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Journal of Emotional Abuse, Vol. 8(4) 2008
© 2008 by The Haworth Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1080/10926790802480422
375
WJEA1092-67981540-4714Journal of Emotional Abuse, Vol. 8, No. 4, October 2008: pp. 1–38Journal of Emotional Abuse
PSYCHOLOGICAL VICTIMIZATION
AND MALTREATMENT
Invisible Wounds, Invisible Abuse:
The Exclusion of Emotional Abuse
in Newspaper Articles
Christy-Dale L. Sim sJournal of Emotional Abuse
Christy-Dale L. Sims
ABSTRACT. Newspapers continue to be a readily available and
important source of information for much of the U.S. public. However, the
meaning of domestic violence used in newspaper articles often excludes
forms of violence that are not blatantly physical. Through an analysis of
newspaper articles about domestic violence appearing in 5 cities during
3 months in 2008, I discuss the exclusion of emotional abuse in articles
about domestic violence. Through recounting my narrative of an emotion-
ally abusive relationship, I highlight the painful emotionally violent behav-
iors that are slighted in contemporary news stories about domestic
violence. I also discuss reasons the media does not focus on emotional
Christy-Dale L. Sims is a Master’s Candidate in the Department of Communication
at the University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado.
Submitted for publication 6/5/2008; revised 9/1/2008; accepted 9/11/2008.
Address correspondence to: Christy-Dale L. Sims, 270 UCB, Department of
Communication, Boulder, CO 80309. (E-mail: Christy.Sims@Colorado.edu).
376 JOURNAL OF EMOTIONAL ABUSE
forms of abuse, and the implications of this exclusion for victims of
emotional abuse.
KEYWORDS. Abuse, domestic violence, emotional abuse, intimate
partner violence, narrative, newspaper, psychological abuse
It has been two years now since I found the courage to pack a bag, call a
hotel, leave a note, and lock the door behind me, pretending not to see the
dogs watching me through the window. New acquaintances ask what is
important to me and what I believe in, but before I can answer I have to
pause, because the answers are still so new. I have to reevaluate every situ-
ation as it arises: How do I feel about this? Is this important to me? Did it
used to be? How should I act if this is something I care about? There are
still so many days that leave me tearfully frustrated, fighting to remember
how I am supposed to react, because over the course of the years, every
value, moral, and belief I ever held was stripped from me, one at a time. It
wasn’t until after I left that I realized they were all gone, and that I no
longer had any idea how I felt about anything. The only thing I was sure of
is that I felt hollow, empty, scared, guilty, and oh my god, it hurt so much.
I don’t know how long it was that I had wandered through every day
just trying to make it to the end, only to start again. I don’t know how long
I was unhappy, because it became such a part of my life that I stopped
noticing it. I didn’t realize until after I left that I was keeping myself so
busy because I didn’t want to be home. I worked, tutored, and worked
some more; I took a full class load, researched for my thesis, and fulfilled
my duties as president of a student organization. I went home only to be
accused, belittled, and chastised by the man who had asked to be my
husband, who was supposed to be my partner, who said he loved me and
wanted what was best for me.
This is the same man who left me on the side of the road with a two-
hour walk home because I refused to let him drive drunk. Who, blind
drunk and high, crawled down the hall after me, naked and screaming,
until I barricaded myself in the bedroom where he banged and banged
and banged on the locked door calling my name, as I huddled against the
other side sobbing, not sure if I was scared or laughing. This is the same
man who told me we could get married after I lost weight. The same man
who declared my twice annual visits home to family were a sign I needed
to “leave the nest,” until I finally agreed to not make them anymore.
Christy-Dale L. Sims 377
According to him, it was my fault we had “no money,” my fault that he
drank and did drugs, my fault that he was depressed, my fault he didn’t
have a better job, and above all, my fault that I was unhappy. The
alcohol, the drugs, the money problems, the anger, the jealousy, the
depression, my own unhappiness, and his, all fell on my shoulders, seep-
ing into my soul and leaching through my system until the guilt and hurt
washed away my sense of self.
Why would I begin this article with an account that brings tears to my
eyes every time I read it? What you see here is my story, included here to
elucidate what emotional abuse entails. Violence comes in many forms,
some more visible than others. Unfortunately, emotional abuse is one
variety that fades into the background, a wallflower at the dance of
newspaper headlines where death and attempts at it take center stage.
Because reports of emotional abuse are rare in the media, and are notice-
ably absent in the news stories discussed here, I hope instead to help the
reader understand the violence of emotionally abusive relationships
through my own experience. If a newspaper reader is unfamiliar with how
horrifying a life of emotional abuse can be, coming to that understanding
is not possible through reading newspaper articles about domestic vio-
lence or intimate partner violence (IPV). The exclusion of explicit expla-
nations about emotional abuse in news stories about abuse is a disservice
to victims of emotional abuse because their experiences are effectively
marginalized and made invisible by the focus given to physical forms of
violence, such as battery and sexual abuse.
The effects of emotional abuse are known as the “invisible wound” and
are often obscured, especially in comparison to the effects of physical and
sexual abuse (Loring, 1994, p. 12). I was not hit or left destitute, but for
the 3 years I was trapped in a violent, abusive relationship, my soul was
bruised and my self stolen. However, as a police report cannot be filed for
a “stolen self” or a “broken self-esteem” and a picture cannot be taken of
a “bruised and battered soul,” emotional abuse is often neglected in public
discourse about domestic violence and abuse. The lack of physical marks
on a victims’ body may have an effect on the definition of the act by
authorities, which in turn influences how the incident is reported (if at all)
by journalists, who are key instigators of public discourse.
Some victims of abuse have found police less than helpful when the
authorities arrive on the scene and find the victim does not show the
marks of being physically beaten (Dunn, 2002; Shearer-Cremean, 2004).
This is important when it comes to raising public awareness of emotional
abuse because how journalists report incidents of domestic violence is
378 JOURNAL OF EMOTIONAL ABUSE
contingent upon “official sources of information, including police, prose-
cutors, social welfare departments, hospitals, [and] school officials” as
sources about abuse stories (Johnson, 1989, p. 12). However, in addition
to the difficulties presented by the fact that only half of domestic violence
cases are reported to police, it is the presence of physical marks of
violence left on a victim that are often the impetus for the initial suspicion
and reporting of domestic violence (Chaney & Saltzstein, 1998; Danis,
2003; Eisenstat & Bancroft, 1999). Unfortunately for victims of emo-
tional abuse, the pain they have experienced is rarely visible to the naked
eye, limiting the likelihood of officials such as police or social welfare
being called in to intervene and, in turn, drastically decreasing the chance
that journalists will learn about it from officials.
