OCTOBER IS DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AWARENESS MONTH
Would someone please tell me where Katie Couric is?
The Katie that I went to see in Hollywood with my dear friend Lois pictured with me in her bright yellow and beaming smile?
The same Katie that added her voice to the No More Org campaign to end domestic and sexual violence?
The same Katie who was host to Sharon Love in September of 2012?
Sharon Love, the founder of the One Love Foundation and mother of Yeardley Love, who was tragically murdered by her former boyfriend, George Hugely, in 2010, two weeks before she was to graduate from the University of Virginia.
Katie Couric took the risk, and true to her tagline, “Talk that Matters”, did a marvelous job of unpacking for her viewers the horrific events surrounding Yeardley’s murder, the anguish of her family and the extremely real issue called Dating Violence.
Fast forward to now.
The photo pictured to the left is a screen shot I took from my Facebook Newsfeed a couple of days ago: “Katie’s” status update.
But here’s the deal, this feels really incongruent to the Katie Couric that has been in the television spotlight for years…
Because it didn’t feel right I Googled her, and now I am even more convinced that the decision to create a show that centers on, Divorce in America, was not Katie Courics.
The other reason I doubt she chose this theme is she participated in the aforementioned No More Campaign.
So that begs the question…what the hell is wrong with the producers at ABC?
Here is what I want the producers to know:
Burning your ex’s clothes: Is called destruction of property. Showing up at someone’s place of work to “tell them off’? Is not only disruptive, it can escalate into acts of violence, violence that left unchecked can turn deadly.
Why a television show that was launched to discuss what matters had to jump into the already over flowing cesspool of gossip-centric daytime reality TV is beyond my comprehension.
Inviting people to share the “craziest thing their Divorce made them do,” with the carrot of being featured on national television, is an invitation to glorify abusive behavior.
Notice the language in the status update:
“What’s the craziest thing YOUR divorce made you do?
As if a circumstance has the power to MAKE a human being DO something.
People who perpetrate abusive behavior blame circumstances and people for their verbal and physical actions, thus shrugging off the responsibility they have for their own behavior.
Not only is this a misuse of airtime, it is reckless.
Here is Real Life:
October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, a month when advocates across the country work tirelessly to bring much needed information to the public about the realities of intimate partner abuse–an opportunity that if ABC would dedicate air time to it–would save lives.
Domestic violence and sexual assault are at levels that warrant, if not demand, a public outcry:
- 12.7 Million People are physically abused, raped or stalked by their partners in a year
- That’s approximately the population of New York City and Los Angeles combined
- That’s 24 people every minute
No, this is not the chorus from a country music song, these are frightening statistics that exist in our country and that were taken from the home page of the, No More Organization.
Talk that matters?
We need to talk about domestic and sexual violence. We need to have difficult conversations with our young people. Conversations that do not focus blame on the victim. Conversations that encourage people to hold them self, and others, accountable for their actions, words and behavior. We need a paradigm shift from blame and shame to the prevention of abuse before it happens.
We need celebrities like Katie, who have demonstrated that they are willing to lead the conversation about domestic violence and sexual assault, to not have programming managers diluting their content with salacious themes, themes that promote the perpetuation of egregious–if not abusive–behavior.
We need to end the silence on domestic violence and say: NO MORE normalization and glorification of abusive behavior.
Thank you for this. I could not wait for Katie’s new show and then once it began I stopped watching after a few weeks. I love her but Katie is not the type of show I watch. It is sad when I think of what it could have been.
Thank you for taking the time to read my post Jennifer, yes, what could have been is exactly right.
You are spot-on, Elin. I have never watched Katie’s newest show, but I always liked her for her spunk and professionalism. I am so glad you wrote this post. Enough is enough.