Intimate Partner Violence Obscured by Privilege.

Reading the news over the weekend about the funeral of Yeardley Love, the 22 year old lacrosse player that was beaten to death, I couldn’t help but think about the role that privilege has in silencing, ignoring or perpetuating intimate partner violence. The man arrested for the crime? Her boyfriend, 22 year old lacrosse player George Huguely.
Lacrosse is considered an elite sport, perhaps not the most sophisticated sport, but it is played and supported by more privileged members of the sports community, be it those race privileged or class privileged and generally more of the former. The majority of the coverage of this case has focused on how this incident is a tragedy, but hasn’t totally made the connection between feelings of entitlement and instances of intimate partner violence.
This isn’t the first time a college lacrosse team has been in the spotlight for potential involvement in beating, raping or abusing a woman. If we think back to the Duke rape case a huge part of that case prior to the charges being dropped was the role that entitlement played in how the story was told and the assumptions people made about not only how privileged people conduct themselves, what behavior they are entitled to and of course how the university responded.
Similarly, it appears the UVA’s failure to effectively address the reality that Love’s death was in fact due to intimate partner violence makes one think they too are trying to obscure the reality that domestic violence is a problem among white, middle class, college students as well.
Last week Amanda Hess pointed out that UVA’s response to this potential act of intimate partner violence with releasing information of how strangers could attack you is essentially ignoring the root of the problem,

UVA police have instructed students how to avoid and/or respond to the following: An attack on the grounds of the university. Getting hit by a car. A late-night street attack. An attack by an unknown intruder. An attack through the window. An attack by a prowler. An attack by a peeping Tom. An attack by a suspicious filmmaker.
Police believe that Love was killed by a more likely suspect–a man she knew. In general, women, and particularly young women, are more likely to be killed by someone they know than by a stranger. So why hasn’t UVA included any information here about domestic violence?

You can see the full statement by UVA police chief over there as well. UVA’s response shows us something that is a fundamental part of how intimate partner violence is understood. Outside of flat out denying that it happens, violence against women is considered something that happens outside of your own privileged community and something that happens when you are walking down the street, most likely by someone who is not a member of your community. However, statistics tell us otherwise. According to research put out by the Center for Disease Control in 2009, each year, women experience about 4.8 million intimate partner related physical assaults and rapes. This statistic surpasses the possibility that the majority of violence against women happens outside of their own community, but quite the opposite. As long as we obscure this possibility moving to healing and community based solutions will stay out of our reach.