Gender-based violence in discourse . A comparative study on anti-violence communication initiatives across Europe , in Austria and Spain

Considering the efforts to resolve the widespread societal phenomenon of violence against women, awareness-raising and the role of the media comprise one of the key targets by the most important international agreements to combat it. The women’s anti-violence movement since the 1970s has made essential contributions to the recognition of violence against women as a human rights violation and is a crucial player in the field of violence prevention. Its anti-violence initiatives are of major importance. Looking at the media in general, we can observe how different programmes and formats depict similar (visual) narratives of clichéd imagination on intimate partner violence, whereas the systemic nature of the problem mostly remains hidden (Bonilla Campos, 2008; Boyle, 2005; Geiger, 2008; López Díez, 2005; Taylor, 2009; Wolf, 2013a, b). This lack of clarity is hindering the comprehension of gender-based violence as a societal phenomenon. The imagery disseminated by the women’s anti-violence movement and institutionalised entities constitutes the core subject of this article, in order to obtain insights into the supposed alternative representations appropriate to contrast the ‘malestream’ media on the subject. Their contributions to visual discourse through European-wide, Spanish and Austrian anti-violence initiatives are analysed from 2007 to 2011 before the Istanbul Convention came into force. As the social roots and the transposition of the complexity of gender-based violence constitute a rather ambiguous undertaking, the analysis aims to disclose how anti-violence initiatives shape the social accounts of male-to-female partner violence, identifying good practice examples and underlying ideological concepts.


Introduction
The women's anti-violence movement since the 1970s has made essential contributions to the recognition of violence against women as a human rights violation.As a crucial player in the field of awareness-raising, its campaigns are of major importance, particularly since among EU citizens audio-visual media are the most important source of information about domestic violence (European Commission, 2010, 1999).The recent EU-wide survey shows the extensive prevalence rates of one woman in five (22%) who is or has been involved in a relationship with a partner and who has experienced intimate partner violence.(FRA, 2014).The Council of Europe (CoE) Convention to Combat Violence against Women (Istanbul Convention) of 2011 obliges the signing members to ensure the wide dissemination of awareness-raising campaigns or programmes.
Considering the deficits and ambiguousness of mainstream media depicting similar (visual) narratives of clichéd imagination on intimate partner violence, we need alternative contributions to visual discourse.The arenas of feminist activism and social/NGO movements as NGOisation (Adelman 2008), together with institutionalised supranational and state entities like women's ministries or departments, and women's/gender sections, mutually and overlappingly shape the discourse on gender-based violence, e.g. the policies implemented by the last socialist administration in Spain from 2004-2011 have been labelled "feminist" (Gámez Fuentes and Maseda García, 2018: 11).In fact, the women's anti-violence movement and the institutionalised correspondents provide essential and indispensable contributions to combat gender-based violence, although research on the subject is difficult to find.
Therefore, the imagery disseminated by the players of the anti-violence initiatives build the core subject of my analysis, designed to obtain insights into the supposed alternative representations to contrast the clichéd 'malestream' gaze by the media.Built on the thesis of a rather ambiguous anti-vi-olence imagery, I follow the research question: How are the dispositive arrangements and the comprehension of intimate partner violence represented and shaped by the (audio)visual discourse of anti-violence against women initiatives?What differences can be identified in Austrian and Spanish initiatives? 1

Contexts of gender-based violence and visual culture
Violence against women, comprehended as a societal phenomenon, consists of different manifestations of historically unequal power relations between men and women as a consequence of several complex and interconnected social and cultural factors.To examine and de/re/construct the imagery relying on this systematic nature, a deeper comprehension of gender-based violence and the contextualisation with visual culture is necessary.

