Oparah: Media Analysis

“We’ve Had Enough!”:

-Oppression and its Many Facets-

The story of the female oppressed is an unusually long one. It has managed to wheedle into the mouths of women even in feminism’s most notable triumphs; like in those small voting booths and frightening women’s clinics. I have come to realize that much of a gender’s (or race’s) oppression is birthed from the imminent backlash of that particular gender’s advancement or betterment. Backlash, which has been defined by the American Heritage Dictionary, Fourth Edition as “an antagonistic reaction to a trend, development, event, or social or political change”, has slowed the advancement of the feminist movement for years now (starting with first-wave feminism to third). Susan Faludi argued the same in her Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women that backlash is an historical trend, recurring when it appears that women have made substantial gains in their efforts to obtain equal rights.

Initially when assigned this Media Analysis, I was at a loss of what form of media I could analyze with a feminist lens and enjoy doing so. Although, it was not long before I determined that I would find my feminist niche in film. When remembering some films from the past, I noticed how fatally full they were of potential feminist criticism… like the 1991 film Sleeping with the Enemy, which depicts a wife who must murder her husband, who has been stalking her ever since she left him. As well as in the 1998 film The Rainmaker, in which a young lawyer who has befriended a battered wife ends up beating up her abusive husband in self-defense. She then stops him, when he is at the point of killing her unconscious husband saying, “Get out, you were never here” and proceeds to finish off the husband herself. Finally, in the 2002 movie Enough, where a resourceful wife stands up to her abusive husband from the start, leaves taking their daughter, and changes her identity several times. When a lawyer informs her that she could not stop her husband’s harassment through legal channels, she hires a trainer, bulks up, entraps her husband and beats him to death. The idea of analyzing such “in your face” feminist material made me uncharacteristically excited!

So I have decided to truly investigate and disassemble the movie Enough starring Jennifer Lopez, unearthing those ‘O so prevalent’ traces of oppression that lie within each scene. Having said all this, I will, in one thousand or so words, argue how women are constantly faced with the oppression of their gender in all possible ways, by utilizing the events and people (who lead a seemingly “normal” life) in the movie Enough.

Before I dive any further into the heart and meat of my argument, let me first warn you, my reader, of my novice and abridged feminist diction. Simply because it seems I have already committed a “Feminist No-No” by making use of the word, “normal”. Though, allow me to re-establish my credibility as a feminist critic by defining my use of the word in this context. I will begin by saying that stories of killer women are both shocking in their inversion of one set of gender expectations—women are weak, nurturing, nonviolent-and reassuring in their confirmation of another set of equally venerable gender conventions—women are evil, sneaky, and dangerous. Interestingly, the films with which I began do not depict women as monstrous. All of these films have happy endings and insure the suffering heroines a promising future in several ways. Often they gesture toward a future relationship between the woman and her rescuer, as a way to reassure us that she has not been discouraged from heterosexual coupling by having to kill her husband… and by this strange explanation of conforming to continual heterosexual relationships, I mean to define: “normal”.

Throughout the film Enough, countless moral issues are revealed that women are faced with each day. These issues range from the societal perception of female inferiority to financial dependence, which as a result led to violence. The scene, in which Mitch lays down his law (and fists), is a very pivotal and feminist attention-grabbing moment. Mitch recites a short monologue, “You wanna fight? I’m a man, honey… it’s no contest! You have to understand, Slim… and I thought you did. I make the money here so I set the rules, right? It’s MY rules, you with me?! […] Today… is the price you pay for having such a good life.” It is in this scene we first witness the physical and emotional oppression that is placed upon Slim by her husband, Mitch. Only a scene later with Mitch’s mother, we are confronted with another form of oppression, where members of society perceives the woman as inferior and/or less credible (this particular form of oppression resurfaces many times during the movie). Slim drives to Mitch’s mother’s house in hope of some consolation or understanding, though after showing Mitch’s mother her bruises, she replies with, “Oh my God… I’m so sorry… what did you do? What did you say to him?” We can immediately see how these accusatory questions can and will be viewed as oppressive. Another way in which we see Slim oppressed is through the issues she had with her father. Slim’s father, “Jupiter”, who is an independently wealthy and well-respected man, left Slim and her mother at a very young age. The fact that Jupiter left Slim to grow without having a father figure in her life is an extremely oppressive notion and can greatly impact a child’s development.

For the duration of the film, countless cases of oppression are brought into light and stem from various characters and genders. From step mothers, best friends, and husbands, to society in general. The movie Enough does a terribly wonderful job of bringing to light the many (and unfortunate) ways that women are constantly oppressed and exploited. After tracing the events of Slim, we have seen how women are constantly faced with the oppression of their gender in all possible ways and how women have “had enough”.