Movie: Enough
April 18, 2010
The movie “Enough” with Jennifer Lopez is a well-known movie about a woman who is beaten and threatened by her husband after finding out he is cheating on her. The gender roles are definitely portrayed in the beginning of the movie, however; soon after the husband hits his wife she leaves and lives a life of fear and terror with her young daughter Grace.
Slim (Jennifer Lopez) works as a working class waitress in a small café where she does not make a lot of money. After she marries Mitch she is the typical housewife who stays at home and does not have to worry about money; Mitch is the boss of the family because he provides her with everything she needs. Of course this is what society expected and what a lot of girls dream of. After they have their child Grace, Slim caught him cheating which results in him hitting and abusing her; again a sign of male toughness, control, power and violence.
After she runs away with their daughter he continues to follow, stalk, and attack her. He uses intimidation, emotional abuse, minimizing, denying and blaming, children, and threat as violence (5 ways of violence is exercised) She decides to stand up for herself and take matter into her own hands, something unusual for women because they usually do not show their limits. She then hired someone to teach her self-defense and everything related to that such as the law and what she can and cannot do when confronting her ex-husband. She ends up confronting him at his apartment, which ends up in a fight between the male and female and eventually death of the ex-husband.
The fighting back is something you do not see very often or hear about, yet there are thousands of women who are being abused by their husband or boyfriend. Unfortunately they are afraid to do something like Slim did and sometimes end up in the hospital or even dead. The gender roles in this movie are also a important factor because Slim is a middle class working girl who ends up with a wealthy man who provides her with everything she wants. He also uses this against her as the movie progresses. The fact that they have a child makes their family look even more perfect, something that society expects. Both Slim and Mitch have their gender roles as Mitch is supposedly working all day while Slim is the stay at home mom.
Of course there are many similar movies to this, however I do think it is important for women to know that there is the option of leaving a abusive relationship. More women should be more familiar with the law; of course something that Mitch made sure Slim was unaware of.
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