November 1, 2010
Is Chile's new anti-domestic violence campaign homophobic?
Michael K. Lavers READ TIME: 1 MIN.
A new anti-domestic violence campaign in Chile uses a traditionally anti-gay slur to describe a man who abuses a woman.
Soccer player Pablo Pozo and gay journalist Jordi Castell appear in the spots, which Chile's Servicio Nacional de la Mujer (SERNAM) produced. "People have shouted faggot at me hundreds of times," says Castell in the campaign (as translated from Spanish into English.) "A coward is someone who mistreats his wife. We have to call him what it is."
Maric�n can mean either coward or bastard in Chilean Spanish.
On its Web site, SERNAM said the campaign strongly reinforces the idea a man "who mistreats a woman is less of a man." The agency said 35 percent of Chilean women experience domestic or intimate partner violence.
SERNAM's campaign will run through Nov. 25.
Based in Washington, D.C., Michael K. Lavers has appeared in the New York Times, BBC, WNYC, Huffington Post, Village Voice, Advocate and other mainstream and LGBT media outlets. He is an unapologetic political junkie who thoroughly enjoys living inside the Beltway.
