I did not watch the Superbowl yesterday, but a facebook friend of mine and father's rights advocate tipped me off to the KIA Superbowl commercial which aired during the Superbowl last night. The KIA commercial, which you can watch on youtube, shows a woman being extremely violent with a man. Beside the facts that there is little connection between what she does and whether the car is worth buying or not, or that the humor is like that of the Three Stooges who are always bopping one another on the head, there is the question that many people are asking, "Would this commercial have played if a handsome, muscular man had been violent with a nerdy woman?" The answer is so obvious that I don't need to state it.
Father's rights groups, including those in upstate New York like Fathers and Families New York have been arguing for a long time that Family Court and Criminal Court do not treat the genders equally when it comes to violence. They argue that when women commit violence against men, not much happens to them. It is easy for women to get orders of protection against men, but not the other way around. They have also argued that the domestic violence laws assume that the man is always the batterer, and that the language of many of these laws is not gender neutral. Some courts, as a recent Maine decision reveals, are beginning to realize that the laws must be changed.
One member of the facebook page, Protection for Men, has created an event, Let Kia Know Violence Against Men is Unacceptable! To participate in the protest, you can go to this facebook page, click on like and add your own comments. Or you can leave your comments on the KIA Superbowl commercial youtube video, which has already been seen by more than 150,000 people.
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