Friday, March 5, 2010

extra credit: 1 in 3




I went to the event “When It Hits Home” on February 24, 2010. I was only able to stay for the first segment, which was a screening of the film “1 in 3.” The film was made by an Oklahoma alumnus, Lagueria Davis. It is about intimate partner violence and all the different people that can be affected by it. The film focuses on two women: one, a worker at the battered women's shelter; and the other is a wife and mother whose husband beats her.

“1 in 3” is relevant to women's & gender studies because it is a gender issue. Dr. Irvine, who introduced the film, said that only 10% of intimate partner violence victims are male, making it mainly a women's issue. I think that if someone cares about women, they should care about intimate partner violence because it is such a huge problem affecting all kinds of women in our country today.

The film wasn't exactly connected to what we are learning in class, but it reminded me of a few things. Women learn to be subordinate to men in the same way we learn to hate our bodies. It is a lesson that starts before we can even talk, and it continues forever. If a woman is not pretty enough, it could be reason for her husband to hit her. If a woman is too pretty, he could accuse her of trying to flirt with other men and then hit her because of that.

The main thing I learned from “1 in 3” is that intimate partner violence is everywhere. It's not a black problem or a white problem, it doesn't affect only poor people or only rich people. It is all around us and the only reason we don't see at as much as that statistic suggests we would is because people hide it. Just like women of all backgrounds have body image issues, women of all backgrounds suffer from intimate partner violence.

The film itself was devastating. It was well done and I thought the script was great, but watching it was a very difficult experience. The violence was not glamorized, nor was the reaction to the violence. There were several different types of victims portrayed: poor women, white women, black women, rich women. The main victim was a wealthy white suburban wife, while the woman who helped her at the shelter was a young black woman from a middle-class background. I appreciated this because I feared it would be another “white saves black” movie like “The Blind Side.” My reaction was sadness and bitterness. I felt these things because I know that a problem like intimate partner violence is not something that can be solved by a law or a protest. It is a learned behavior; violence breeds violence. I wish that more people had been at the screening so they could better understand.

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