Public discourse and the rhetoric created through it are important ave-
nues for addressing all types of abuse because they can create publicity
for a social problem that is considered a private family matter by some.
Sociologists, survivors, and counselors tell us that emotional abuse often
exists in conjunction with physical, sexual, verbal, child abuse, and a
range of other indignities. However, when emotional abuse occurs with-
out concurrent physical abuse, its victims not only bear its invisible
wounds, but become doubly invisible when the media’s framing of abuse
as physical obscures the impact and pain of their experience.
Intimate Partner Violence is defined by the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention (CDC) as “threatened, attempted, or completed physical or
sexual abuse or emotional abuse by a current or former intimate partner”
(CDC, 2008, p. 113). The CDC’s definition of emotional abuse includes
threatening a person, a person’s loved ones or possessions, or harming
one’s self-worth. This may include, among many other behaviors, name-
calling, not allowing one to see friends and family, intimidation, and
stalking (CDC, 2006). The CDC estimates 1,200 women’s deaths and 2
million injuries to women are related to IPV each year. Violence between
intimate partners accounts for 20% of all violent crime against women,
and nearly one third of all female murder victims are killed by an intimate
partner (Bridges, Tatum, & Kunselman, 2008). These statistics, however,
do not encompass the range of women’s experiences of IPV in their lives.
In the CDC’s attempts to gather IPV statistics, respondents were only
asked whether they had experienced physical assault, stalking, or sexual
violence during their lifetime, with no mention of emotional abuse during
the interviews (Tjaden & Theonnes, 2000). As a result, the emotional
wounds inflicted by IPV, whether in conjunction with physical and sexual
abuse or on their own, have not been counted (CDC, 2008).
Christy-Dale L. Sims 379
In an attempt to address the lack of discussion about emotional abuse,
the focus of this article is how emotional abuse experienced by adults in
intimate partner relationships is addressed by newspaper journalists.
Examining how public sources such as newspapers frame emotional
abuse independently from other forms of intimate partner abuse merits
rhetorical analysis because without exposure to descriptions or informa-
tion about emotional abuse, victims of it are likely to be unaware that
what they are going through is even considered abuse and that resources
exist to help them. Utilizing Brummett’s (1991) quotidian function of
rhetoric and McGee’s (1990) concept of textual fragments, this article
analyzes how emotional abuse is presented to the public through “frag-
ments” gathered from newspapers in five large metropolitan cities across
the country.
This article begins with an overview of the persuasive aspects inherent
in violence and abuse, and points out that abuse, particularly emotional
abuse, functions as a form of rhetoric and abusers as rhetors. The next
section addresses some of the processes of abusive relationships, after
which the effect of emotional abuse on its victims is addressed. The
importance of newspaper in society is also discussed, after which the
specific methods and sources for this article are explained. Through an
analysis of newspaper articles about domestic violence from across the
country, I argue that the painful emotional aspects of abuse are
overlooked in favor of passing mentions of forms of physical violence
that are deemed more “newsworthy.” These mentions of domestic vio-
lence and sexual assault present domestic violence and abuse as strictly
physical, disregarding the emotional aspects of abuse and discounting the
experiences of women living with emotional abuse. In the final section, I
discuss the implications of newspaper writers’ neglect of emotional abuse
for women in abusive relationships.
A RHETORICAL PERSPECIVE ON EMOTIONAL ABUSE
Brummett (1991) defines rhetoric as “the social function that influ-
ences and manages meanings” (p. xii), meaning that rhetoric is not an act
or object, but instead is a part of acts or objects that influence “how social
meanings are created, maintained, or opposed” (p. 38). This definition
allows rhetoric to be expanded to include the process that occurs when
people engage in creating social meaning, and not just the act itself
(Colton, 2004). Within abusive relationships, the relationship itself is
380 JOURNAL OF EMOTIONAL ABUSE
created and maintained through acts of violence, both verbal and nonver-
bal. Violence is the “ability to impose one’s will on another person
through the use of verbal or nonverbal acts, or both . . . carried out with
the intention or perceived intention of inflicting physical or psychological
pain, injury, or suffering, or both” (Cahn, 1996, p. 6). Based on
Brummett’s understanding of rhetoric, violence is an act that influences
and manages the meanings victims experience through the course of their
relationships, whether done through physical means or not.
In addition to Brummett’s definition, if rhetoric is considered the art
of discovering the possible means of persuasion in regards to any sub-
ject, as it was by Aristotle (trans. 2007), then abusers may be considered
rhetors. This is because persuasion is the act of convincing another (or
one’s self) that there is a correct way of thinking or doing in a particular
circumstance. Therefore, violence is a form of persuasion in the broadest
sense, because the one being persuaded finds it difficult to see the issue
another way due to either mental or physical coercion. Persuasion is
accomplished through means of violence and abuse because as a
person’s self is destroyed, so is her ability to make meaning of her own,
and the abuser’s worldview replaces the victim’s in the victim’s mind.
1
If the rhetorical aspects of violence are not acknowledged, “we deny the
complex nature of violence within intimate relationships – the blurring
of the line between persuasion and coercion, the role of seduction – an
understanding of which is necessary to combat such violence” (Colton,
2004, p. 125).
For many victims of abuse, particularly emotional abuse, the short, dry,
physical-violence-based snippets presented in the daily newspapers do
not reflect what they see happening in their lives; this lack of recognition
of their experiences as abuse by the media possibly prevents them from
personally recognizing their pain as abuse and, in turn, may prevent them
seeking the help they need. Applying Brummett’s (1991) quotidian func-
tion of rhetoric to the case of abuse, one’s construction of abuse may take
place through seeing fragments of a message such as newspaper articles, a
biography in a magazine, news clips, Web sites, and posters featuring
domestic abuse hotlines (McGee, 1990). Brummett describes the quotid-
ian function of rhetoric as occurring at the level of the mundane, through
which “the public and personal meanings that affect everyday, even
minute-to-minute decisions” are managed and influenced (p. 41). At this
quotidian level, rhetoric operates through an individuals’ accrual of small
bits and pieces of information that she encounters and experiences in her
daily life, which she then pieces together into a message in an attempt to
Christy-Dale L. Sims 381
make sense of the world (Colton, 2004). For this reason, I have chosen to
analyze a collection of publicly available newspaper articles.
PROCESSES OF EMOTIONAL ABUSE
Abuse is often perpetrated by men against women and children; how-
ever, abuse also occurs in same-sex relationships and in some cases
women abuse men and children (Cahn, 1996; Gelles & Straus, 1985;
Loring, 1994). To acknowledge the relational and social aspects of emo-
tional abuse, I use the term emotional abuse instead of psychological
abuse, which only connotes the effects of abuse within the psyche of the
victim. Over the years, emotional abuse has also been known as
nonphysical abuse, indirect abuse, psychological maltreatment, and
mental or psychological torture. Verbal aggression and verbal abuse may
be components of emotional abuse, but do not encompass the range of
effects victims of emotional abuse suffer (Loring, 1994).
