The Joyful Heart Foundation is a campaign that was first founded by Mariska Hargitay in 2004 after she portrayed the character Olivia Benson on the famous drama series Law and Oder: Special Victims Unit where they covered topics such as abuse; sexual, domestic and child abuse. But after an episode had aired she received countless emails from survivors who disclosed their stories on their experience with said abuse. She even revealed that people on the street would typically ask for an autograph but it would slowly turn into people admitting to the abuse they received, which she said proved how desperate they were to finally be heard.

This led her to create The Joyful Heart Foundation, a campaign to help victims heal and begin a new chapter of their life without that fear or darkness following them, she stated that she wanted to let all the brave men and women who experienced this abuse were being heard and they were no alone. This was a word she said was repeated constantly in emails and conversations, “alone” and that urged her to make that feeling disappear.

“I created The Joyful Heart Foundation in 2004 to help survivors of sexual assault heal their minds, bodies and spirits and reclaim their lives.” – Mariska 

Andre Braugher

In 2013 they launched the “NO MORE” campaign to bring awareness to the issue at stake. They did both a video series which had celebrities talking about abuse as well as a series of prints of male and female celebrities with a quote under the slogan. For example, the one above “it’s just a women’s issue” is a toxic mentality some people have these days, where they refuse to acknowledge abuse is an issue with both men and women.

The campaign involved over 75 celebrities.

Courtney Cox

Mariska stated that although she had a role to play on television, she felt some responsibility for them. They opened up to her and bravely told them their stories and she wanted to ensure they knew they were being heard and could stop living in fear.

When the program first began, they quickly realised that many different people heal in various ways so they started to create new ways for each individual to help them find the right way for them to begin recovering.

“When people are abused and assaulted, it is like the doors to their souls slam shut. The goal of Joyful Heart is to let the light, and the life, back in—to banish the darkness and let the healing begin.”
– Mariska Hargitay, Founder & President of the Joyful Heart Foundation

Often in the media we come across stories of big male celebrities being accused of sexual assault and other crimes after videos or images resurface, however it makes no difference if the evidence shown is years old, they will potentially ruin their lives and careers- rightfully so if the evidence proves that they are in fact guilty.

Recently a story came to light about the 26-year-old rapper, Cardi B was faced with a lot of backlash from a video she made over three years ago. The video was her admitting to drugging men and robbing them, although it isn’t sexual assault it is still a crime nonetheless which has seemed to have gone overlooked.

Her defence was “she needed to make a living” but if the roles had been reversed and it was in fact a man who had drugged and robbed women because of that reason, their careers and lavish lifestyle would be ripped from their grasp and they would be thrown in jail and shamed. Once again, rightfully so as I had said- it is still a crime, a punishable one at that. But my point is that as it is a women who has been known for a rough past, after she was confirmed to have worked as a stripper to earn money before going into rap, that should not excuse the fact she has drugged and robbed men.

A lot of women ranted on twitter saying things such as “if the men didn’t want to be robbed they shouldn’t have worn such clothing” and so on, which I understand the point they are trying to make as many women who are sexually abused get blamed, however I feel as though people are not seeing the serious matter at hand and deciding to fight fire with fire, making the situation a competition.

Cardi also said “I never claim to be perfect or come from a perfect world with a perfect past, I speak the truth” which I personally feel as though she is trying to justify her actions by earning her adoring fans sympathy, which is exactly what she got as nobody has spoken up about it since it first resurfaced and that to me is quite sad to think people think so little of it. Imagine if it was a lot more serious and she had sexually assaulted them, would people still be turning the tables and saying “well men do the same thing” or just dusting it under the rug?

Men

Domestic violence against men is often overlooked as such a small percentage of men who experience domestic abuse or sexual abuse from an intimate partner actually report it. There are many reasons that could cause for men to feel unable to talk about and report these kinds of incidents due to a lot of the social stigma they can get; for example, men who report domestic abuse are often labelled as “weak” or “less masculine” which is such a sad thing to think about. Imagine not being able to feel comfortable reporting such a severely traumatic incident because you won’t be taken seriously.

In a survey taken in 2010-2011 discovered that 27% of women reported their abuse to the police whereas only 10% of men did so. From 2010 to 2012 throughout the USA, the UK and Canada more women (23%) than men (19.3%) have been assaulted once in their lifetime.

One of the main factors that can cause both men and women to turn away from seeking help is how quickly some abusive people quickly take the title of victim in order to for example O.J Simpson often labelled himself as a “battered husband” however I feel as though women are usually seen as the victim without knowing the full story, which can definitely cause men to back away from the idea of making such claims public. If a man does come forward and report domestic violence it is often seen as the women acting out of “self defence” as so many people strongly believe in the rule “a man should never hit a woman” which is true, but a woman should not be able to hit a man and be seen as some form of hero.

I have seen many videos of women hitting men repeatedly and then when the man strikes back, they are seen as a victim and the man is arrested or punished in some way.

More than 10 million men and women in the USA are subjected to domestic violence. In a survey taken last year, it showed more than 1 in 3 women (35.6%) report incidents of domestic violence, sexual abuse and stalking whereas 1 in 4 men (28.5%) report it.

In an episode of Jeremy Kyle, known for covering topics that range from different levels of intensity. A young man admitted that his former girlfriend at the time had some violent tendencies. He said that one day she locked him in their flat leaving him no choice but to jump out of a three storey building leaving him in hospital, to which the audience laughed. Jeremy Kyle thankfully scolded the audience and continued the show where the man reveals she would give him black eyes and busted lips.

