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THREAD: Today is #InternationalDayofViolenceAgainstWomen.
I want to draw attention to young women who are affected by intimate partner violence (IPV). They are rarely included in these conversations, including when we talk about the pandemic of violence during COVID-19:
I want to draw attention to young women who are affected by intimate partner violence (IPV). They are rarely included in these conversations, including when we talk about the pandemic of violence during COVID-19:
First, young women 15-24 are the MOST AT-RISK of intimate partner violence IN THE COUNTRY. However, we talk about the issue as “domestic violence,” which often suggests older, cohabitating or married women. This is a serious concern because:
1. There are ample resources for teen dating violence and for domestic violence, but *very* few for Millennial/university-age women. This leaves them incredibly vulnerable and with little help.
2. Young women face different issues than previous generations: high rates of cyberstalking + blackmail, more casual/non-monogamous relationships, more gender-fluid gen, live with partners faster cause of unaffordable housing. These all make it hard to report or even be believed.
Many are also living away from home for the first time, so they don't have their support system or may feel they're adults that have to figure this out on their own now.
3. Worse, we tell young women “just dump him” or "you don't have kids with him so just leave." We assume because she is young that what's happening isn’t serious or life-threatening. But IPV also includes intimate partner sexual assault and homicide.
4. Intimate partner violence is just as prevalent as sexual assault on campus, but resources are basically non-existent on campus, experts have told me. This leaves sexual violence offices, already short-staffed and underpaid, unable to handle the extra workload.
5. BIPOC women, queer and bisexual women and women with disabilities are several times more likely to experience IPV. They also have a harder time being believed and being seen as victims.
6. While shelters are supposed to be for all women, the majority of young women don’t feel they could go there — they have either been turned away or feel that shelters are for older/married women and women with kids. They feel comfortable going to a shelter in a crisis.
7. The same universities where young women attend are doing more research on “domestic violence” than their own demographic.
8. If we don’t have more funding, research and prevention programs ASAP, this generation will grow up thinking love should hurt, and that to keeping love requires violence. There will be more perpetrators and more survivors, and more victims.
9.There are many well-known cases of young female students being killed by their partners. Yeardley Love. Carina Petrache. Maple Batalia. Alexandra Kogut. Olivia Greenlee. Shao Tong. Rebecca Eldemire. Katy Straalsund. Kiran Dhesi. Alina Sheykhet. Lauren McCluskey. Skylar Williams
The list goes on, and there are many more that we don’t know about. Many of these women told police and their universities and their loved ones. They were not taken seriously. In many cases, they were let down.
10. Right now sexual assault centres are being forced to shut down or lay off staff, as are centres for women experiencing IPV. The evidence shows that violence is growing during COVID-19 quarantine, and that the most dangerous place for women is their own home.
If you can, donate to local clinics/centres and campus centres, help loved ones who need help (if possible), and interrupt misogyny, misogynoir and rape culture. Educate — and educate boys. Ending violence against women is just as much boys and men's responsibility.