As all violence is not physical, it is important to recognize the role that
communication plays in violence. Emotional abuse is a form of violence
that is “an ongoing process in which one individual systematically
diminishes and destroys the inner self of another” through belittling and
denigrating the victim’s ideas, feelings, perceptions, and personality to
such an extent that these aspects of the victim’s self erode or disappear
(Loring, 1994, p. 1). The destruction of the victim’s identity and sense of
self may be accomplished rhetorically by the abuser through the use of
displaced or symbolic violence, or any combination of some or all of the
following behaviors: jokes and teasing, blaming, belittling, ridiculing,
criticizing, insulting, name-calling, derogatory comments, bickering,
quarreling, silence, ignoring, gestures, and threats (Vissing & Baily, 1996).
EFFECTS OF EMOTIONAL ABUSE
If I talk about it, I can see in others’ eyes the same question that haunts
me from my mirror: “If you were being abused, why did you stay?” How
can I explain to someone else that I didn’t know it was okay to leave,
because I didn’t know I was being abused? After all, he made sure to
point out “It’s not like I hit you or anything.” I used to wish he would,
because then I would have a reason to leave. I thought I was being overly
sensitive, and if I left a steady relationship because I couldn’t take a joke,
382 JOURNAL OF EMOTIONAL ABUSE
wouldn’t I just be made fun of by everyone else? I mean, it’s not like he hit
me, so how could I call it abuse?
When I finally walked out it was because I couldn’t take the yelling,
crying, and misery anymore, not because it had suddenly occurred to me
that I had been abused for the past three and a half years. It took a year
after I left, counseling, surfing a lot of websites, and an insistent mother
for me to understand that what I had been going through was indeed
abuse. It has taken another year for me to reach the point I am willing to
tell other people, “No, he didn’t hit me, but I was abused.”
A common question asked about abusive relationships is, “Why does
she [the victim] stay?” Unfortunately, this question implies there is a
simple solution to the problem of abuse, and does not acknowledge the
psychological impact involved in abusive relationships that may result in
a victim not leaving a relationship that hurts her. That the question is even
asked highlights our societal belief in a woman’s free agency, or willing-
ness, to stay in an abusive relationship, and does not take into account the
coercion associated with abusive relationships (Colton, 2004). Some-
times, women remain in violent relationships due to lack of economic
and/or social resources, in order to stay with their children, or because
they are more scared to leave than they are to stay based on threats the
abuser has made. Even when these factors do not exist, women in
emotionally abusive relationships may stay due to a sense of attachment
and love they have for their partner in spite of the abuse.
The destruction of self that is the hallmark of emotional abuse has led
some victims and researchers to describe emotional abuse as more painful
and damaging to the victim than physical abuse (Loring, 1994). The loss
of identity and sense of self is one of the most traumatic aspects of
emotionally abusive relationships. When finally able to break out of an
emotionally abusive relationship, victims find they have no sense of what
is important to them or how they feel about anything. Victims of
emotional abuse often are forced to discard personal morals, ethics, and
opinions in order to avoid fights within the relationship, and the victims’
sense of self may be consumed by their controlling partner (Carey &
Mongeau, 1996; Chung, 2007; Loring, 1994; Rosen, 1996).
Despite the destruction of their sense of self, many victims of emo-
tional abuse do not recognize their experiences as abuse because they are
conditioned to believe they are at fault for the treatment they receive, and
accept it as a way of life, although the pain of each new wound to their
self is as damaging to and hurtful as the preceding assault (Loring, 1994).
The process is slow, leading to a lack of recognition by victims that they
Christy-Dale L. Sims 383
are being abused that in turn can lead to the underreporting of domestic
violence statistics. That surveys about abuse often do not specifically ask
about emotional abuse exacerbates the potential for an abuse victim to not
recognize that she is a victim, even if being directly asked about domestic
violence. For example, physicians routinely ask if there is violence in a
family setting during screenings, but not whether there is emotional batter-
ing, and CDC reports exclude questions about emotional abuse (Carey &
Mongeau, 1996; CDC & National Center for Injury Prevention and
Control, NCIPC, 2003; Chung, 2007; Infante, Chandler, & Rudd, 1989;
Sanders, 2003; Tjaden & Theonnes, 2000).
One of the many concerns with the current lack of public discussion
about emotional abuse is the risk a lack of knowledge poses to women
who suffer from emotional abuse. Although they may not appear with
broken arms and black eyes, some victims of emotional abuse experience
somatic symptoms such as asthma, headaches, fibromyalgia, chronic
fatigue, and stomach and body pains (CDC & NCIPC, 2003; Loring,
1994). In addition, victims’ other symptoms may include low self-esteem,
depression, and suicidal thoughts. Even if many women do not recognize
that they are experiencing emotional abuse, they may seek treatment for
the chronic symptoms that they do not realize are a result of the stress and
trauma they experience as abuse victims (Loring, 1994; Sabourin, 1996;
Sanders, 2003).
THE ROLE OF NEWSPAPERS IN SOCIETY
Comprehending the complete range of violent experiences lived by
women in abusive relationships is important when reading newspaper
articles addressing abuse. It is only through grasping how painful an
abusive relationship is that the reader is able to fully grasp how much is
stripped away in the retelling by journalists. Within controlling and abu-
sive relationships, it is often difficult for victims to research abuse and
possible helpful resources, both for fear of reprisal and for lack of aware-
ness that what they are suffering is abuse. This is why it is important that
abused women or their family and friends be able to recognize their
experiences in sources such as newspaper articles.
Newspapers are a readily available source of information for much of
the population of the United States. They have survived the introduction
of the telegraph, radio, and television, and have flourished with the
invention of the Internet (Copeland, 2003). A report by the Newspaper
384 JOURNAL OF EMOTIONAL ABUSE
Association of America (2008) reveals that, on average, newspapers are
read by 62% of the population. Although 85% of households get basic
cable television, due to the large number of varied channels, newspaper
reaches more adults than any of the top 10 cable network channels,
including the Discovery Channel, CNN, or the Fox News Channel. Even
for those unwilling or unable to buy a paper or subscription, newspapers
can be picked up off the sidewalk, on coffee shop tables, or from bus stop
benches where they have been discarded. For those with computer and
Internet access, the day’s news articles can be accessed online for free
(Copeland, 2003).
