“He makes me think I’m fat and stupid and no one else would want me.” “She doesn’t let me hang out with friends. She says she should be enough.” “He said if I really loved him I’d have sex with him.” These are just a couple of examples of red flags in relationships, and campuses all over the country are fighting back to raise awareness.
According to their website, The Red Flag Campaign is a public awareness campaign designed to address dating violence and promote the prevention of dating violence on college campuses. The campaign was created using a “bystander intervention” strategy, encouraging friends and other campus community members to “say something” when they see warning signs (“red flags”) for dating violence in a friend’s relationship. The campaign posters reflect racially and ethnically diverse models, and illustrate both heterosexual and same-sex relationships.
According to the Red flag Campaign website, in 21% of college dating relationships, one of the partners is being abused. The issues tackled in the Red Flag Campaign include emotional abuse, cohesion, excessive jealousy, isolation , sexual assault, victim blaming and stalking. Although the Red Flag Campaign is about dating violence, these issues come up in friendships and other relationships as well.
The Red Flag Campaign is sponsored by the Virginia Sexual and Domestic Violence Action Alliance, and carries the tagline “say something” to encourage individuals to speak up if they see a red flag. The Verizon Foundation, Verizon Wireless, Macy’s Foundation and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention all serve as sponsors by issues grants to help fund the campaign.
Some signs of an abusive relationship can be shown in physical and mental examples. Physical examples include one partner being forced to be sexual, or being beaten, pushed, slapped or any other sort of abuse. An individual being blamed for how the other partner feels, one partner putting the other down, one partner isolating the other or one partner threatening the other are examples of mental and emotional signs of an abusive relationship.
If you find yourself scared to break up with your partner, in debt to your partner, walking on eggshells to avoid certain subjects, being fearful of your partner, or other symptoms of unhappiness in a relationship, you could be suffering from an abusive relationship.
More information is available on their website. There are a number of examples of situations there where the red flag is raised, and a suggestion of what you could say if you are in that situation. It also gives tips to help those in abusive relationships to get out.
Nicole Dales - Journalism is my passion. I have been writing for the last 5 years. I wrote for my high school paper for three years and I had an ...
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