American Voices

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

1 in 3 women and 1 in 4 men have experienced some form of physical violence by an intimate partner. 95% of men who physically abuse their intimate partners also psychologically abuse them. The stories I have read from survivors supports this statement. Verbal harassment, bullying, and taunting is something you may not be able to see on the outside, and therefore could go on for a longer period of time. In order to create an art piece inspired by domestic violence I started to take photos of day to day activities. I wanted to show the unseen uncomfortability and confusion portrayed through photography. I layered two photos on photoshop in a way that felt almost off putting to the onlooker, as well as representing the two sides of a victims life, one of fear and one of recovery. I then choose to paint on top of the photographs to represent the outer weighing feeling of terror left in the victim after their fight for freedom. Photography can capture real life exactly as we see it, but violence, depression, self loathing, abuse is what we cannot. I wanted to capture real life in a manipulated way to express the invisibility that this issue commonly had.

Domestic violence, in its various forms, is explored both in Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God and the film Moonlight. Domestic violence is generally known as physical abuse, like the outright violence perpetrated against Janie by both Joe and Tea Cake in Their Eyes Were Watching God. Janie experiences multiple occasions of physical assault including slapping and pushing from her husbands Joe and Tea Cake. Joe Starks, her second husband in the novel, is perpetually rude and aggressive towards Janie throughout their relationship, and she takes many beatings and insults from him. At first, Joe seems like an honorable man as the mayor of a small town and is relatively kind to Janie, but as time goes on, he begins to feel more threatened by Janie and becomes violent towards her. Their Eyes Were Watching God is an important book to read because it shows the root causes of domestic violence, which never lie within the victim or something the victim did, but rather, with an insecurity and desire to reclaim power on the part of the abuser. Joe is a good example of a man who feels robbed of his masculinity and power by life and circumstances and uses violence to combat the fact that he feels threatened by his wife’s power, “Janie had robbed him of his illusion of irresistible maleness that all men cherish, which was terrible.” (pg.79) Joe feels like he doesn’t have any other power over Janie but his physical power, and so he uses it. In the same vein, the concept of fragile masculinity is also explored through the film Moonlight, which follows an African American boy’s journey into adulthood as he struggles with his sexuality, broken family, and search for his own identity and power. In Moonlight, violence is portrayed as a mode of expression for Chiron, who has spent his whole life bottling up his emotions until he explodes one day and unleashes violence on the school bully, resulting in his incarceration as a teenager. Chiron comes from a broken home and a mother whose drug addiction makes her unable to provide Chiron with the emotional support he needs growing up, which illustrates the fact that domestic violence is often cyclical, beginning in the home and family life. Moonlight also shows that violence can also come from a place of fear. The film shows many instances of Chiron’s fear of his mother from his childhood up until he forgives her in his adulthood. One of the most powerful scenes is when  his mother is standing over him yelling, backlit by an ominous purple light.  We cannot hear the yelling or know what she is telling him, but we can see the hurt and suffering in Chiron’s eyes when the camera moves to him. I used both Janie and Chiron’s story within my art and reflected their feelings of being lost or fearful.

I chose to further explore the issue of domestic violence by reading the stories of victims. Domestic abuse often strips victims of their voices, and so I thought it would be powerful to allow the victims to reclaim their voices by sharing their stories in their own words. Statistics are only so helpful when it comes to trying to understand domestic violence and its effects; I felt like I needed to hear their stories in order to truly understand it. By reading domestic violence survivors’ stories, I learned that often times domestic violence is not just physical but also emotional and mental. There are many actions that I don’t think people would associate with domestic violence that are considered domestic violence including psychological control, stalking, and isolation from friends and family. Many of the survivors said that it started with verbal abuse, telling them terrible things about themselves everyday until they found it believable. In the case for a young girl named Maria, she found herself in two different relationships which were unsafe. In a private interview she states, “It’s quite a terrible thing to admit that you have been in two abusive relationships. Confessing that though, I must add that calling the things right names is the first big step in recovery. Ironically, when I met my second boyfriend, I was quite aware that my previous relationship had been abusive but I wasn't able to realize that things were going the same way again. I wanted love so much that I denied all signs right from the beginning”. Domestic abuse is about reclaiming power, which means that the abuser has to strip power and confidence away from the victim, which makes it hard for the victim to seek help or believe that they deserve better. The layering of the photos in my art are also there In order to portray the two-sidedness presented in domestic violence perpetrators. Whether the violence is outright like Joe’s physical violence towards Janie in Their Eyes Were Watching God or more insidious like the neglect and emotional abuse in Moonlight, domestic violence remains a significant issue that needs to be addressed.

Education and help for domestic abuse are often not directed towards teenagers, which makes it difficult for teenagers to recognize that they are in abusive relationships and that they need to leave because it won’t get better. The same is true for same-sex relationships. Domestic violence within same-sex relationships is often not talked about, which only further isolates the victims of this violence and makes them feel as if their abuse is not legitimate or that it is somehow “okay.” I used this assignment to educate myself and the art to educate my peers. Throughout this trimester we have read and watched a lot of domestic violence occur but rarely have spoken about it. It was hard to learn about this topic but too important to not.