Terminology
DeKeseredy and Schwartz (2011: 4) emphasise that "the ways acts are defined have major effects on research techniques, policies, and the lives of many people".Approaches derived from feminist theory and anti-violence practices are most important in these contexts (DeKeseredy et al., 2005;DeKeseredy and Schwartz, 2011).The notion gender-based violence is to be understood as violence directed at a woman because she is a woman or violence that affects women disproportionately (UN General Assembly, 2006;Council of Europe, 2011).Despite recognising cases of interpersonal violence perpetrated by women, existing violence in same-sex relationships, or against transgender persons, prevalence evidences male-to-female intimate partner violence as the most common form of violence experienced by women globally (UN General Assembly, 2006).This paper therefore uses (male-to-female) intimate partner violence (hereinafter IPV) as a particular form of gender-based violence against women (hereinafter GBV) as appropriate terms.

Structural and Symbolic Dimensions of intimate partner violence
Concerning IPV, the physical, sexual, psychological/emotional and economic violence, including the respective dynamics and effects of violence, are assumed as the dimensions of direct/personal forms of violence (Abramsky et al., 2011;Barnett et al., 2011;DeKeseredy and Schwartz, 2011).
The indirect types of GBV derive from structural violence (Galtung, 1990;Hunnicutt, 2009) and symbolic violence (Bourdieu, 2001) as well as from discursive violence (Sauer, 2011).Representation, as such, can be a form of violence, symbolic violence perpetuating inequalities in power being 1.The analysis was part of the author's doctoral thesis -for all details on the study, see Wolf (2013b).
maintained by symbolic domination (Bourdieu, 2001;Tate, 2011).It is not the direct force but the symbolic shaping by patterns and social codes corresponding to imaginary on gender, ethnicity, social status, etc. that reinforces established systems of domination and subordination.The latter directly lead us back to the subject of the study, to undertake research on representation and imagery of IPV by the women's anti-violence movement and its institutionalised entities as a potential reproducer or de/re-constructor regarding the symbolic and discursive dimension of gender-based violence.

Gender-based Violence in the Media Revisited
For the exploration of the imagery on IPV surrounding us daily, this section provides a literature review on findings on how GBV is displayed in news formats, film and advertisements to grasp the symbolic dimension of violence.2

Gender-based Violence in the News
Apart from women being over-represented as victims of violence (Macharia et al., 2015), they are also more likely to be personified, filmed in close-ups or depicted in a sensationalised way (Carter and Weaver, 2003;Geiger, 2008;López Díez, 2005;Marin et al., 2011).IPV is more likely to be represented in the news when it can be related to an individual person (Geiger and Wolf, 2014;Marin et al. 2011).Female victims are portrayed as 'helpless', 'weak', or they are even blamed for their own victimisation; male perpetrators are represented as 'monsters' or 'pathological obsessions' or 'men, who couldn't help themselves' (Almansa and Postigo, 2003;Byerly and Ross, 2006;Geiger andWolf, 2014, 2008;Jiménez Vílchez, 2003;López Díez, 2005;Meyers, 1997;Marin et al., 2011).Despite these misconceptions, the media guidelines on GBV provide similarly profound knowledge to overcome clichés, and to reject sensationalist or compromising depictions.They emphasise the need to be aware about the immediate impact of images, and to take even more care about textual and visual messages and possible stereotypes or stipulation of prejudices.Included in these recommendations are the diversification of sources of information, the use of adequate concepts and terminology and also more invisible aspects such as psychological and economic violence.Moreover, the recommendations claim to contextualise information, to inform that perpetrating GBV has consequences for aggressors and to promote training for communication professionals (Consell de l'Audiovisual de Catalunya, 2011;UNIFEM, 2003;UN Women, undated;Geiger and Wolf, 2014).

