Transgender woman posts powerful video speaking out against domestic violence

The video has been viewed over 70,000 times in just a few days

YouTuber Julie Vu posted the video to draw attention to the problem of domestic violence against men and women. (PRINCESSJOULES/YouTube)

A transgender YouTuber has recorded a powerful video drawing attention to the issue of domestic violence, focusing particularly on how it affects transgender people.

Julie Vu, who goes by the username PrincessJoules, is a Canadian transgender woman, who usually posts videos about makeup, fashion, and transgender issues. She has more than 250,000 subscribers, and her videos have racked up over 30 million views to date.

Her latest video, posted earlier this week, has already been viewed more than 70,000 times, and shows Vu's face covered with fake bruises and cuts created with makeup, which she then wipes away to symbolise her victory over domestic violence.

She writes: "The wiping away for the marks and buises symbolises someone who is living in fear and does not know how to escape from it."

The figures quoted in the video are truly shocking. It says how one in four women will experience domestic violence during their lifetimes, how this figure increases to one in two amongst transgender people, and how 40 per cent of all domestic violence victims are men.

Although referring to North American figures, the UK statistics are similarly bleak. According to Safe Lives, a national anti-domestic violence charity, about 13 per cent of the UK population, both women and men, are victims of domestic violence each year.

And in 2013-14, police recorded 887,000 incidents of domestic violence in England and Wales. As many cases go unreported (high-risk victims live with domestic abuse for an average of around two and a half years before getting help), the real figure is much higher.

Although these figures are high, as in Vu's experience, statistics of domestic violence, verbal abuse and harassment are much higher amongst the transgender population.

A Freedom of Information request by the Press Association in 2014 found that many of the UK's biggest police forces, including the Metropolitan Police, Avon and Somerset Police, and Merseyside Police, recorded a rise in transphobic hate crimes over the previous year - the Met recorded a 44 per cent rise in 2014 when compared to the previous year.

Women suffering from domestic violence in England can call the English National Domestic Violence Helpline on 0808 2000 247, at any time. For Wales, the number is 0808 80 10 800, for Scotland, 0800 0271234, and for Northern Ireland, 0800 917 1414.

Men suffering from domestic violence in the UK can call the Men's Advice Line on 0808 801 0327.