It’s time for gender-based violence campaigns to target men

On January 9, the provincial government—via justice minister Becky Druhan—announced a new public awareness advertising campaign to combat gender-based violence. The move comes after six women—and one victim’s father—have died at the hands of their partners over the past three months in Nova Scotia.

“People need to understand that they’re not alone, and that resources are available,” Becky Druhan told the media that Thursday. “We actually today have started to increase public awareness. And so folks will start to see more advertisements and information shared about those resources on how to access those resources if you or someone that you know is experiencing intimate partner violence.”

The creative for the campaign depicts an illustration of a woman being covered with an umbrella by another person, with a headline reading: Not all abuse leaves bruises, but all abuse is harmful.

And that’s true. It does a good job of trying to dispel the myth that not all abuse includes physical violence or leaves marks that people can see. The problem though, according to advocates, is that the campaign doesn’t target the audience that it should: men who are engaging in abusive behaviour.

“We need to start addressing the roots of the men who are perpetrating violence,” says Kristina Fifield, trauma therapist and gender-based violence advocate, in an interview with The Coast. “Yes, awareness needs to be there for victims, but I’m telling you, if that’s the only focus, it’s not going to work. We have to raise awareness about men who use violence.”

Fifield says that over the 16 years she has worked in the sector, there have been a lot of awareness campaigns done around victims and supports, but there has been very little conversation about men who use violence.

A great example of men-focused messaging is the “Reflect on your Behaviour” campaign out of the UK, which was developed around the insight that if your actions make your relationships a toxic place to be, it’s time to reflect on your behaviour and get the help you need.

The campaign focuses on different types of abuse—from physical abuse, to controlling behaviour, stalking and harassment, and unmanaged emotions like humiliation or anger aimed at your loved ones.

“Coersive control is something we need to be talking more about, and it involves things like gaslighting, controlling a partner and their decisions, making them believe that they’re the problem,” says Fifield. “It can include isolating them from family and friends, and with technology today, even tracking them when they are separated.”

Sue Bookchin, CEO and founder of Be the Peace Institute, adds: “These methods are designed by men to control the other person. Telling someone what to wear or where they can go or who they can call. Also extreme jealousy—so that any relationships of care and closeness are cut off.”

A campaign that focuses more on asking men to look at their own behaviour as abusive could not only make victims safer and mean that some people never become victims, but it could also make real, lasting change and hopefully drive down gender-based violence offences.

“Nova Scotia does have a public helpline for men that got a lot of calls, especially during the pandemic. But we need to be more explicit,” Bookchin tells The Coast. “We need to have ads in all public restrooms above the urinals that ask men: Are these things part of what you do in your relationship? If so, this is violence and you need help.”

The “Reflect on your Behaviour” campaign did just that—posters and restroom stickers were up across doctor’s offices and hospitals, libraries and community areas, restaurants and pubs, and digital media including social media posts shared across a number of channels.

“Targeting men and their behaviours, and men and their friends and peers and colleagues, is something we have never really done before” in Nova Scotia says Bookchin, “and it’s time.”

Here are some other public awareness campaigns that are doing the same:

The bottom line is that Nova Scotia’s gender-based violence crisis is dire, and the last thing we need is more of the same. That status quo is simply not working. We can talk all day to victims on how to get help, or to loved ones about how to recognize if someone is at risk, but that all seems reactionary rather than preventative.

Men—and the patriarchal systems they grew up in—are the catalysts for controlling and violent relationships. It is them who we should be talking to when we’re talking about gender-based violence.