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Research Paper

Is It Acceptable?; Domestic Violence Shown on Television

Domestic violence was and currently still is a big issue in a lot of family homes around the world. Though the problem is immense, families will always try to keep their business private. Previously, there was not a lot of media broad castings of broken family homes on television shows. However, the creators of the television show, The Honeymooners decided that they would go against the odds and make a show that was different from what every other show formerly portrayed a married couple to be. The Honeymooners was believed to be one of the first shows to publicize minor indications that could suggest that domestic violence was present in the characters’ home. The genre of the show was romance comedy but not everyone thought the show was very romantic or funny. A lot of viewers criticized the show because they did not approve of the way the husband would treat his wife. Many people refused to watch the show or even left bad reviews of it. The show, The Honeymooners, was created for entertainment, but the mistreatment and verbal threats against the wife made viewers not like the show. People believed that the show portrayed the acceptance and ridicule of domestic violence.

At the time that The Honeymooners was aired, in the 1950's, domestic violence was very common in homes. And it was women that were the predominant victims. Even though many women were facing abuse, there were a lot of cases that were not reported. Not only were women scared that if they reported the attack, it would only make matters worse. But also, back then, if a domestic violence attacks was reported, the cases were usually ignored. Domestic violence was not seen as crimes because people believed that a man could do whatever he wanted with his wife and children. They were considered as his property. Then, after women started noticing that no criminal action was being taken to help them, then they stopped trying to get help with the abuse. At this point, domestic violence rates against women was very high. But there were no reports to contribute to determine the exact rates of it.

Independence was something many married women did not have back in the 1950's. There were numerous house wives whose only job was to take care of the children, the house, and her husband. Usually the husband would feel a lot of pressure to keep the family financially stable and would want appreciation and respect in return. On the television show, The Honeymooners, the wife was a stay at home spouse while the husband was responsible for the finances. Many viewers of the show inferred that the wife was a domestic violence victim. In The article, “Risk Factors for Domestic Violence in Women and Predictors of Development of Mental Disorders in These Women,” Behice Han Almis stated, “Logistic regression analysis showed that employment status of spouse…were the factors that affected risk of physical violence of the women from their spouses” (Almis 69). There is a table in that article that compares different qualities a wife has that could put them at risk of becoming a domestic violence victim. The table results determined that if the wife was a housewife, then she would be more at risk of physical violence than a wife that had a job. There were many more signs that viewers of the show picked up on since there were so many cases of abuse happening at this time. In the article “Economic Stress and Domestic Violence,” The authors, Claire Renzetti and Vivian Larkin wrote, “That is, while economic stress and hardship may increase the risk of domestic violence, domestic violence may also cause financial problems for DV survivors and entrap them in poverty and an abusive relationship” (Renzetti and Larkin 1). The wife did not have any work experience or skills that could have helped her secure a job to help them financially. However, if she was to divorce her husband she would not be able to find work to take care of herself and this would give her no choice but to stay married to her husband since divorce was not very common at this time.

Physical abuse is not something that someone who is not mentally ill would just do for fun, there would have to be a root problem that makes the abuser resort to it. There could be many reasons why someone would start to abuse their victim, like for example, a husband or father, who has lost his job or is not happy at home could turn to drinking or any other coping mechanisms, then would start to physically attack his wife or even his children. Mentally, he had an excuse to take his anger out on someone that is close to him. Because in his head they would be the reason he is stressing himself to take care of them. The article, “Factors Contributing to Domestic Violence,” states, “We meet theories that justify domestic violence by factors on the side of the individuals, they give specific explanations (different addictions, alcoholism, stress, psychological problems, etc.). . .” (Tittlová and Papáček 121). Out of all the reasons listed, one reason that was in connection to the show was stress, and one reason that the wife was at risk of abuse. Stress was basically the whole story-line of the show and it would cause countless problems between the couple. The husband always came home stressed from not succeeding in his schemes. Then, he would argue with his wife and threaten her. This is what many viewers did not support in the show. Even though the creators of the show did this for laughs, the viewers believed that the creators was portraying that this was acceptable and that threats should be taken as a joke.

Even though the show never shown the husband actually becoming physically violent against his wife, the threats are still is a form of domestic violence. In the article, “Domestic Violence: Power Struggle with Lasting Consequences,” Susanne Babbel wrote, “defines domestic violence as “a pattern of abusive behavior in any relationship that is used by one partner to gain or maintain power and control over another intimate partner” (Babbel). While making the threat to his wife, the husband would also raise his fist towards his wife saying that one day he would actually hit her. That was a repetitive behavior that is associated with domestic violence abuse. However, after being threatened, the wife never acknowledged it. But it is not because she did not notice them. In the article, “Convicting Domestic Violence Abusers When the Victim Remains Silent,” Tonya McCormick wrote, “If she does not believe she has control, she is likely to respond with a coping mechanism rather than try to escape” (McCormick 427) There are many women who do not recognize or simply just ignore the signs of abuse in their marriage because they are blinded by love and they believe that their partners love them too much to hurt them. In the article, “

The article, “Why an abused spouse won’t leave,” Brenda Branson states, “This emotional up-and-down strategy keeps her off-balance and in a state of confusion” (Branson). Many times after an abuser would hurt their victim, they would apologize or give an excuse to why they do it. Some would buy gifts as an apology or simply tell the victim it is their fault and the sorrow they feel for their actions. On the show, after all the disagreements the couple had, the husband would tell the wife that she is the greatest in the world. And make her feel like he was not calling her names or threatening her to be cruel but because it was just in the spur of the moment.

There were many negative opinions about the show The Honeymooners, a lot of people wished for the show to be discontinued. But the creators, did not seem to care what people thought about the show negatively. They decided not to cancel the show and continued to make content that the people who did like the show laugh. There are various signs that someone could notice that would lead them to believe if domestic violence is present inside a home. A number of signs that were on the show caught viewers’ attention and gave them the idea that The Honeymooners, was displaying indications of domestic abuse. The creators’ intentions are not known but since the sitcom was intended to be a comedy that would be the only explicit explanation. Around the time that the show was being aired, there were only a few other shows that were showing families that were not always ideally perfect. The similar shows were I Love Lucy and Leave It to Beaver. However, these shows did not receive as many bad reviews as The Honeymooners did because there were no direct threats from the husbands. These shows did cause a change in the genre by other creators also making shows that acknowledged that there are broken and unhappy families and decided to show it on television.