Women

Similar to the cases with domestic abuse towards men, it usually begins with verbal abuse before it can slowly – or quite drastically escalate to physical abuse.

There are several ways someone can abuse someone:

– Financial abuse.
– Verbal abuse.
– Stalking.
– Sexual abuse.
– Physical abuse.
– Mental abuse.
– Psychological abuse.

Domestic abuse will affect 1 in 4 women in their lifetime, which leads to two women being murdered each week due to domestic violence. It is also said to be the most quoted reason for becoming homeless according to Shelter (2012). 

Approximately 400 people take their own life each year who have attended a hospital for domestic abuse victims within six months of attending, it is said that 50% of these people had attended a hospital the day they took their life.

In 2010 the Force Marriage Unit had received and responded to 1735 reports of forced marriages. It is also said that domestic abuse has more repeat victims compared to other crimes, on average there will have been 35 assaults before the victim reports it to the police.

There are types of abuse people don’t initially think of, which can include (however, not limited to):

Mental, Psychological and Emotional abuse:

– Isolating them from friends and family.
– Making them feel at fault for the abuse.
– Using their phobias/fears against them.
– Ignoring or using silence towards the victim.
– Making false accusations towards the victim.
– Belittling them.

Stalking and Harassment:

– Frequent calls to the victim’s house and/or workplace.
– Following the victim.
– Sending unwanted gifts.
– Gathering information about the victim and people close to them.
– Sending malicious text messages, letters and “gifts”.

Financial abuse:

– Taking money from them.
– Not allowing them to buy necessities (for them or children)
– Preventing employment.
– Getting upset if they spend money on themself.

Controlling behaviour:

– Not allowing contact with certain people – if not, all contact with people.
– Constant calls or messages.
– Questioning them; their location, who they’re with, etc.
– Controlling what they wear.

Physical abuse:

Physical abuse is the most well known version of abuse, however it is also one of the least reported leading to two women on average are killed by their partner or former partner.

The abusive partner can often feel somewhat remorseful of their outburst and will tearfully apologise for it, however in some cases they will insist the victim brought it onto themselves as they “provoked” them in one way or another. They can also insist that they hadn’t intended to be violent and they were having a rough day or just “lost it”.

They could blame drink or drugs, but a lot of the time the victim is often blamed. These justifications can often leave the victim feeling very conflicted and attempt to gain forgiveness from the perpetrator enabling them to maintain control over the victim.

Physical abuse doesn’t always begin with an extreme act of violence, it can often start rather small such as:

– Forcefully grabbing their partner’s wrist.
– Shoving them during an argument.
– Grabbing their face to force them to look at them.

They appear to be kind of tame at the beginning and “they didn’t mean it” which is the aim of the perpetrator is to make the victim truly believe that they have no ill intentions and all of the abuse is a result of bad day after bad day and them simply “loosing it”.

However there are more extreme acts of violence such as:

– Hitting; slapping, punching, etc.
– Hair pulling.
– Throwing objects.
– Smashing objects.
– Scalding or burning them.
– Scratching.
– Biting.
– Suffocation them.

Ideas

Modern Family

The popular American series “Modern Family” is a show I’ve been following for a few years but it wasn’t until Unit 8 that I found myself trying to make ideas for physical pieces out of everything. However what got me thinking was the opening sequence, each episode starts out with each family holding a framed picture of each other. As the topic I chose for this unit is having what appears to be a happy couple holding either a mirror or picture frame with an image inside of them in a heated argument.

Although I am not completely certain on anything yet, I am still wanting to use it as an idea to begin experimenting with.

For Unit 8 I had many topics I wanted to cover as I am, and always have been very passionate about equal rights. Originally I planned on doing feminism, LGBT and mental health, however one topic I felt would be excellent to choose for this unit is sexual assault and domestic abuse-not only in women but men as well as I personally feel like the terms “sexual assault” and “domestic abuse” are usually perceived as an attack against a woman, without a second thought.

The one major thing about sexual assault that has always baffled me is the punishment people will receive for acting in such a way, for example I had previously seen stories about people being sentenced to jail for life whereas the name Brock Turner made headlines in 2016 as he had sexually assaulted a young woman near a bin after a fraternity party. However, the reason this story made headlines was the fact he was only sentenced to 6 months in jail and 3 years probation this was because Turner’s father said his son should not be punished for “20 minutes action” as well as his age, clean criminal history and the fact he was intoxicated.

What made things much worse is Brock was later released September 2016 serving half his sentence due to his “good behaviour”, of course this is not always the case and there are cases that are dealt with appropriately and fairly, however this case is beyond unfair and down right ridiculous. Nobody who has assaulted someone in such a horrific way deserve to be able to walk freely so easily. It was said that the judge who sentenced him, Judge Persky had apparently argued he had “a responsibility to consider rehabilitation and probation for first time offenders” as he had previously been rather lenient with other offenders.

Standford students used their graduation ceremony to protest.

Another thing I feel isn’t talked about is people making false accusations about sexual assault, there are sadly cases where people make false claims which could potentially ruin not just their career but their life and they can get away with it without punishment. I personally believe there should be some sort of punishment for making such harsh claims towards someone, however only if there is strong evidence to prove that those claims are in fact false, they should be punished because they could put that person’s life in jeopardy.