More clichéd representations of gender-based violence
Advertising reproduces thousands and thousands of images, reinforcing heterosexual stereotypes of masculinity and femininity, mostly relating to men's sexual desires.The objectification of women is manifest in symbolic codes of sexualised gender roles, cutting them up into parts (thighs, legs, breasts), and fetishising the female body, comparable to pornographic representations (Selva and Solá, 2003;Schroeder and Borgerson, 1998).These dominant constructions of 'desirable', 'ideal' femininity to attract male fantasies have been criticised as contributing to male violence against women (Carter and Weaver, 2003: 123).Violence has become an aesthetic space recurrently appearing in advertising, as well as in the work of internationally recognised fashion photographers (Castillo Martín, 2008: 126).
Films display male violence against women as a core element of narrative, showing the violent act as abnormal incidents, sensationalising and eroticising victims (Bernadez et al., 2008;Carter and Weaver, 2003;Frus, 2001;Guarinos, 2003).Film narratives not only tell a story but also stand for a repetitively displayed symbolic order, reinstalling engendered power relations and myths on GBV.(Frus, 2001;Eiter, 2006).The analysis of 146 movies released from 1978-2009, with a total of 147 hero characters evaluated, shows that there were more than two male superheroes for each female, and male heroes used violence to resolve conflict more frequently than females, who were portrayed as significantly more helpless and afraid (Miller et al., 2016).
Acknowledging the increase in visibility of domestic violence in English-language cinema, Wheeler (2009) advocates reflection on cinematic representation.On the impact of the media and who we see as the victim, Hayes and Luther (2018) discuss how the intersection of multiple marginalised statuses is more likely to deny a person's status as a true victim.They conclude that the new media are being used to push back against victimisation and perceptions of victimisation but also underline the media's potential to positively shape understandings of crime and victimisation.

Revisiting anti-violence campaigns
Information on campaigns provided by the anti-violence movement is evidently under-researched; this subsection can only exemplify a few findings.
In Austria, Weiß (2005) asked 200 journalism students about anti-violence campaigns; 32% confirmed that the information of campaigns would change their attitude towards GBV.A research study on IPV and public relations indicates a lack of knowledge, persistent misconceptions and the desire for more media coverage on the topic of IPV (Renner, 2009).
In Spain, Camarero and Marcos (2012: 199) analysed public perception of TV campaigns and suggest that television commercials are precisely tools which can be highly effective in raising awareness about GBV, as they achieve major dissemination and social significance.Berlanga Fernández (2011) explores the evolution of 46 campaigns from 2000 to 2008, especially underlining the development of audio-visual resources.She outlines the fact that, after initially rather monotone texts and images, more recent campaigns provide diversity in formats and messages.
One of the most elaborate assets comprises the virtual knowledge centre to end violence against women of UN Women (undated), which includes detailed guidance for campaigns.UN Women aims (1) to make clear that GBV cannot be tolerated; (2) to promote gender justice, and models of masculinity and femininity based on equality and human rights; (3) to provide information about support and how survivors can claim their rights.The campaign tool kit promotes multi-sector and multi-level approaches.Anti-violence campaigns cannot only support victims and promote social change, but also, if based on these principles, can enable the introduction of an alternative discourse to the mainstream media.
To summarise, despite increased visibility as an issue of public interest, GBV continues to be represented more as an individual problem than in its social complexity.Loss-making news reportage and exceeding evidence of symbolic violence reaffirm the clichéd imagination.Belief in gender inequality is promoted by Hollywood movies, video games and certain music videos.(DeKeseredy, 2011: 123) Violent media messages tend to increase tolerance of sexism, including GBV (Barnett et al., 2011;DeKeseredy, 2011).Gámez Fuentes and Maseda García (2018) state, on the "Spanish miracle" of progress in gender equality, that feminist organisations have been the main sources of information and interpretation for the media to explain the implications in order to fight GBV.Their publication draws not only upon the perspective of the victim as a subject but also on the state, the community and representation in a context of accountability.

Analysis: The visual discourse of anti-violence initiatives to end intimate partner violence
Comprehending 'the visual' as an arena for stipulating symbolic violence against women, representations of GBV emerge from dispositive power arrangements within en-gendered institutional practices in visual culture, and in the juridical and political system as a matrix for the creation and construction of meaning.Anti-violence campaigns/initiatives seem to be an appropriate instrument to counteract and introduce alternative discourse elements on GBV.

