feature
article
What’s Love
Got To Do With It?
By Alexia Written
“Eat the cake Anna Mae, now I’m asking you nicely eat the cake.” This was the beginning line to one of the most memorable
scenes in the movie What’s Love Got to Do With it where the main character, Anna Mae, now known as Tina Turner gets
cake shoved in her face as she wrestles with Ike; her abusive husband. The movie offers a snapshot of her dual life as a
domestic violence survivor and entertainment legend. Twenty three years after it first hit movie screens, Tina Turner’s
story mirrors the daily life of many.
The movie aired in 1993 and was one of the most vivid pictorials of domestic violence during that time. It was gut
wrenching to watch. Those who recall the scene reported feeling her helplessness as she could barely contend with his
strength. He looms over her as other actors in the scene look away sheepishly. Time and time again, she would surface
from encounters with him badly beaten and bloody. Tina Turner survived while many others do not.
Many cheered with her when she decided to end the cycle. Tina found her voice and her fists literally and figuratively. In
some circles though, domestic violence has been watered down. Due to some misconception in the media; people are
under the false pretense that Domestic Violence is only a man abusing his wife or girlfriend, but domestic violence is
much more than that, and it can affect anyone. According to the United States Department of Justices Office on Violence
Against Women, the definition of domestic violence is “a pattern of abusive behavior in any relationship that is used by
one partner to gain or maintain control over another intimate partner.” The ugly truth is three times as many women were
murdered between 2001 and 2012 than soldiers who died in the Iraq War, which is a very alarming amount of people to just
sweep under a rug. Seventy-six percent of women either have, or will encounter an abuser in her life time. There are more
than 10 million cases being reported annually, and there are 20 million women, men, children who are calling the Domestic
Violence hotlines daily nationwide looking for help. No