In addition to being a readily accessible source of information for
much of the population in the United States, newspapers have tradition-
ally served as a forum for society to discuss and deliberate issues. Not
only is this done within the pages themselves, but newspapers in particu-
lar have served as catalysts for public debates, “in settings ranging from
public gathering spots to homes, from public ceremonies and orations to
private conversations” (Copeland, 2003, p. 110). The media, of which
newspapers are a part, serve to inform, guide, and influence the public.
They help mold our conception of the world and society around us, and
are capable of acting as tools of social control (Cohen & Young, 1973).
What information is selected or omitted and where it is placed in the
paper by editors, printers, or owners, whether intentionally or uninten-
tionally, effects change, shapes opinion, and reinforces ideas (Copeland,
2003).
It is important to note that IPV in general is underreported in newspa-
pers. McManus and Dorfman (2005) found that newspapers report IPV
incidences “less frequently, less representatively and with less depth
than other kinds of crime,” and the ratio between stories-per-arrest
about non-IPV violence and IPV violence was 8:1 (p. 51). If the occur-
rence of emotional abuse is excluded from many media accounts of
domestic violence, the overall underreporting of IPV or domestic vio-
lence points to an even greater dearth in the reporting of emotional
abuse by news stories.
METHODS AND SOURCES
The articles I have selected for textual analysis were found by conduct-
ing an electronic search of the online version of the news sections of six
newspapers. The Chicago Tribune, Houston Chronicle, Los Angeles
Christy-Dale L. Sims 385
Times, The Denver Post, The New York Times, and Rocky Mountain News
were searched for articles containing terms related to “domestic violence”
covering January 1 to March 31, 2008, and a total of 36 articles relating to
domestic violence or IPV were retrieved through the search.
2
The rela-
tively small number of newspapers and the limited date range of the
search allowed for a more detailed analysis of the text of the articles than
would a more extensive quantitative approach. Each of the papers
selected for the search was chosen for its high readership numbers in
large metropolitan cities around the United States. Between September
2005 and August 2006, Chicago Tribune was read by 36% to 46% of
the adult population (depending on whether it was a weekday or a
Sunday edition) in Chicago and nine surrounding counties. Houston
Chronicle reached 42% to 53% of the adults in 19 counties between
March 2006 and February 2007. Los Angeles Times between February
2006 and January 2007 reached 28% to 35% of the population across
five counties in California. The Denver Post or Rocky Mountain News
was read by an estimated 57% to 68% of the Denver metropolitan area
between March 2006 and February 2007, and although The New York
Times was only read by an estimated 19% to 22% of New York area
adults, it reached 10 million adults nationally (Audit Bureau of
Circulations, 2007).
Combined, these newspapers were read by over 18 million adults in
the United States, and each of the papers has a readership of at least
50% women. Of these women readers, an average of 58% are
employed outside the home, and an average of 43.2% of the households
surveyed have children at home. This suggests that even some of those
individuals busy with work and family take the time to read the paper.
Newspaper readership is not limited to the educated and affluent, as an
average of 43.8% of readers never went beyond high school, and an
average of 23.2% of households surveyed made less than $35,000 each
year. Ethnic minority readership numbers are well below that of
Whites, but vary greatly by geographic location of the newspaper
(Audit Bureau of Circulations, 2007). All of these statistics suggest
that newspapers are still a relevant source of information for much of
our population across gender, education, or employment status.
Although newspapers are accessible for many, the possibility still
exists that victims of abuse are cut off from even this information
source. Despite this, the access that friends and family of abuse victims
have to newspapers reinforces the essential role newspapers play as a
resource about abuse.
386 JOURNAL OF EMOTIONAL ABUSE
READING INTO DOMESTIC VIOLENCE—AN ANALSYIS
OF NEWSPAPER ARTICLES
Previous studies of newspaper articles about IPV have found that the
articles frame the discussion of IPV in one of two ways: episodically or
thematically. Usually newspaper articles tend to be “heavily skewed
toward episodic framing, which focuses on the individual and tends to
ignore the larger social context within which IPV occurs” (Carlyle, Slater, &
Chakroff, 2008, p. 180). Of the few articles that were identified in my
search, most framed IPV episodically, while the rest acknowledged the
larger societal themes surrounding IPV. Although a rhetorical analysis
more often concerns features within the text, the articles found for
the purposes of this analysis are more remarkable for what is not there:
none of the articles explicitly mention emotional or psychological abuse.
The dearth of emotional abuse discussions in news articles suggests to the
reader the idea that domestic violence includes only physical forms of
abuse.
The abuse present in the relationships presented in these articles gener-
ally becomes newsworthy when it results in the death or attempted killing
of the victim: A “domestic-violence dispute” led to the stabbing death of a
girlfriend (“Beau Charged in Denver Stabbing Death,” 2008); a partici-
pant in a love triangle murder-suicide “was arrested for domestic violence
in Denver in 1993” (Scanlon, 2008); a woman who stabbed her boyfriend
was arrested for domestic violence when her “romance turned to
violence” (Bunch, 2008); and in New York there was “an increased focus
on domestic violence offenders since 2003 that has reduced domestic
violence homicides” (Hauser, 2008). The pairing of domestic violence
and murder leaves audiences to think that domestic violence always leads
to murder because domestic violence is inherently a form of physical
violence. The implicit meaning conveyed here that domestic violence is
physical effectively eliminates emotional abuse as a possibility from the
audiences’ assessment of abuse occurring within their community.
Audiences consistently exposed to the pairing of a domestic dispute
and murder may also receive the impression that the death was the result
of a normal fight between a couple that went awry, instead of reaching the
understanding that domestic violence and abuse are ubiquitous social
problems that need to be dealt with on a societal level. This impression is
furthered because, in general, journalists frame individual, not societal,
factors as being responsible for abuse (Johnson, 1989). When reporters
focus on the ironies of domestic violence situations, when violence is
Christy-Dale L. Sims 387
discussed in such a way that it seems to be an anomaly in an otherwise
normal, peaceful neighborhood, there is the risk that readers will be left
with the impression that abuse is not part of everyday life for many people
(Coté & Simpson, 2000). A clear example of this is the opening to an
article about the shooting death of a fire marshal:
Christmas lights lined Tarrington Street on Staten Island, but one
spot on the block stayed dark as a hole. It was as if the same pistol
that killed its owner, Douglas Mercereau, took the life of his house,
too, its time of death suggested by the “Happy Thanksgiving” sign
in the front window. (Wilson & Baker, 2008, ¶1)
The impression given here is that a happy home in a peaceful neighbor-
hood, gearing up for the holidays, has been wrongfully destroyed by
violence and that such violence is not a common occurrence in a place
such as this.
