For the performance piece/call to action I chose the song Goodbye Earl by the Dixie Chicks. It's about best friends and after high school one gets out of the town and the other falls into an abusive relationship with a man named Earl. She eventually files for divorce and takes out a restraining order on Earl, but he violates it and beats her pretty badly. The friend comes home to find her friend in the hospital. They decide that since the law isn't doing justice, they will take care of the problem and decide to kill him.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gw7gNf_9njs
On one hand, this shows a woman who finally stands up for herself when no one else will. However, she goes to extreme measures to do so. This leaves the question as to what measure should a woman go to in order to protect herself. If she had just moved would she have been safe? Or would he have followed her? But why should she have to uproot her whole life when the law is not protecting her like it should? I am not sure what I would have done in that situation.
On a side note, I am not really a big fan of the video because I feel it kind of portrays domestic violence as something that isn't as serious as it really is. However, this could have just been to make it more appealing to the television audience.
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I struggled with some of the same questions that you had. I didn't know how to take the video, and I didn't know if her actions were right.
ReplyDeleteI think that the message of breaking free from an abuser is there, but murder is an interesting way in which to represent that idea. While most women think that this is a funny video, I think that abused women often wish that they could kill their abuser.
I think that this video gives both positive and negative light to a very serious subject. It shows how concious we need to be in the pieces that we create and have circulate in mainstream society.