Students Educating and Empowering for Diversity (SEED) held its first event of the year, called “Domestic Violence in the Media,” on Oct. 9. The SEED team led a discussion on the misconceptions about domestic violence in the media and how they lead to societal stigmas.
SEED began the meeting by showing a video of bystanders’ reactions to domestic abuse in public. The video depicted two separate instances of domestic abuse, both of which were performed by actors.
The first altercation involved a man verbally and physically attacking a woman. Within a minute or two, bystanders had rushed to the aid of the women and threatened the man that they would call the police.
The second altercation involved the same woman and man, but the woman was attacking the man verbally and physically. In response to this simulation, bystanders laughed and made no efforts to stop the woman or to help the man. According to the Centers for Disease Control, over 40 percent of the victims of physical domestic abuse are men.
Following this video, SEED led a discussion about domestic abuse and societal stigmas.
“I think the [saddest] part [of the video] was that it wasn’t that surprising to see people not react as dramatically when the roles were reversed,” freshman Jessa Wais said.
Sophomore Ellie Park pointed out that given the stigma associated with abuse against men, male victims probably experience the effects of abuse differently than female victims.
“It makes me wonder what different repercussions the two sexes go through after [experiencing] domestic violence because... I would assume that they are very different,” Park said.
Junior Diamond Hale then led an icebreaker activity in which she read a series of statements that aimed to reflect common opinions about abuse. In order to allow people to answer freely, all attendees were asked to close their eyes and raise their hands yea or nay.
After the activity, Hale asked attendees to discuss the statements that particularly affected them.
Junior Evan Mitchell commented on a statement that all cases of domestic abuse are of the same severity and should be treated in the same manner.
“I feel like that is a hard question, because I feel like there [are] levels to domestic violence. There can be worse domestic violence in certain relationships than [in] others,” Mitchell said. “But, at the same time, domestic violence is domestic violence.”
Wais responded to a statement that victims of domestic abuse have an obligation to report and leave the relationship they are in.
“I think that’s a really tough question because it’s hard, especially when you’re not the victim, to [tell the victim] ‘I think you should do this,’” Wais said. “I think we saw that a lot with Ray Rice, where people were mad that Janay didn’t leave and that they got married. When you’re not in the relationship, I think it’s hard to make a judgment about all domestic violence cases. All cases aren’t the same.”
The discussion then shifted to focus on the Ray Rice assault case. In February, Rice, a former Baltimore Ravens running back, was having an argument with his then-fiancée Janay Palmer in a casino elevator. Rice struck Palmer, who hit her head on the elevator railing and fell to the floor, unconscious.
Initially, the NFL responded by giving Rice a two-game suspension. However, after TMZ released the footage of Rice striking his wife, Rice was released from the Ravens and suspended indefinitely by the NFL.
“A lot of people after the video came out were like, ‘Oh, why isn’t she leaving him? Why is she marrying him?’ I think that’s more problematic than the video itself being released,” sophomore Dikshant Malla said. “Not everyone needs to be like ‘Oh, you should do this; you should do that’ because at the end of the day it’s still her private life, and it’s her relationship.”
Hale brought up the question of whether Rice had forced Palmer to make the statement.
“Of course, I can’t demand she tell me why she wants to stay. If she [is] going to marry him, I believe there was some amount of love or something before this situation happened [and] probably still after this situation,” Hale said.
Hale then mentioned the incident between Solange Knowles and Jay-Z Carter. Knowles attacked Carter in an elevator at the Met Gala in May, and Beyoncé Knowles, Carter’s wife, did nothing to intervene. Hale asked attendees about their responses to that incident.
“I’m not saying this is justifying Solange’s action, but I feel like it’s a little bit easier for the public to let her actions slide because she’s a very small, feminine little thing, and Jay-Z has that persona of being a rapper. Ray Rice is a big football player and has also a very small, feminine wife,” sophomore Sara Analoui said. “Not that those things should excuse any of the actions, but it just makes it easier for the public to sort of put more blame on Ray Rice because he has that physical force to knock Janay out, [whereas] Solange probably could not knock Jay-Z out.”
Hale remarked on inherent biases in the responses to the videos of Janay and Ray Rice and of Solange and Jay-Z.
“When I saw the Solange and Jay-Z, there was an immediate response like, ‘Oh, what did Jay-Z do? It was his fault. He started it,’” Hale said. “But then when I saw the Ray Rice and Janay one, I saw the beginning of the video and her slapping him. And then they get in the elevator, and it gets worse, and he actually physically hits her. And then you see him dragging her out of the elevator. So no, I don’t believe that any man should hit a woman in response to what she does, but there was no [response to her actions]. It was [seen as] all his fault.”
Hale was referring to the moment before Rice and Palmer got into the elevator. The video shows her backhanding him, seemingly in response to something that he said. However, he showed no signs of pain following the slap.
“There was this huge [response] that he shouldn’t get his NFL contract taken away,” Hale said. “No one was worried about Janay until she said she that wasn’t going to leave.”
