Enough of “Enough”

Why Movies like “Enough” Starring Jennifer Lopez are the Worst for Domestic Violence…

For those who have not seen the movie, ‘Enough’ is the success story of protagonist character Slim as played by Jennifer Lopez. In this movie, she has to survive domestic violence inflicted by her then husband who begins to abuse her when she confronts him for infidelity. She successfully accomplishes freedom from her abuser by joining a self defense class, eventually mastering the art of self defense, and then some, like oh you know . . . disarming and shooting a weapon. She then confronts her husband and kills him and then lives happily ever after with no consequence for murdering her husband because the court ruled it as self defense.

Although this movie is nonfiction, it still serves as a form of representation for victims of domestic violence. Firstly, it continues to represent women as the only victims of domestic violence when, “evidence (has) shown that there (is) also domestic violence present in same-sex relations, that women in relationships with women were and are oftentimes the victims of abuse, that children were also victims of adult patriarchal violence enacted by women and men” (Hooks, 61 Feminism is for Everybody).

Yet when they are told that domestic violence is the direct outcome of sexism, that it will not end until sexism ends, they are unable to make this logical leap because it requires challenging and changing fundamental ways of thinking about gender. — Bell Hooks, Ending Violence, Feminism is for Everybody

The movie reinforces ideas of gender, and continues to reminds men that they cannot be victims of domestic violence and that same sex couples do not experience any form of domestic violence because the more dominant partner does not exist. When in fact, this is all false, these forms of thinking require a paradigm shift in order to make any further movements toward improvement of eliminating domestic violence.

Enough should not receive all the blame below is a list of movies that further the gender stereotype:

Sleeping With the Enemy -1991, Fried Green Tomatoes, -1991, If Someone Had Known -1995 , The Perfect Guy-2015 and more

Secondly, the movie glamorizes the victims triumphant return to power as a woman when, as described by Bell Hooks ‘Feminism is for Everybody’ that the solution to violence is not in fact the return of power but in fact the end of sexism.

The more we focus on ending domestic violence in its full scope instead of a focusing on men on women, but also in same sex, women on men and adults on children, the faster we can eliminate these sexist viewpoints and help those in need. This will hopefully encourage more documentaries of real life people experiencing any form of domestic violence, it is time to make that Logical Leap!