By: Emma Oravec
Feature Image: Hellman, Allision. “Edward Cullen.” Quora, 20 Nov. 2016, http://www.quora.com/Why-do-people-hate-%E2%80%9CTwilight%E2%80%9D-so-much.
Intro
The purpose of my project was to bring awareness and to educate others on the types of abusive men that we see in films and how they can affect our lives. This connects to gender studies because it is about how men can emotionally and physically abuse women, and how they can sometimes get this idea from films. It is also connected to gender studies because it alert women to signs of intimate partner violence.
Main Points:
- Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) is shown in many types of media, including film.
- There are different types of tropes used in film that use domestic violence. And the one I will be focusing on is called “The Abused Lover” (TV Tropes).
- The Abused Lover is someone in a relationship that was abused, or still is abused, by their partner.
- The Abused Lover I focused on is the lover being abused before they fall in love. I’ve seen this in many movies such as Rebecca, Beauty and the Beast, Twilight, The Breakfast Club, Passengers, etc.
- My project focuses on Maxim DeWinter, The Beast, and Edward Cullen.
- Before their relationship, Maxim was always pushing the new Mrs. DeWinter around and treated her essentially like a child, telling her where to go and when.
- You may be shocked to see that there is IPV in the “greatest animated love story”. But yes, Disney uses violence and manipulation as entertainment for audiences, and the basis of Belle and Beast’s love story. Before they fell in love, Beast was selfish and quick to anger. His anger problem is shown in his outbursts at Belle and at his castle servants. Beast breaks things when angry and threatens Belle with violence and never seeing her father again. And he blames her stubbornness on his angry outbursts. He also denies Belle food for not cooperating with him. This taps into another trope where the good girl has to fix the bad boy. It was Belle’s job (for the plot) to fall in love with him and “fix” his temper (and the curse). Even the servants of the castle are complacent in his violence because he’s “troubled” so they sympathize with him and excuse his violence (Olson).
- And then there’s Edward and Bella (I’m seeing a trend with these “bell” names); the modern “Romeo and Juliet”. NOT. Before they fall in love, Edward is totally a creep. He controls where she is and where she goes, he isolates her from others to “protect her” and breaks into her room every night to watch her sleep. I’m swooning already.
- So these fine fellows are examples of men who abuse their lovers. And are also clear signs on IPV. And when women and men and children watch these relationships, it normalizes the violence. It tells men that it’s okay to control their partner, it teaches women that abuse is a normal part of a relationship, and teaches children what relationships should be like, when that’s all wrong. Abuse has no place in a relationship, emotional or physical.
Background Information:
Intimate partner violence is one of the most common health problems in the world. And it can take many forms: “psychological or verbal abuse, threats, physical violence, spousal rape, and death… intimidation, isolation and even companion animal abuse” (Lenahan 190). “As many as one in three women will experience some form of violence during their lives” (Lenahan 190). Although mostly women are affected, male victim cases are vastly underreported. Some factors that go into IPV are dependency, jealousy, and substance abuse. In a domestic abuse relationship, it is often hard for the victim to leave; one reason being religious beliefs and values. These religious values hold the sanctity of marriage and commitment to a high degree and can make it difficult for victims to leave their partners. Millions of children every year are exposed to IPV as well and this can affect their perception of healthy relationships (Lenahan).
Medium/Methodology
Movies today have a lot of “cultural work” meaning that they can change culture. Films can reflect or project ideas to their audiences. And when these films with abused lovers are shown to the audience, it can change the culture around relationships, for the worse. I chose to do this topic because films that excuse abuse for love are very confusing to me when I watch them. If I was Belle, I’d be terrified of the Beast and what he could do to me. But since he saved her life that one time, the audience excused his violence for the romantic plot. This can tie into the theory that film imitates life and life imitates film, as well. I chose to do a poster because I love to draw and color. I chose to color the men on my poster in a particular way because they are all different types of movies. Rebecca is an older movie so it’s in black and white, and thus Maxim is only colored with black and white. Beauty and the Beast is a more recent animated film, so I used sharp clean coloring to convey the animation. Twilight is a modern, live-action film, so I used colored pencils to convey the soft colors of real-life people. I chose films from different times because throughout the years, this trope hasn’t changed that much.
Research
The research I did helped me identify films that used IPV and all the different forms that IPV can take. The one article I read specifically about Beauty and the Beast really helped my point out ways that Beast is violent towards Belle and how the castle servants are complacent in his violence, which is something I never put together before. This helped me be able to identify other forms of IPV in other films as well. The articles strictly about IPV helped me learn about IPV and get a basic background of what IPV entails.
Bibliography
Hardwicke, Catherine, director. Twilight. Temple Hill Entertainment, 2008.
Hitchcock, Alfred, director. Rebecca. Released by CCM Films., 1940.
Lenahan, Patricia M. “Intimate Partner Violence: What Do Movies Have to Teach Us?” International Review of Psychiatry, vol. 21, no. 3, June 2009, pp. 189–199. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1080/09540260902747938.
Olson, Kathryn M. “An Epideictic Dimension of Symbolic Violence in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast : Inter-Generational Lessons in Romanticizing and Tolerating Intimate Partner Violence.” Quarterly Journal of Speech, vol. 99, no. 4, Nov. 2013, pp. 448–480. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1080/00335630.2013.835491.
“Romanticized Abuse.” TV Tropes, tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ Romanticized Abuse.
Trousdale, Gary and Kirk Wise, directors. Beauty and the Beast. Buena Vista Pictures, 1991.
Gender and Diversity in Film 