The “murdercentric” focus of domestic violence articles is not unique
to the newspapers in the five major cities examined in this article. In fact,
the proportion of deaths resulting from IPV in comparison to total number
of incidences is highly exaggerated by the media (McManus & Dorfman,
2005). Such a murdercentric focus gives the audience the impression that
abuse often ends in death, a statistic that is grossly overstated. This strat-
egy of telling the audience that abuse leads to death goes a long way in
persuading them that abuse, therefore, only involves physical forms of
violence. The exclusion of descriptions of nonphysical forms of violence
in depictions of abusive relationships potentially presents the audience
with the implicit argument that if it is not physical, it is not violent. In
newspaper articles, the ratio of IPV murder stories to all IPV articles
exaggerates the ratio between IPV murders and IPV felony arrests by
263 times (0.63:0.0024; McManus & Dorfman, 2005, p. 52). In the sam-
ple of articles examined in this article, of the 36 total articles, 19 involve
the death of the victim, the abuser, or both.
Newspaper articles’ murdercentric focus is largely due to the prevail-
ing opinion by news organizations that sexual and physical forms of IPV,
particularly cases in which a partner is killed, “tend to be the only ones
that conform to journalistic ideals of ‘newsworthiness’” (Carlyle et al.,
2008, p. 175). This trend to focus on what is newsworthy is also common
in news reports of child abuse, in which “reporters make no attempt to
give the participant’s perspective . . . [because] the typical case of child
abuse is not very dramatic” (Johnson, 1989, p. 10). The vast majority of
388 JOURNAL OF EMOTIONAL ABUSE
cases are not seen as “good news stories” by the media, resulting in a dis-
proportionate presentation of the more dramatic cases of abuse (Johnson,
1989). Instead, news items that seem to defy social norms, to contrast
with our idea of the mundane, and that sound dramatic have greater
salience for journalists, and mark what many reporters deem newsworthy
(Hall, 1973).
The majority of articles found in this search only briefly mentioned
domestic violence and often did not elaborate on the details, effectively
minimizing the focus on the domestic aspect of the violence. An example
of newspaper’s minimizing the impact of violence within the home is a
complex story recounting the execution-style killing of a man. The arti-
cle’s author tried to convey the personality of the killers, and included the
information that the killers had domestic violence records, and that one of
them “was arrested a second time in August, again accused of hitting his
wife” (Burnett, 2008, February 23, ¶10). Although these domestic
violence charges are not the focus of the article, the troubling aspect of
their inclusion is the description later in the article where the instance of
domestic violence noted previously is instead described as getting into a
“fight with his wife” (Burnett, 2008, February 23). The domestic violence
is specifically downplayed in this reference, presenting the illusion of a
marital spat instead of a beating. Through the framing of the abuse as a
fight between husband and wife, one may receive the impression that
violence enacted at home by the accused is not as important as violence
they have committed against others.
One of the only articles that acknowledged “crimes of domestic vio-
lence” may exist without physical assault concerns a former sheriff being
investigated for a stalking warrant (Ensslin, 2008). However, details of
the case are nonexistent, and the article instead focused on his arrest, not
the actions leading to it, again leaving the audience to infer what crimes
of domestic violence and stalking entail. The story of the victim was
noticeably absent from the piece, so the emotional violence associated
with being stalked was ignored and only the physical act of taking the
sheriff into custody was depicted.
A notable exception to the passing reference to domestic violence
without the provision of details is the story of Mark Jensen’s conviction
for poisoning his wife, Julie Jensen, with antifreeze and suffocating her.
The article stated Julie Jensen’s recounting of her suspicions about her
husband to police, a neighbor, and her son’s teacher, but all of it was
addressed in terms of being evidence in the court case. The presentation
of this horrific situation as evidence, instead of as a lived experience,
Christy-Dale L. Sims 389
minimizes the emotional impact it would have if recounted as an intrinsic
part of Julie Jensen’s life (Antflinger, 2008). This demonstrates the diffi-
culties that journalists face in their attempts to present readers with a story
that is not only emotionally rich and accurately portrays an abuse victim’s
experience but can still be deemed factual instead of conjecture.
This is also the case in an article about a murder-suicide in Philadelphia
in which the author adds a short note at the end of the article that the
woman killed, Paula Beres, told a coworker she “feared for her safety
because Braun [the eventual killer] was coming to visit for the weekend.
But [First Assistant District Attorney Kevin Steele] says no restraining
orders have been found to document a history of domestic violence”
(emphases mine; “Two Die in Murder-Suicide,” 2008, ¶1). Steele’s
comment in the article failed to recognize that many victims of domestic
violence are unable to obtain restraining orders against their abusers for a
variety of reasons. Through his comment, First Assistant District
Attorney Steele did not acknowledge the vast numbers of women who
experience all types of IPV and do not or cannot report it, which would
prevent a history of domestic violence being compiled. The reporting of
Steele’s comment with no further description of the difficulties women
experience when trying to obtain legal help or restraining orders without
direct evidence of death threats or physical marks of battery succeeds in
presenting the audience with the impression that simply fearing for one’s
safety does not constitute a violent relationship that warrants help.
When the director of the San Juan County Detention Center, Tom
Havel, was charged with kidnapping, aggravated battery, and intimidation
of a witness (his wife) for allegedly “beating his wife and holding her
against her will,” the reporter again revealed in more detail the events
leading up the arrest of the abuser. The episode was recounted in more
detail than many others, and after Havel was described as grabbing her
hair and then choking her, the author said he “got a gun and threatened to
shoot her and himself when she tried to leave the family home Friday.
Eventually, Havel told her she could go, but that he would kill her if she
told anyone about the fight” (“Jail Director Arrested,” 2008, ¶2).
This piece went the farthest in providing the audience with an under-
standing of an abused woman’s experiences, but again made no mention
of the emotional abuse inherent in death threats and being held against
ones’ will, or the history of the relationship leading up to this point. Also
apparent in this piece was the divide between the private sphere of the
home, where abuse often goes unpunished, and the public sphere, where
abusers are more often held accountable for physically attacking their
390 JOURNAL OF EMOTIONAL ABUSE
partners. In this case, Havel threatened to kill his wife as she tried to
escape the private sphere, the family home, and threatened her again if
she told anyone (i.e., revealed to the public sphere) what he had done. By
escaping to the public realm and seeking help, Havel’s wife was able to
bring in societal forces that are better able to exert control over her
husband, resulting in his arrest.
