If it’s not poverty porn, it’s gratuitous violence

Yes, I’m predisposed to be critical of Invisible Children’s media. And yes, my tolerance for gratuitous violence is especially low, and my sensitivity to media violence especially high. But the image Invisible Children uses for their Christmas campaign seems especially tasteless, even to me:

 

Getting hit in the face with a crowbar is not a joke; it’s one manifestation of domestic violence that is a reality for people around the world, including IC’s target audience in the US, and especially in Northern Uganda:

 

According to figures from the Uganda Bureau of Statistics in 2007, 68% of married women aged 15 to 49 had experienced some form of violence inflicted by their spouse or intimate partner.

According to the 2006 Uganda Law Reform Commission study, domestic violence is most common in northern Uganda, where it was reported to have occurred in 78% of homes. Most women do not report cases of domestic violence to authorities and police rarely intervene or investigate.

 

Earlier this week, Saundra at Good Intentions Aren’t Enough took the NGO and aid community to task for media campaigns that say “all of the developing world is a senselessly violent place and that the best way to help is to give them stuff.” The way we talk about our work matters, but equally important is the way we talk about the world beyond our work. IC’s new campaign makes light of a very real, very unjust circumstance that people in Northern Uganda and among their email recipients deal with on a daily basis. Using violence as a punchline undermines the hardship and trauma that often accompanies such acts and turns it into a joke, rather than respecting it as a sad reality. It’s especially disappointing since the message behind the campaign: “IC vs. the elves, because IC is making much better Christmas gifts than the north pole!” could be easily communicated without the violent images.