essential that men play a primary role in the solution to end it."

Other men who have joined the movement are Byron Hurt, a filmmaker, speaker and activist to end violence against women. Here is a sample of his award winning documents "Beyond Beats and Rhymes"


Check it out! We think its so important to take a proactive approach to stopping violence against women, and that means preventing it before it happens. More research needs to be done on the risk factors of what makes some men abusers and others not, and there needs to be more social accountability on the part of men to step up and help women in this fight for freedom. Furthermore, there needs to be a change in our media in the way they treat women.

Men Working to End Domestic Violence

Teaching About Abusive Relationships Before They Happen

Rhode Island recently passed a new law called the Lindsay Ann Burke Act, named after a young woman who was murdered by her high school boyfriend at the age of 25. The Associated Press reports, "[This law] requires all public middle and high schools to teach students about dating violence in their health classes." The call for legislation came from Lindsay Burke's parents who felt that better education about the issue could have helped Lindsay to see the warning signs of an abusive relationship. Hopefully, over time, other states will adopt this law and teaching about dating violence will be just as commonplace as teaching sex ed and drug ed.

Thanks to Salon.com for the heads up.

Teaching About Abusive Relationships Before They Happen