Two articles from the Los Angeles Times (Blankstein, Landsberg, &
Esquivel, 2008; Krikorian, 2008) also provided detailed accounts of the
events leading up to a domestic violence murder-suicide involving Curtis
Harris and Monica Thomas-Harris. Harris’s threats and kidnappings of
his wife were described in order to highlight for the reader the failure of
the legal system to protect Thomas-Harris. In this case, Harris was
released on his own recognizance for a month before beginning his prison
sentence, and in that time he again kidnapped his wife, this time killing
her and then himself. These articles are important in that they bring the
reader’s attention to the long-term anxieties and fear experienced by
victims of abuse, and the legal system that in many cases does not pro-
vide the victim with the complete help or protection needed. However,
these articles also continue the murdercentric trend of domestic violence
newspaper articles, particularly through quoting the executive director of
the California Women’s Law Center, Katie Buckland, who said, “These
deaths were sadly predictable . . . This is the classic cycle of intimate
partner violence” (Blankstein et al., 2008, ¶5), suggesting to readers that
IPV predictably leads to death.
The articles discussed to this point address IPV incidences in an epi-
sodic way, situating the incidence as a stand-alone occurrence, or as it
relates to individual relationships. It is also important to note that in each
of them, domestic violence was linked to assault, attempted murder, or
homicide, conveying to the audience the sense that domestic violence
only takes intensely physically violent forms. The following articles
instead addressed IPV in such a way as to acknowledge that it is a broader
societal concern. The articles did this through mention of anti–domestic
violence laws being passed and through discussion of resources or pro-
grams for domestic violence victims, such an as initiative by the United
Nations to increase awareness of violence against women, and Santa Fe
businesses training their employees to help abuse victims. This thematic
approach to domestic violence is an important step in raising awareness
about the pervasiveness of abuse in the home, but once again, no explicit
mention of emotional, psychological, or verbal abuse was made despite
the opportunity presented.
Christy-Dale L. Sims 391
Within my search, several of the articles addressed IPV thematically
and recognized that it is not only a problem in the United States, but also
globally. Three articles recognized women and advocates’ efforts and the
difficulties they face raising awareness about domestic violence in China
(Glionna, 2008), Nepal (Goering, 2008), and the United Arab Emirates
(Worth, 2008). Another article, although set in the United States, focuses
on Muslim women’s experiences with domestic violence and how their
religion has an impact on their own and other’s perceptions of abuse
(MacFarquhar, 2008). A significant article that thematically addressed
domestic violence on a global scale discussed a new initiative by the
United Nations (UN) to end violence against women (Lederer, 2008). For
the campaign, called Unite to End Violence Against Women, UN Secretary-
General Ban Ki-moon is calling on men around the world to intensify
efforts to end violence against women.
3
Importantly, Ban notes that
“violence against women compounds the enormous social and economic
toll on families, communities, even whole nations” (Lederer, 2008, ¶5)
and by doing so he recognizes that violence against women extends
beyond the private home into the public realm. This recognition is also
apparent in his call for violence against women to always be considered a
crime, which it currently is not.
Despite the global inclusiveness of the program discussed in this arti-
cle, and the stated aim of pushing for better legal protection for women,
the speech and its accompanying story presented in this article continue to
deemphasize emotional abuse as a valid form of violence. Among a list of
violences enacted against women, Ban says, “At least one out of every
three women is likely to be beaten, coerced into sex, or otherwise abused
in her lifetime” (Lederer, 2008, ¶1). From this statement, any violent
behaviors against women that do not always involve physical beatings or
forced sex are designated as “other.” The role of other is one victims of
emotional abuse are often forced into in their search for resources and
help escaping their emotionally violent relationships.
An important set of articles that addressed domestic violence themati-
cally were those that discussed attempts to help victims or offer more
information about IPV. One of these addressed the attempts of a slain
victim’s family to implement the use of global positioning system devices
to track violators of protection orders in Illinois, and explicitly described
the fear and harassment victims often suffer (Ford, 2008). In California, a
lawmaker is pushing for a database through which the public could check
domestic violence records, similar to sexual offender databases that are
already in place (Cathcart, 2008; Sanders, 2008). The description of a
392 JOURNAL OF EMOTIONAL ABUSE
teen abuse helpline that is available both over the phone and the
computer, called Love is Respect, is a strong example of resources that
victims of abuse and the people who know them need information about
(Viren, 2008). Interestingly, however, is that all of the examples of
“unhealthy” relationships that are described when urging teens to call
include physical violence, suggesting to readers that if emotional violence
occurs on its own with not accompanying physical violence, a call to the
hotline is not warranted.
An article describing the steps the Ute Mountain Ute reservation are
taking to end violence contains passing mention of improving or enacting
domestic violence laws and also focuses on the larger societal issues
relating to domestic violence (Burnett, 2008, January 17). On the Ute res-
ervation, domestic violence is paired with arsons, drunken-driving deaths,
and killings, a list demonstrating the severe physical nature of the types of
violence the reservation is trying to curb. Again we see the implicit fram-
ing of domestic violence as physically violent and linked to death. These
crimes are attributed to broken homes, drug and alcohol abuse, and “a
deep-seeded anger visible in many of the younger people” (Burnett, 2008,
January 17, ¶3). Through mention of these presumed causes, this article
explicitly stated that in order to reduce the violent occurrences on the
reservation, larger societal problems must first be addressed. This is an
important inclusion in the article as it demonstrates to the reader that
solving violent acts should not be relegated to the private sphere. How-
ever, an opportunity to relate how “deep-seeded anger” may present itself
in forms other than physical is avoided here, again offering the argument
that anger is expressed in physical form.
Even in the newspaper articles that address abuse thematically as a
social problem, the consistent pairing of domestic violence and/or sexual
assault throughout the article without further explanation of what domes-
tic violence may involve produces for the audience an implicit link
between domestic violence and sexual assault. This pairing implies to the
reader that domestic violence is related to assault, a term with largely
physical connotations. This is the case even in articles mentioning
resources for victims of domestic violence, such as the St. Louis event,
“Walk in Her Shoes,” meant to raise awareness and celebrate survivors of
domestic violence and sexual assault. The founder of the organization is
quoted as saying, “We hope to encourage thousands of women across the
nation who still suffer in silence and have lost their self-respect and self-
esteem as a result of domestic violence and/or sexual assault” (“Shoe
Therapy,” 2008, ¶2). This quote is one of the most all-encompassing of
Christy-Dale L. Sims 393
those yet examined, as it acknowledges the loss of self-respect and self-
esteem that is inherent in abusive relationships; as such, it offers a speck
of hope for women looking for reflections of their own experiences. How-
ever, acknowledgment of the emotional aspects of abuse is lost when the
article does not offer additional explanation of the profound impact these
losses of self-respect and self-esteem have on a victim. The point is lost as
the article continues to use only the terms domestic violence and sexual
assault.