Research approach: Encompassing the visual of gender-based violence
The research approach is built on Foucault's concept of apparatus or dispositif (Foucault 1980), including respective interpretations (Deleuze, 1989) and methodological implications (Rose, 2001;Jäger and Maier, 2009).Exploring the interlinkage of GBV and visual culture, I assume the media as an apparatus for transposing -deforming or transforming -presumed meanings (Mersch, 2004) and define the media's deployments and screens as reflecting surfaces of intersecting gendered apparatuses.On this basis, I establish the images as elements and vehicles of dispositives (Maasen et al., 2006).

Method and sample
The mixed method approach is based on feminist methodology (van Zoonen, 2002), critical visual methodology (Rose 2001) and discourse/dispositive analyses (Jäger and Maier, 2009).The research consists of (1) explicit procedures and choices; (2) comparative elements as "a means to expand the generality of the results", and of (3) exceptions to basic findings -'outliers' -as particularly useful, telling, "something about the generality of the study and which can function as protective devices against holistic fallacy of perceiving too much coherence in data" ( van Zoonen, 2002: 144).
Appropriate to demonstrate the visual landscape of anti-violence imagery, the sample encompasses the entire visual discourse created by anti-violence initiatives (i.e.individual activists, NGOs, institutionalised entities like women's ministries or departments, women's/gender section of UN or European organisations).A wider range of the sample with all major elements (a mixed and inhomogeneous sample of different media, formats and genres) allows a more complete view of the visibility constructed by the anti-violence movement.
The (audio)visual material is derived from initiatives provided in Austria, Spain or Europe-wide from 2007 to 2011, explicitly initiated to combat IPV. 3 As further selection criteria, the material involves a reference to at least one of the dimensions of interpersonal or structural violence, has online access and is provided by the most prominent and representative initiators or constitutes a contrasting example.The sample was limited to posters, news ads, video spots (TV, cinema).Examples to complete the criteria of 'exception' can also consist of free cards, documentaries, theatre plays, or exposi-  (Wolf, 2013b) In accordance with Jäger and Maier ( 2009), I conducted the analyses in three steps; (1) the structural analysis, (2) the grouping 5 and (3) the detailed analysis of typical fragments.Specific analysis charts were developed to cope with different forms and types of items 6 , identifying key themes, outlining characteristics and sub-topics (key words, recurring visual images), and analysing the frequency of their appearance.To question the (re)production and shaping of social meaning, I focused on the social modality of the image site.

Results: The visual landscape of anti-violence campaigns 2007-2011
The results illustrate the audio-visual panorama created by feminist policies of governmental organisations such as the institutionalised site of the anti-violence initiatives, as well as of major NGOs, and some individual activists.It is important to note that the analysis covers all national Austrian, Spanish, and European-wide knowledge circulation through campaigns/initiatives, including some contrasting examples, i.e. the visual landscape transposing and shaping social meaning constructed by the anti-violence movement and feminist policies of their institutional correspondents.

