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Relationship Violence Is Not Entertainment
Here’s how the media and pop culture glorify abusive relationships.
By Laura Finley
Some years ago, I took my then-five-year-old daughter to see the Pixar film Ratatouille. It is the cute story about a rat that helps a burgeoning chef. The plotline seemingly has nothing to do with abuse. Yet there’s a scene early in the film when the rat is peering into an apartment from the rafters when he spots a couple grappling over a gun. The gun goes off; then they run to one another, embrace, and kiss. I was deeply disturbed that Pixar intentionally included such glorification of abuse and in a film marketed to families, no less. Yet this is far from the only example. All genres of film continue to make abusive relationships seem normal. They tell young people that unless there’s “drama,” the relationship is boring or mundane.
Much has been written about the Twilight and 50 Shades of Grey book series and films, documenting how they promote dangerous verbal, physical, and sexual abuse along with stalking behavior. Gone Girl (2014), for instance, makes it seem as though false allegations are common when, in reality, the bigger problem is that abuse remains significantly under-reported. Abusers are often presented in such extreme fashion that one would think every case of domestic violence…