An article describing a new Santa Fe, New Mexico, program in which
local businesses provide safe havens for rape and domestic violence
victims is an example of much needed community programs for abuse
victims. Victims can recognize the safe havens through decals placed in
windows and can be assured that within they will find staff “trained to
assist people who have been assaulted or raped by helping them access
appropriate community resources” (“Sante Fe Businesses Provide Safe
Haven,” 2008, ¶1). This idea directly addresses the need for victims to
have help finding access to resources, and even noted that “survivors of
domestic or sexual assault often feel isolated from the rest of society”
(“Sante Fe Businesses Provide Safe Haven,” 2008, ¶2). Although this
article does not directly address the full spectrum of domestic violence
experiences, and again pairs domestic violence with sexual assault, it is an
improvement over the episodic articles mentioned earlier, where using the
term domestic violence with no explanation of its profound effects was
the standard. When the effects of abuse are not explicitly mentioned, the
perception that violence is only physical is reinforced, because domestic
violence is not clearly defined for the reader as inclusive of emotional
abuse.
In a piece describing cuts to domestic violence agency services due to
funding, the author did an admirable job of incorporating the extent of
domestic violence within the United States in order to stress the social
importance of the services being cut (Twohey, 2008). However, even
with the mention of shelter beds and counseling services being cut, this
article still placed more focus on domestic violence murder rates and
quoted a shelter’s executive director as saying, “Any person could be one
of the people in a relationship that is very, very dangerous. That could
lead to death” (Twohey, 2008, ¶5). The decision to stress the potential
deaths that funding cuts may cause is drastic, and presents a warped view
of the reality of the majority of abusive relationships. However, it is also
likely an effective strategy in the attempt to encourage people to help
financially or to actively advocate for more funding, as it plays toward the
394 JOURNAL OF EMOTIONAL ABUSE
misconception that domestic violence is inherently physical and often
deadly, a scenario likely to inspire sympathy from potential advocates.
These articles make an important contribution to increasing the pub-
lic’s awareness of experiences of domestic violence. They could be made
even more beneficial, however, if they were to offer an explanation of
domestic violence within the article, instead of assuming all readers know
what the term means. Although rare, a journalist offering a definition of a
common term is not unheard of. For example, Walberg and Slife (2008)
clarified for readers that, “Homicide is a technical term meaning that a
person died at the hands of another. It does not necessarily mean the death
was the result of a criminal act” (¶2). If, within an article, journalists were
willing to briefly clarify the meaning of domestic violence or IPV to
include emotional abuse, readers who previously thought domestic vio-
lence and IPV only included actions such as assault or battery would have
the opportunity to reevaluate and expand their understanding of abuse.
IMPLICATIONS OF THE INVISIBILITY
OF EMOTIONAL ABUSE
Where did I find the courage to pack that bag and leave? I think that
last shred of nerve must have been hiding behind my appendix, or some
other equally useless organ. It must have hidden itself in a deep, dark
cranny where he couldn’t see it to take it from me, and I didn’t remember
it was there to give it to him.
I have spent the last two years rebuilding an identity from the scraps
that I was able to salvage from the smoking wreck on the hillside that my
relationship became. I couldn’t take much with me; the flames were
already licking at my hands, so I grabbed what I could and ran. Looking
back I think, if only I had escaped when I first saw us going down, instead
of hoping repairs could be made midair. After, I wandered off dazed, con-
fused, and lost, with only shreds of my former self intact, thinking I had
been through so much; confused as to why such a painful relationship
went on as long as it did.
Explicit discussion of emotional abuse within public newspaper arti-
cles is nonexistent, marginalizing the experiences of those suffering from
it. A woman suffering in an emotionally violent relationship is not likely
to see her own experiences reflected in the articles about abuse that cur-
rently appear in the newspaper, as the current trend is to discuss only
physical battery and sexual assault. Also missing from all the articles
Christy-Dale L. Sims 395
I examined was mention of how to contact resources should one see her
own experiences mirrored in the article. The only exception to this is the
case of the article about the teen dating violence helpline, where the con-
tact numbers appear in an information box to the side (Viren, 2008).
Although this is a feature that is by no means required of journalists,
given the potential of newspapers as a public resource, it should cer-
tainly be taken into consideration by newspaper article writers and
editors. The lack of acknowledgment by the newspaper that it is an
important avenue of information for women in abusive relationships
severely limits the potential resources of victims of abuse. In addition,
because news media is pervasive in our society and is expected to be a
reliable information source about social problems and the various con-
sequences and causes of such problems, how issues are framed by the
media has the ability to significantly shape how its audience understands
social phenomena (Carlyle et al., 2008).
Through journalists’ lack of recognition of emotional abuse and
nonphysical forms of violence, domestic violence as presented in
many newspaper articles is implicitly characterized as solely encom-
passing physical forms. In the process, reporters rhetorically limit the
meaning of abuse to exclude the experiences of victims of emotional
abuse. The most important implication of newspapers articles’ refram-
ing of abuse and violence as sexual and physical is that women who
are trapped in emotionally violent relationships are less likely to be
aware that they may be living in an abusive situation and, as a result,
remain in the relationship. As IPV has only been recognized as a pub-
lic social problem with legal ramifications since the 1970s, the scant
attention given to emotional abuse is a marked complication in efforts
to help victims of abuse (Carlyle et al., 2008).
Before the 1970s, when domestic violence was socially sanctioned,
abuse was viewed as a private affair, reflecting an individual or family
problem. Now, nearly four decades later, a perceived lack of social
responsibility still surrounds the issue, and the social tolerance of all
forms of IPV is reflected in the silence surrounding them (Carlyle et al.,
2008). Abuse is usually enacted within the privacy of the home because it
is a sphere in which abusers can exert power and control over the victim,
as well as avoid social sanctions. In addition, it is also difficult for victims
to even discuss what is happening with those outside of the home. For
women who are physically abused, their bruises act as a discursive text
crossing the boundary from the private sphere of her home into the public,
visible sphere where the law can intervene and a crime be charged.
396 JOURNAL OF EMOTIONAL ABUSE
Victims of emotional abuse, however, do not bear visible marks of the
violence they have suffered, complicating efforts of victims’ advocates to
have emotional abuse recognized by the criminal justice system, and
even, at times, the victims themselves (Shearer-Cremean, 2004). The
strength of the taboo against talking about family matters in public
extends to witnesses of domestic violence. It is difficult enough for
victims and witnesses of domestic violence to seek help, but newspapers’
unwillingness to present emotional violence as a form of abuse exacer-
bates the problem by not informing the public that emotional abuse is a
form of domestic violence, potentially reducing victims’ awareness that
they are even being abused.
