No Comment: Opposing Domestic Violence With Homophobia

Someone recently sent me an article at Comment Dit-On? about a new anti-domestic violence ad in Chile that tells men not to hit women by using openly homophobic language—specifically saying that a man who hits a woman is a maricón, the equivalent of “faggot.”

Translation of the main text: “A faggot is one who hurts a woman.”

It’s a blatant example of the way leftist groups often undermine each other, fighting one form of inequality or discrimination by reinforcing another (see: everything PETA ever did). The group that put out the PSA added that a man who hits a woman is poco hombre, or barely a man, reinforcing the idea that gay men are insufficiently masculine. As the Comment Dit-on? post author says, “Clearly, a larger conversation needs to take place about what it means to be powerful and attitudes that marginalize the powerless.”

This post was originally at Sociological Images. Update: Sociological Images reader chinamorena says, “Adding an interesting layer is the fact that the second man who speaks in the ad is Jordi Castell, a publicly gay TV personality.”

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