Domestic Abuse and Sexual Assault in Popular Culture by Finley Laura L

Author:Finley, Laura L.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: ABC-CLIO
Published: 2016-01-03T05:00:00+00:00

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

Several films and television shows portray domestic abuse situations but do not call them such. That it, they describe the relationship as “rocky,” “turbulent,” “stormy,” “passionate,” “tempestuous,” “volatile,” or “acrimonious,” all of which imply that both parties are involved in the abuse. Media and popular culture also use words like “domestic dispute,” “lovers’ quarrel,” “tryst,” or that the offender was “jilted.” As Pennington (2014) notes, “The word ‘jilting’ stems from 17th-century dialect for ‘jillet,’ meaning ‘flighty girl’ and as a noun describes a ‘woman who jilts a lover.’ Its synonyms include abandon, betray, disappoint and deceive. It is emotive and evokes an idea of a poor, vulnerable man suffering from heartbreak at the hands of a woman who has left him, a ‘flighty’ woman, no doubt” (p. 27). Clearly, then, it places the blame on the victim. Pennington (2014) also takes issue with the term “battering,” as it suggests that all abuse is physical. Myths like that can result in victims not taking seriously the other types of abuse they may be enduring and may prevent others from believing that they are being abused.

Such language clearly fails to capture the true terror of abusive relationships and can serve to normalize or even romanticize abuse. Similarly, in the 1990s and prior, rapes were often referred to as “bad dates,” such as when the main character of the show Sisters, Georgie, reveals that she had been raped as a teenager. This is imperative to understanding the dynamics of domestic violence. Many women being controlled and subordinated do not think they fit the “image” of a domestic violence victim. The media are among the primary perpetuators of images and myths of domestic violence (Martin, 2013, p. 3).

For instance, a 2011 episode of Gossip Girl showed the character Chuck Bass forcing himself on his girlfriend, Blair Waldorf. When she tries to resist he punches his hand through a window, which shatters the glass, a piece of which cuts Waldorf’s face. The two have what is described as a “tumultuous relationship,” an understatement to say the least, as in a previous episode Bass pimped his girlfriend out to his uncle. Yet executive producer Josh Safran defended the portrayal, saying:

They have a volatile relationship, they always have, but I do not believe—or I should say we do not believe—that it is abuse when it’s the two of them. Chuck does not try to hurt Blair. He punches the glass because he has rage, but he has never, and will never, hurt Blair. He knows it and she knows it, and I feel it’s very important to know that she is not scared—if anything, she is scared for Chuck—and what he might do to himself, but she is never afraid of what he might do to her. Leighton and I were very clear about that. (Is Gossip Girl glamorizing …, 2011)

The term “revenge porn” has become common, in particular as celebrities like Jennifer Lawrence reveal that provocative images were leaked without their consent. While the problem

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