There is one universal truth, applicable to all countries, cultures and communities: violence against women is never acceptable, never excusable, never tolerable. - Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon

According to The National Domestic Hotline or www.hotline.org an average of "24 people per minute are victims of rape, physical violence or stalking by an intimate partner in the United States." This equals to approximately “more than “12 million women and men" each year.

And this year, Olivia Pope was one of twelve million. 

Zaruhi Ohanjanian, an Armenian sociologist combatting violence against women in television insisted: “Everything shown on TV has a direct impact on people’s mentality.” He explicitly continued relating negative experiences drawn from self-esteem and becoming more tolerant toward abuse. Ohanjanian continued that men “get used to achieving their goals through violence towards women.” While there are numerous more statistics, studies, journals and stories of violence that can be provided, the central theme is most relevant. ABC’s Scandal can no longer hide behind the veil of “this is a violent show,” as the creator, Shonda Rhimes insisted earlier this week. The creator (Shonda Rhimes) has gone on record to denounce domestic violence but Thursday, April 17, 2014 painted a very different picture. In fact, one could even suggest this was an endorsement for domestic violence.

Despite the expected ups-and-downs of Scandal season three and multiple cries of outrage, ABC has offered little support to their offended fans. At times, the show demonstrated a violent rape without any trigger warnings. Furthermore, the show continued to display violent acts against women, which were never addressed. ABC continues to enjoy exploiting their headliner, Kerry Washington as the first Black actress since 1995 to earn an Emmy nomination. Is this how you treat such a historical role? The writers’ team continues to exploit Olivia Pope’s sexuality, slut shame, degrade, demean; verbally and physically abuse her. The problem with season three was not only that it showcased abuse, but also that no direct consequence occurred. A show that has become so beloved to so many women of color and women, in general should demonstrate violence against women is not okay. In season one, Olivia Pope was revered for her willingness to take a tire iron to Abby’s abusive husband’s knees. The season three finale suggested Olivia Pope ran away with her abuser to live happily ever after.

It is the mission of #GladiatorsAgainstViolence to promote and bring attention to the unaddressed acts of violence against women as portrayed on ABC’s Scandal, and to raise awareness as to why addressing these acts - or never portraying them at all - is important. This violence has ranged from Olivia, to Mellie, to Quinn, and has primarily gone unaddressed in season 3, which is why our campaign has begun now. While we understand that Scandal, like many other examples of television programming, is and has the potential to be a violent show, it is our position that acts of violence, especially against women, should not go unaddressed. In lacking a character’s reaction and normalizing their experience, we begin to persuade viewers that this sort of behavior is casual and acceptable. Casual portrayal of violence without repercussion, whether formal or informal, is also disrespectful and trivializing to the real women that have suffered this violence. #GAV recognizes that there have been many acts of violence within Scandal, and not all perpetrated against women. However, our goal and focus is on those acts of violence that are treated casually or not addressed at all, and to bring light to the assertion that ABC and Scandal can do a better job of making sure that viewers understand that these acts are not acceptable, normal, or permissible. Our focus is solely on what we have understood as unaddressed. While we do not currently have a fixed solution to this problem, we are working to understand what can be done. It is not our goal to have Shonda Rhimes or other Scandal writers removed, and it is not our goal to remove Scandal from programming. It is also not our intent to ‘rewrite’ the show.  Rather, we would simply like to bring to attention the potentially unnoticed effects of their plot devices, and make sure that they, as well as ABC, understands - we do not support this portrayal.

Bottom line: In short, this campaign is about unaddressed and normalized violence against women on a television show that is largely consumed by women. It isn’t about the men involved. Period. By signing this petition, you are not requesting legal action, endorsing ABC, ABC’s Scandal and/or even pledging to never returning to watch ABC’s Scandal but you are committing to demonstrate violence against women must not continue to be supported in the media.