Consigning abuse and violence to the private sphere of life results in
victims holding themselves individually responsible for the violent situa-
tions in which they find themselves, instead of acknowledging the larger
social structures that facilitate the domestic violence. Because family
concerns are seen as individual concerns within the private sphere, the
taboo against speaking about it remains in place, as does people’s unwill-
ingness to report incidences they witness, in the name of respecting
others’ privacy. The perceived placement of domestic violence in the
private sphere is a vital reason that the media needs to be involved in
disseminating as much information as possible about the fact that domes-
tic violence does not only include physical forms of abuse. The news
journalist has traditionally acted as a “gatekeeper” “between different
publics; between institutions and the individual, between the spheres of
the public and the private, between the new and the old” (Hall, 1973,
p. 87). Not only do journalists act to inform society, they also have the
power to make public topics that would otherwise remain private. When
news media fail to situate reports of IPV into the broader social context,
they are reifying the view that IPV is a private matter and does not need to
be addressed within the public sphere. This positioning of the crime as a
strictly private matter may result in continued silence by its victims.
I argue that the explicit inclusion of emotional abuse within newspaper
articles about violence and abuse is an important step in the widespread
societal acknowledgment of emotional abuse as a form of domestic
violence that must be addressed.
Although it is possible to file a restraining order for harassing phone
calls, stalking, physical assault or battery, and threats of assault, it is diffi-
cult if not impossible to gain institutional intervention into emotional
abuse processes, which slowly but systematically destroy a person’s sense
of self. Women often have fewer economic resources than do men, and
Christy-Dale L. Sims 397
when being controlled in an abusive relationship, women’s social
networks and resources may be diminished or nonexistent, often resulting
in abused women having no legal or social avenues of escape. The result
is that while abusers gain compliance from victims through abuse, they
also incur no personal costs such as arrest or imprisonment for emotion-
ally abusing their partners (Cahn, 1996; Chung, 2007; Colton, 2004).
Between 1997 and 2003, over 700 state-level statutes were passed
addressing domestic violence, demonstrating the increasing awareness
within the public sphere of the dangers of IPV (Bridges et al., 2008).
However, the efficacy of these laws is often measured through homicide
rates of women by their partners, highlighting that lawmakers limit the
legal definition of violence within the home to only physical forms,
despite the official CDC definition of abuse that includes emotional
aspects of violence (Bridges et al., 2008).
Despite the increase in the number of statutes addressing physical
domestic violence over the years, it is only through increased exposure in
the media that public policy can continue to be impacted in favor of
victims. Media depictions of incidents and issues concerning IPV are
important in efforts to reduce and eliminate IPV because policy makers
use the media to determine which issues the public cares about (Carlyle
et al., 2008; Cohen & Young, 1973). A newspaper’s power lies not only
in the information it transmits but also in the emotion it elicits, and media
generated conceptions of social problems both reflect and help shape
society’s views (Cohen & Young, 1973; Johnson, 1989). According to
Johnson (1989), “sociologists recognize the relevance and importance of
emotionally provocative mass media accounts for creating new social
problems” (p. 5), a situation that has been effective in the past concerning
issues such as child abuse and marital rape.
For example, in the 1970s and 1980s, mass media reports about
child abuse and neglect appear to have played a key role in presenting the
public with “the official conception and definition of child abuse, as well
as promoting existing or planned official interventions, policies, pro-
grams, and budgetary requests” (Johnson, 1989, p. 16). The stories that
appeared in the news about child abuse framed it for the audience as a
social problem and, in turn, the news reports acted as a catalyst for the
creation of agendas and funding to address the issue of child abuse and
neglect (Johnson, 1989). Although domestic violence and IPV are being
addressed by the media, the implicit framing of them as physical acts of
violence results in emotional abuse not being addressed. If emotional
abuse is not explicitly addressed by the media as a common social
398 JOURNAL OF EMOTIONAL ABUSE
problem, it is not possible to increase awareness and raise the funding that
domestic violence programs desperately need.
As I have related with my story, when I left my abusive relationship
it was not because I recognized that it was violent and abusive. If I had
waited to learn that my life was indeed an example of abuse, I would
still be trapped in a cycle of violence that I did not recognize as such.
This is because the definitions of abuse and violence I was exposed to
through daily life did not reflect my experiences, and I did not attempt
to look for more information about abuse because I did not recognize
that I was living it. The incomplete depiction of violence and abuse
offered by newspapers may be unintentional, but nonetheless, it ful-
fills Brummett’s conception of rhetoric as influencing and managing
social meaning. Although the CDC defines IPV as “threatened,
attempted, or completed physical or sexual abuse or emotional abuse
by a current or former intimate partner” (CDC, 2008, p. 113), through-
out the newspaper articles analyzed here, emotional abuse has been
excluded from the meaning of domestic violence. Instead, the newspa-
per articles reference domestic violence in conjunction with sexual
assault, battery, and murder, pairings that effectively render emotional
abuse invisible to readers. If journalists wish to be more inclusive of
the experiences of abused women, and to provide information to their
readers, it is important that the emotional and psychological impact of
abuse be included in reports of domestic violence.
The potential result of the invisibility of emotional abuse in news
stories is that victims of emotional abuse are unlikely to see their own
experiences reflected in the stories of abuse they read, and are unlikely
to recognize the violence they live through as abuse, instead adopting
the physically focused characterization of violence offered by newspa-
pers. Without discussion of emotional abuse in a form accessible to
victims of coercive, controlling, and emotionally abusive relation-
ships, women trapped in these relationships are less likely to realize
that what they are experiencing is an abusive relationship. The inabil-
ity to recognize an emotionally abusive relationship potentially limits
or eliminates the likelihood of victims to seek help. Daily newspapers
are in a unique position to offer victims easy access to information
about abusive relationships and resources where help can be found. If
the invisible wounds of emotional abuse are not brought to light
through public avenues, providing women the knowledge and
resources they need, women suffering through these violent relation-
ships lose what is possibly their one beacon of hope.
Christy-Dale L. Sims 399
NOTES
1. To represent the gendered scenario of many cases of abuse, when referring to
perpetrators of domestic violence and abuse I use the masculine pronouns “he” or “his,”
and when referring to victims I use feminine pronouns.
2. I have included two newspapers from the Denver area, The Denver Post and Rocky
Mountain News because they are jointly owned. Although each one publishes separate
editions Monday through Friday, a single edition is published each Saturday and Sunday,
and as a result readership numbers are often combined for these two papers.
3. An interesting language choice made by Lederer, the article’s author, is an explicit
reference she makes to physical violence when describing this UN campaign to end vio-
lence. Specifically, Lederer (2008) says Ban is, “calling on men to combat the problem”
(emphasis added) (¶1). A battle or war reference appears again in the actual statement by
Ban, when he says, “speaking up against [violence against women] is a badge of honor”
(emphasis added) (¶1), a term that generally references medals earned in combat. Using
these terms highlights the pervasiveness of violence throughout the global society, as it
would appear even when trying to end violence, we cannot help but to refer to it.
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