Domestic Violence Hits Prime Time

It's awkward and ironic that October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. The very need for an awareness campaign means we still have a long way to go in preventing and ending partner abuse. It means that violence behind closed doors, no matter how immoral and illegal, still affects families from every walk of life, many of whom suffer in silence. Every so often, month-long awareness campaigns aside, reminders of this often invisible problem seep into the media.

On last week's episode of MTV's Teen Mom, viewers witnessed a particularly disturbing hour of television. Gary and Amber, the couple who compelled me to tune into the show since they first appeared on 16 and Pregnant (they're from my hometown), have always had a volatile relationship. But after Amber slapped Gary across the face last season, it became apparent that her intimidating, threatening behavior would only get worse. This week, Amber not only escalated her name-calling and irate screaming that often seems to come out of nowhere; she began hitting Gary again and even punched him in the face. Gary never fought back. He took his things and their daughter — who is often present during their disputes — and left.

All of this brings up a number of complicated issues. Over on the Poverty in America blog, I recently praised Teen Mom as one of the few shows on the air that actually depicts the reality of working class and poor families. The question in reality television, though, it always what lines should be crossed, when should anyone intervene, and what the self-imposed exploitation of putting your life on TV means for everyday people. Does, for instance, it mean that Amber will eventually be able to view her behavior objectively and seek help? What some writers have already pointed out — that the camera crews filmed rather than intervene, how many times daughter Leah has seen and heard her mother berate her father for being "a stupid fatass," then kick him out of the house entirely — may be an uncomfortable if rather truthful look at how poverty and abuse are so inextricably linked. Often, there's no option for reflexivity via your own TV.

The episode, which in some ways flips the script on domestic violence because it shows female-on-male violence, was peppered with PSAs directing domestic abuse survivors and witnesses to the National Teen Dating Abuse Helpline. Conversely, on shows like Jersey Shore, when a woman is hit by a man, the footage is blurred. You also never see directives to seek help — for violence, for substance abuse — during other similarly exploitative MTV shows. Why is Teen Mom different, and why is it acceptable to see a woman hit a man on television, but not the other way around?

Domestic Violence Awareness Month, it seems, couldn't have been better coordinated with difficult, uncomfortable network programming. Maybe Teen Mom viewers will find that these issues are more salient than ever, and deserve attention towards prevention.

Photo Credit: Lin Pernille ♥ Photography