2008 Woodie Awards
Domestic violence in film
Ashley Moreland/Online Reporter
Issue date: 10/26/07 Section: Sexual Abuse Awareness
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Ike Turner didn't receive criticism well when his wife, Tina, said she thought many of his songs sounded the same. Moments later Tina was on the ground, trying to protect her face from her husband's blows as her children stood watching in a doorway.
This scene from the movie What's Love Got to Do With It illustrates what comes to mind when many think about domestic violence.
Coinciding with Domestic Violence Awareness Month, Dr. Suzanne Enck-Wanzer, professor of communications and women's studies at Eastern, presented her lecture Love is a Battlefield: Metaphors of War and Domestic Violence Tuesday evening.
Enck-Wanzer showed clips from the movies What's Love Got to Do With It, Sleeping With the Enem and Enough to illustrate popular culture's idea of domestic violence. The purpose of her lecture, however, was to show that the scope of domestic violence is much wider than just physical abuse.
"We don't think about this larger cycle of power and control," she said.
Some domestic violence is physical abuse like in the movies, but it doesn't have to look like that, she said. In fact, physical abuse tends to not manifest until there has been a long pattern of psychological and emotion abuse. Unfortunately many people don't think about or recognize these other types of abuse.
"People tend to not call it domestic violence until there is substantial physical abuse," Enck-Wanzer said.
Enck-Wanzer used the Duluth Model to show the cycle of non-physical abuse. The model elaborates upon forms of abuse such as intimidation, emotional abuse, isolation and using the male privilege.
Because people don't focus on other types of abuse, she said that intervention usually doesn't happen until the abuse has reached the physical stage.
While this may help individual cases, it does not solve the problem of domestic violence, which starts with other forms of abuse. Enck-Wanzer's goal is to inform others of the cycle of abuse so that the problem may be stopped sooner.
Enck-Wanzer became aware of domestic violence at a young age. Her parent's owned a bar where she heard customers talking about abuse. She started working in women's shelters in 1990. She is currently working on a book, Love is a Battlefield, which expands on the issues of her lecture.
This scene from the movie What's Love Got to Do With It illustrates what comes to mind when many think about domestic violence.
Coinciding with Domestic Violence Awareness Month, Dr. Suzanne Enck-Wanzer, professor of communications and women's studies at Eastern, presented her lecture Love is a Battlefield: Metaphors of War and Domestic Violence Tuesday evening.
Enck-Wanzer showed clips from the movies What's Love Got to Do With It, Sleeping With the Enem and Enough to illustrate popular culture's idea of domestic violence. The purpose of her lecture, however, was to show that the scope of domestic violence is much wider than just physical abuse.
"We don't think about this larger cycle of power and control," she said.
Some domestic violence is physical abuse like in the movies, but it doesn't have to look like that, she said. In fact, physical abuse tends to not manifest until there has been a long pattern of psychological and emotion abuse. Unfortunately many people don't think about or recognize these other types of abuse.
"People tend to not call it domestic violence until there is substantial physical abuse," Enck-Wanzer said.
Enck-Wanzer used the Duluth Model to show the cycle of non-physical abuse. The model elaborates upon forms of abuse such as intimidation, emotional abuse, isolation and using the male privilege.
Because people don't focus on other types of abuse, she said that intervention usually doesn't happen until the abuse has reached the physical stage.
While this may help individual cases, it does not solve the problem of domestic violence, which starts with other forms of abuse. Enck-Wanzer's goal is to inform others of the cycle of abuse so that the problem may be stopped sooner.
Enck-Wanzer became aware of domestic violence at a young age. Her parent's owned a bar where she heard customers talking about abuse. She started working in women's shelters in 1990. She is currently working on a book, Love is a Battlefield, which expands on the issues of her lecture.
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