Key concepts and themes: Predomination of physical violence and victimising images
If we look at the findings, 11 out of 14 initiators with 49 out of 65 visuals, use depictions of (potential) women victims and/or women survivors, i.e. the most predominating theme and motif found in the sample of a five-year period.Moreover, 40% (26) of the visuals and 9 of the 14 initiators represent victimising motifs and themes: crumpled, deformed, anxious faces, women with black eyes, bleeding injuries or scars, women in dangerous or desperate situations, through scenes where women tell about their experience of partner violence, through witnesses' testimony or news reports or the commemoration of cases of femicides, through comments about physical violence by consultants in the help services, through scenes of direct physical violence or 4. See Annex 1, table of visuals, for the complete list of visuals including numbering abbreviations of each of the initiators (Ix) and of each visual item (Vx). 5.For the results of the grouping including all the different images/depictions analysed, see Wolf (2013b: 235-283) or contact the author.6. See Annex 2 for the analysis charts.
textual reference about injuries.Explicit reference to physical violence by direct visual, verbal or textual reference to the physical violent act is deployed by traces of blood in a realistic depiction (I8: V50); by injuries or black eyes in natural or symbolic depictions (for instance I3: V10, I5: V20, V21, I7: V44), by scenes of women experiencing direct violence by their partners (for instance I4: V17, still min.00:00:26); by showing their scars (I8: V48); by vox pops of diverse young men bearing witness to their father's, brother's, friend's violence against their female partner involving cases of IPV (I7: V40); by footage of news reports about intimate partner femicide (I11: V56, Isabel Coixet); comments documenting violent experiences through consultant of help services (I3: V12, AOEF, and I4: V18); by commemoration of the victims of intimate partner femicide, by stating name and location of the women before starting the performances and placing a red flower on the stage for them ( I13, Dones de blanc), or the red life-size cardboard stand-ups with sheets of victims' stories (V19, by I4 AOEF); scenes of enacting, performing direct physical violence (I8: V49, I8: V51); and by textual references (I1: V1 with a text layer with broken ribs, cigarette burns, etc.), by using the words kill, slap, beat, abuse in a graphic design (I1, V3).
Only half (7) of the initiators in not even a quarter (23%) of the visuals (15) showed empowering representations of women as (potential) victims or as survivors of IPV.The empowering depictions are represented by deploying women survivors taking action by calling the helpline number in case of violence, through their statement, by leaving their violent partner, or seeking help in a women's shelter (I3: V12, equal to I4: V18; I4: V14; I7: V44, V45, V46, V47, V30, V32.Otherwise, the visual items emphasise or focus on women survivors (I8: V48, I9: V52, V53;), showcase solidarity and/or speaking up together (in a natural scene I7: V30, I12, V61, abstractly, I13: V63).Other items show or perform the dynamics of violence and the process of liberation (I8: V48, V49; I13: V63).
Visual items relating also to male views or male aggressors can be found in nearly half of the initiators (6) but in only a quarter (16) of the visual items.Four initiators refer in 7 visuals to violent aggressors and 2 initiators to men promoting non-violence in 4 visuals, i.e. male speaking out about zero tolerance in only 6% of the women's movement anti-violence initiatives.
Besides gender-based partner violence being a societal problem with multiple dimensions, two thirds of the initiators (10) refer in nearly half of the items (32) to physical violence which constitutes the most common concept of all initiatives.Nearly one third (21) of the visuals also refer to psychological violence and only 4 initiators in 6 visuals, i.e. less than 10%, refer to sexu-al violence.Initiatives or campaigns relating to indirect forms of violence and to structural or symbolic dimensions are launched by 5 initiators and in 10% (7) of the items.
More complex issues like moral support, solidarity and social responsibility can be found in a third (23) of the items implemented by 4 initiators.We find women's statements on solidarity and/or speaking up together (in a natural scene I7: V30, I12, V61, abstractly, I13: V63); or women showing/performing the dynamics of violence and the process of liberation (I8: V48, V49; I13: V63); or survivors explaining their experiences of violence and process of liberation (I8: V48).( 2) The statements of men focus on solidarity by speaking up against violent behaviour of men and defining male violence as unmanly, as "non-masculinity" ("dejas de ser un hombre") [you stop being a man], ("¿Crees que eso es un hombre?Yo no.") [Do you think that's a man?I do not.],(I7: V28, V31, V40); prominent men taking the right position against violence (I6: V25, see figure 2) or by male witnesses through vox pops of diverse young men bearing witness to their father's, brother's, friend's violence, exploring how they have failed to take agency and act against violence (I7: V40, for corresponding poster see figure 3, I7: V41).Solidarity and 0 tolerance is also promoted through a scene where friends act in solidarity to defend the victim (I7: V45, see figure 1); or by appealing to unite in rejecting the perpetrator, (I7: V28-V33, Zero tolerance for (male) abusers, "ante el maltratador todas y todas a una" [Against the abuser, every woman, every man, in unison]; or by demanding responsibility and solidarity, "It is up to you and the rest of society to make sure they have nothing to be afraid of", "Against abuse, every woman, every man, in unison" (I7: V34-V39); or by creating an understanding of the effects of violence (I7: V34-V36, I8: V48; I13: V62a,b, V63).Other initiatives refer to social responsibility by involving the audience, offering participation in the campaign, like initiatives I6 and I7: everyone was invited to upload a photo of their legs (I6) or with the red card (I7) on the campaign websites (see figure 2, figure 3).Initiative I8 (V49) invited people to symbolically take action: at the end of the theatre play each spectator was invited to turn on a light placed at her/his seat in order to enlighten the future for the women survivors.By performing solidarity and support, Dones de blanc demonstrates empowering solidarity through performance (I13: V63, see figure 4).Themes like future prospects or transitory visions (e.g. a life free from violence) are provided by 6 initiators and in only 8 visual items.
From 2007 to 2011, only two [sic!] European-wide campaigns address IPV.The Create4theUN ad campaign (I1) 7 shows divergent results.The expert jury voted for 'invisible violence' (I1: V1), a close-up of an unmarked perfect face, referring to severe physical violence in its semantic text.The best image (I1: V2) voted by the audience shows the face of a woman in two halves, one marked, crumpled and one aestheticised, textually stating that violence is non-cultural and non-religious.The CoE raises awareness on the home as an unsafe place (I2: V4); their encouragement to speak out is counter-indicated by the image of a crumpled, victimising female face, isolating and othering victims.
On the country level, the initiators in Austria tend to victimise representations of women and most of the initiators stick to a rather uniform type of women, neglecting diversity except in two items.Half of the initiators show male aggressors.Rather sticking to images of explicit physical violence, they 7. Details, see ANNEX: initiator 1. also relate to psychological (3 items), sexual (4 items, which is two thirds of the total) and some forms of indirect violence (4 items, which is half of the total).Moral support, solidarity or social responsibility is represented in 2 items; prospects or transitory visions could not be found.
The Spanish initiatives show a different result.Women as (potential) victims or women survivors are depicted in their diversity (age, appearance, ethnicity, etc.) (15 items); they are less shown by victimising (9 items) but more by empowering (12 items) depictions.Spanish initiators mostly refer to physical violence; however, in a more implicit (13 visuals) than explicit (8 visuals) representation.In half of the items (20), they refer to physical violence and in more than 40% also to psychological violence.Sexual violence could not be found.Indirect violence is shown in only 3 items by 2 initiators.Moral sup-

