Allstate Foundation propagates false DV stats

From Abusegate Bob:

Nearly everyone has heard the expression, "You're in good hands with Allstate." And now the Allstate Insurance Company has set up a domestic violence grant program.

But its website features the usual parade of one-sided and flawed statistics:

"Each day in the U.S. three women die as the result of domestic violence."
"More than one in four women will experience domestic violence in her lifetime."

To see the real truth of domestic violence, see this Fact Sheet: "Seven Key Facts about Domestic Violence"

Complain to Allstate now: 1-800-255-7828
Or email: http://messaging.allstate.com/corp.aspx

But don't complain just once -- do it every hour today until Allstate posts balanced information on its website.

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Comments

"To Whom It May Concern:

After viewing The Allstate Foundation's fallacious domestic violence program web site, I will be boycotting Allstate Insurance and telling all my friends to do the same.

The Allstate Foundation needs to learn the truth about domestic violence,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAmOxvudpF8

Sincerely..."

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After forwarding this to some of my friends, I got a reply saying my email would be more effective if sent to: directors@allstate.com

He said:

"Communications to the Board of Directors
Shareholders or other interested parties who wish to communicate to the Board of Directors may do so by mail or e-mail as follows. Please indicate in your communication if you are a shareholder."

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Presently, I see this Allstate commercial more than any other on TV. It has a man playing the role of "mayhem." Even something as bad as "a hot babe out jogging" (creating mayhem) must be depicted as a man - a white man. Is this PC, sexist, racist prejudice (IMO) Allstate's best attempt at humor? Apparently, the dummy who gets in a wreck, leering (un-PC) at "the hot babe," and who bought "cut rate insurance," must also be a man - a white man.

What if "a hot babe out jogging" had been depicted as a sexy, African-American woman? I suspect Allstate's phone lines would be burning up with angry callers. I guess a white guy is the only race, class, or gender that Marx-o-centric PC will allow to be publicly vilified the way Allstate has vilified "the white man" in this commercial. Should Allstate's new, divisive, motto be, "You're into PC hate with Allstate?" Shame on Allstate. Boycott Allstate!

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Here is my response:

Thank you for taking the time to look into our domestic violence program and for your clear passion to fight this issue that impacts so many people. We try to keep our program gender-neutral and certainly do not wish to exclude any victims of domestic violence, male or female. We believe the text on the webpage you reference reflects this commitment. However, we do recognize the U.S. Department of Justice studies showing that women comprise 84% of spouse abuse victims and 86% of victims of abuse by a boyfriend or girlfriend.

Thank you for your comments. We hope this helps to clarify our position on the issue.

Sincerely,
The Allstate Foundation

________________________________________

Sent: Thursday, August 19, 2010 11:15 PM
To: Grants
Subject: ALLSTATE DOMESTIC VIOLENCE PROGRAM

I sent this last night to Allstate:

    I am a Allstate customer and have a very real concern about your program to prevent domestic violence.

    Your site at http://www.allstate.com/foundation/domestic-violence-program.aspx implies that only women are the victims of domestic violence.

    This is not true according to recent and scholarly studies. Men are just as much domestic violence victims as women but society doesn’t want to recognize this fact.

    The exclusion of male domestic violence victims is unfortunately the norm.

    Please amend your work in dealing with the very real problem of domestic violence to include the other victims of domestic violence, the male victims.

    Thank you for your time.

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You probably already know how to respond but here's this just in case.

Its a "survey of recent statistics" from the American Bar Association (Allstate would probably only use the government type of studies as opposed to the more scientific ones.)

http://new.abanet.org/domesticviolence/Pages/Statistics.aspx

You'll see the figures that Allstate told you about. I think that was a crime static, which only shows the systems bias against men. The DoJ's survey said "Approximately 1.3 million women and 835,000 men are physically assaulted by an intimate partner annually in the United States".

that suggests that in reality men make up 39% of DV victims not 16 to 14%. You could tell them that this still underscores DV towards men because people are less likely to conceptualize DV towards men as a crime.

I know I'm going to ask them if they'd post somewhere that men are much less likely to come foreword as victims, since the page is NOT gender neutral.

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SO glad I'm no longer with Allstate!

______________________________________

Vince
http://againstmisandry.blogspot.com

"What is popular is not always right, what is right is not always popular."

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Boycott allstate & give them so many calls,that they feel the heat!

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I just received this response from the "Directors."

"Your concerns are very important to Allstate. Therefore, your comments have been forwarded to the appropriate department."

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