Analysis Of Domestic Violence In The Film 'Waitress'

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n the film, Waitress (2007), Jenna Hunterson has just found out that she is pregnant with her abusive husband, Earl.However, throughout the film, Jenna begins to have an affair with Dr. Jim Pomatter, whom is the knight and shining armor to help Jenna get away from her abusive husband, and try to “save the day.” In the film, Director Adrienne Shelly demonstrates to the audience how the Power and Control Wheel is used in the film, through examples such as emotional abuse, isolation, economic abuse and male privilege. On the other hand, the film has made errors in regards to what a domestic violence relationship would look like by adding in an unhealthy relationship with a married doctor, how Jenna did not officially end the relationship with …show more content…

This is an alarming statistic that shows just how common and prevalent domestic violence is in the United States, particularly in women. In a previous class discussion, we studied the Power and Control Wheel, a tool for individuals to be able to pinpoint traits in their romantic partner that may be potential warning signs that they should be aware of that may cause physical or mental harm. The traits from the Power Control Wheel displayed in the film were emotional abuse, isolation, male privilege and economic abuse. Despite the presence of these traits, the film was a combination of realistic traits of domestic violence relationships and a Hollywood dramatization. Within the Power and Control Wheel, it describes potential warning signs of the use of emotional abuse would include putting her down, making her feel bad about herself, calling her names, making her think she’s crazy, playing mind games, humiliating her and making her feel guilty. In Queen’s “Being Emotionally Abuse: A Phenomenological Study of Adult Women’s Experience …show more content…

During the stage of male privilege, the intimate partner would use the following toward their partner: treating her like a servant by making all the big decisions, acting like the “master of the castle,” being the one to define men’s and women’s roles. In Whitaker’s (2013) survey, “Centrality of Control-Seeking in Men’s Intimate Partner Violence Perpetration”, describes to the reader about how male’s while in intimate relationship can be in the want of control of every single moment while in the relationship. Within the intimate partner violence relationship, the male’s main desire is to be able to control also everything the woman does which would include how she thinks, acts, and speaks while in the relationship. Alought, according to Dobash and Doash (1992) believe that men’s idea of control is used commonly used as “desire for power and control” while in the relationship. Yet, during a survey from the National Violence Against Women, it was found that, “women with emotionally or physically controlling partners are more likely to experience all forms of IPV (Tjaden and Thoennes 2000), and Raj et al (2004) found that women whose (men) partners had high levels of relationships control were more likely to experience physical and sexual

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