Discussion: Differences and commonalities of the European, Austrian and Spanish anti-violence awareness-raising initiatives
On the European level, I can indicate deficient results with only two [sic!] European-wide campaigns initiated by the Council of Europe (CoE), and United Nations Regional Information Centre (UNRIC), in collaboration with UN WOMEN.Their depictions draw an image of the passive victim, without voice and agency, and so re-establish the Symbolic Order with "the silent image of a woman still tied to her place as bearer, not maker of meaning" (Mulvey, 1975: 7).However, they break the myth of home as a safe place and with cultural or religious explanations of violence.The European Union fails as a player of knowledge transfer and awareness-raising towards a life free from violence for women, which therefore seemingly constitutes a 'non-issue', not having implemented any campaign at all.
In Austria, the most significant result in comparison to Spain is that the government provides neither governmental campaigns nor specific monitoring.There is no legal basis for developing communication strategies or continuous information policies.The Women's Minister is situated in the Chan-8.All detailed results, see Wolf (2013b).cellor's Chamber without an appropriate budget; however, Austria has an exemplary NGO landscape of autonomous women's help services with state funding.The second significant difference to Spain is the non-existence of survivors' groups or organisations participating in public discourse on IPV.Survivors in Austria are not only silenced in public discourse; they also do not appear in an active, empowering role in the anti-violence initiatives.Although displaying sequences of a few seconds of survivors calling the helpline against male violence, or seeking support in women's shelters, they are represented weak, almost silenced, failing to give rise to the survivors' voice.
Common in Austria's and the two Europe-wide initiatives, we can observe that their visual discourse constitutes IPV as a 'women's issue' rather than a societal challenge, depicting the women as isolated victims without further social contexts.The perspective of a life free from violence, future perspectives, social responsibility, and the empowering solidarity, comprise 'non-issues'.The exceptions here are the intellectual discourses on structural violence by the video spots of Klappe auf (I3), also criticising institutional violence and discrimination, showcasing the value and good practice of autonomous women's NGOs.
Considering Spain, we find a very distinct situation.The Spanish anti-violence legislation incorporates various monitoring instruments and communication policies including the Observatory and the delegation for gender violence, guaranteeing continued information and campaigns.Thus, we significantly find a well-balanced implementation of awareness-raising by launching current statistics on the figures of intimate partner femicide, and of contextualised anti-violence initiatives in the form of posters, radio and video spots.However, we can observe a chronically underfinanced NGO landscape.Nevertheless, the most significant examples of exemplary good practice are the campaigns of the Ministry for Equality (I7).They are characterised by contextualising depictions of (potential) victims or survivors, pointing beyond the individual dimension, establishing IPV as a societal problem, illustrating mini-narrations including victims, survivors, perpetrators, witnesses, children, the social environment and society.The Ministry for Equality, with its specific communication and awareness-raising policies, constitutes the visibility and sayability of the eradication of violence against women as the task of everybody, creating a transitory vision of social change, shaping the accounts of the social world based on gender equality.Moreover, displaying reflections of witnesses of GBV, men as colleagues, friends, relatives of victims and perpetrators transmit acts of solidarity, state and social responsibility challenging the dispositive power arrangements.
In addition, the anti-violence initiatives on the level of the Autonomous Communities (e.g.Catalonia), NGOs, and individual contributions cover multi-facetted aspects of IPV.Initiatives of survivor NGOs focus on the transformation from victim to survivor, which constitutes a shift, converting women experiencing male-to-female IPV into active players of the anti-violence movement.The impulse of resistance and political struggle is main-tained by, among others, the Plataforma contra les Violències de Gènere (United Platform against Gender-based Violence).They underline and accentuate the governmental practice of regularly providing statistics, i.e. the visibility and sayability of intimate partner femicide, by regular public acts of commemoration of the victims 9 .In the sense of Butler (2009), women murdered by their (ex)partners are constituted as grievable lives, not only on the individual dimension as members of family, friends or colleagues, but also for society.We find real responsiveness, the victims of intimate partner femicide are publicly enunciated as an account of societal loss, grievable by a name and hometown.Shaping the accounts of the social world through disclosure and contextualisation, the Spanish anti-violence initiatives predominantly encompass the phenomenon as a societal task, involving and depicting it as such without othering women experiencing violence.
As a common significance on all levels we can observe the entanglement with gendered body norms and aestheticisation emerging from the beauty and fashion industry, as well as from the film and advertising industry.This leads to the conclusion that, even being a victim or survivor of violence, one has to be represented with a perfect face, a perfect body, and a perfect appearance.
Returning to the differences, it seems that communication and visual practices in Austria are based on a rather narrow approach, focusing on the protection of fundamental rights to life, health and freedom of victims, which also reflects the grounds and foundation of the anti-violence legislation and the mission of the NGOs.This approach implemented in Austria tackles the victim's rights to support and protection from violence.In a different way, the Spanish anti-violence legislation is based on the understanding of GBV rooted in and emerging from patriarchal structures.

