Spousal Case Movie Review Example

- What were the family violence issuse addressed in the movie ( Do not merely list or state. substantiate your response with specifics.)
Family violence (sometimes referred to as domestic violence or spousal abuse) is a situation or a behavior involving the abuse of one partner by the other in an intimate relationship. This can be in between married couples, between dating partners or between two cohabiting people.
Spousal abuse can take several forms and is not limited to just physical abuse of a partner. It has been a common notion that only women are being abused by their partners, however, there are also recorded cases where the male partners are the one abused by their women partners.
In the movie “What’s Love Got To Do With It”, the most common family violence showed is physical abuse (in this case, physical abuse committed to Tina by her husband Ike). Several types of physical assaults were showed such as hitting, kicking, shoving and slapping. Although, the husband is usually the one starting the physical assault, the wife was also inflicting pain because she was fighting back.
Aside from physical abuse, common forms of spousal abuse is domineering a parter or taking control of his or her every move. A partner should be free to make choices that are based on his/her own free will and not to take orders or being dictated by the other. In particular, a partner should be the one to decide when he or she wants to work and when he/she takes her rest. In the movie, we can see that Tina was forced to work by her husband even if it is against her will or even if she was not feeling well.
Even if a two people with intimate relationship are living under one roof, this does not give a partner to enforce sexual activities against the will of the other partner. A partner should not be forced to have sexual intercourse or even just to be touch because even if two people are already married, forcing oneself to the other can be a form of sexual harassment or rape.
Even without physically touching a person, spousal abuse can also be committed though physiological abuse and emotional abuse. Verbally abusing a partner, especially throwing insulting words in front of other people can lead to physiological abuse. Isolation of a partner from her family and friends likewise is a form of physiological abuse. This type of abuse is dangerous as it can lead to trauma or worse it can take the sanity of a person, which can add up to the tendency of committing suicide. Intimidating a partner until such time that she is not at ease whenever she hears or sees the abusing partner can also be considered part of spousal abuse. Common effects of spousal abuse are trauma, suffering from emotional problems and declining self-respect which later on making the abuse think of committing suicide.
Although, several women realized that they are already experiencing spousal abuse, they have the tendency to keep silent because they feel shame, fear, against the culture, because they want their families to live with both parents or because of the lack of physical or financial resources.
- Apply or discuss these three concepts ( Power, Dependency,& Social Stress)
The concepts of power, dependency and social stress were evident on the movie. First, power was clearly showed here by the character of Ike. Specifically, we can say that he had complete power over Tina. That is he had power over her as a manager and as a husband. He controlled her and her every move. However, this power was abused thus leading to family violence.
Dependency on the other hand is can be illustrated through Tina’s behavior. Basically, Tina depended on Ike, so the tendency is for her to disregard all of the abuses she experience because she thinks that he is the only chance she got and that her life depended on it. At the starts, she accepts the violence she is experiencing because she depended on her.
Social stress, is a feeling of wanting to come out and tell all the people what you are actually feeling but you couldn’t because you think of what society will think of you. For example, in the movie, since Ike and Tina are package, they need to fool the audiences and show them that they are a happy couple on stage even if off-stage they just came from a fight. Since they are public figures, they must not carry whatever the current state of their relationship onstage.
- Was there an opportunity for human service intervention? When and what could have been done by the human service professional?
There could have been several opportunities for human service intervention. Ike and Tina are both public figures and news of the domestic violence Tina has been experiencing cannot be hidden from the media. The human service professional should have approached Tina at the early stage and investigated the case. Counseling could also be offered to both of them. There could have been a chance that their relationship and behavior has improved. In addition, friends and family who have known about the situation between the couples could have intervened.
- Do you believe this movie is an appropriate one for this course? Why or why not?
I believe that this movie (What’s Love Got to with It) is appropriate illustration of the contents of the course. This movie depicts several personal and family issues which can be related to the topics discussed in class. It is a complete story that shows several possible causes and the effects of family violence to the life of a person. It is also a clear example that no one is exempted from family violence when. Even famous people are prone to family violence thus the government’s move towards its eradication must be enhanced.