Conclusion: Towards social change or reproduction of the same old story?
Male-to-female IPV, as a gendered issue of pandemic proportions with high prevalence in all countries, constitutes a complex societal problem not an individual one, with multiple direct and indirect dimensions.Considering the imagery and communication on IPV, the research question was whether and how feminist efforts can disrupt the epidemic symbolic violence through clichéd and stereotyped representations of violent acts against women.The literature review in section III evidences a subtle repetitive reproduction of myth, trivialisation, instrumentalisation and aestheticisation of violence against women which dissolves the complex social reality and impedes a profound understanding.Therefore, policies and measures of information and awareness-raising require consideration about the very landscape of visual culture as a harbinger of normalised symbolic violence against women constituted through the permanent repeti-9.The commemoration events were not included in the sample as there is no specific material provided.
tion of misleading discursive knowledge on the subject.The (audio)visual material provided through anti-violence initiatives has been considered as potentially contrasting and disrupting the very mainstream discourse.
The autonomous women's anti-violence movement and institutionalised entities with feminist policies provide essential and indispensable contributions to shape the (audio)visual discourse on GBV.However, the analyses of their audio-visual material in a five-year period show ambiguous tendencies and can only partly be assumed as disruptions or alternatives to the 'malestream' of media discourse.Certainly, 'victims' as such are the persons at risk and are those that suffer the effects and consequences of a violent partner the most.However, to a great extent people are now aware of IPV across the EU.Thus, depicting the woman as a (potential) victim of IPV as the most common visual message is not the most purposeful and target-oriented topic about which to inform.The anti-violence initiatives and campaigns are neither based on empirical findings nor on the professional guides introduced in section III, except for most of the governmental campaigns in Spain.
Instead of referring to individualisation and victimisation, campaigns could focus on multi-sector, multi-level approaches transmitting the complexity of GBV, dissolving the boundaries between victim, survivor and non-victim, to end the 'othering' and secondary victimisation of women experiencing violence.We need a social climate where victims and survivors can speak without running the risk of being subject to discrimination or feelings of shame.A public sphere and society where speaking out constitutes liberation, empowerment, solidarity and social recognition, as demonstrated by the survivors' NGOs in Spain (I9, I14).In the optimal case, (visual) communication on IPV creates responsiveness and has immediate effect by stirring up emotions and psychological impact, as well as the transfer of complex meanings.Explaining violence, facilitating a deep and profound understanding, needs the telling of stories, comprehensive narrations, as we know from visual culture, the film and advertising industry.These stories necessitate a distinct conduct to dominant fiction, a new symbolic order, transposing social accounts of complex understandings without dichotomising.
Thus, to end my article, I advocate further policies to reflect on the present meaning and constitution of campaigns against GBV, considering the existing empirical findings on communication in relation to this subject as well as on the professional guides provided (see above section III.C.).Obviously, transformation and social change also means focusing on how to create a profound understanding on the dynamics and effects of IPV, on involving society and evolving its solidarity, providing options for accountability and fostering deeper sociocultural changes.After analysing the period before the ratifications of the Istanbul convention, a follow-up project on anti-violence initiatives after the first period of evaluation of the CoE treaty 2016-2010 would be of great interest to discuss further developments.To conclude, I appeal to constellations against violence -since complex problems need new solutions and the shaping of transitory visions.

Figure 4 .
Figure 4. V63, I13 Dones de blanc, photos of the performance, supporting and uniting scenes

Figure 3 .
Figure 3. V41, I7; compilation of different posters provided by the initiator and political / social field in which this initiative has emerged b) Target 3. STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS and INTERPRETATION a) Elements, themes, concepts (key themes, sub-topics, recurring images, compositional notes) b) Analysis and interpretation -understandings and key conceptions of intimate partner violence of …, b) Concepts of …, c) Concepts of …, d) Concepts of … e) Other peculiarities 3. The selection criteria for the research period were European campaigns marking relevant supranational activities.The CoE launches the campaign to stop domestic violence against women in 2006 starting communication activities mainly in 2007.In 2011, the signing of the Istanbul Convention took place and the United Nations Information Centres around Europe (UNRIC) and UN Women launch the ad competition, "No to Violence Against .Accordingly, I analysed all European-wide, and all national campaigns in Spain and Austria from 2007-2011, adding some contrasting examples on the regional level (Barcelona, Seville, Vienna).The (audio)visual material of 29 anti-violence initiatives by 14 initiators (four Austrian, eight Spanish, two Women", to be published in the main European newspapers.Austria and Spain have been selected for their outstanding anti-violence legislation, being CoE Member States obliged to implement the CoE campaign and signing the Istanbul Convention (Details, seeWolf,  2013b).tions

Table 1 .
Overview: Characteristics found and key concepts