Film Blog #2 (Precious)

Man. Precious was a really heavy film (I don't cry very easily and I don't think I've ever cried during a movie but like honestly this movie had me on the verge of tears at some points like damn). It just paints such a real picture of what this situation is like. Like often when we see portrayals of abuse it either paints the victim as very like...pathetic? I guess, or makes everything seem a lot more straightforward (as does the internet, I have often seen people saying "why don't they just leave!!!"...because it's not that easy. That's not how abuse works. It's a cycle, and it's scary). However, this film makes it so much more complex, and it portrays it the way I feel like it needs to be portrayed, and shows both the abuser and victim (and surrounding parties) in really complex ways. Precious, for example, is a firecracker of a girl. She yells at a classmate for disrespecting a teacher she had a crush on and assaults a girl in her GED class for calling her fat. it seems like, on the surface, that she is someone who demands respect and acknowledgment. However, the scene with her mother show this deeper aspect to it, show how this fierce young woman can become small and docile and scared in front of her mother. And this is true for me- I have seen too many of my proud, demanding, firecracker friends be wittled down in front of their abuser. You fall into a pattern of hoping things get better.  It's just good to see victims/survivors as more than just these people who aren't "smart enough" to get out.
The same thing goes for Precious' mother. We see the whole film scenes of her abusing and bad mouthing and using Precious- but at the end we also get a very...I'd like to say heartbreaking, scene of her mother breaking down because she had to choose between the man she loved and her child. She is given a chance to show that she is a more complex character than what we might have given her credit for. Not that this means she's forgiven, and not that it means that I necessarily empathize or sympathize with her, but it shows her, and abusers for what they are- human. it's easy to paint them as unforgivable monsters, but these people are human, which makes these situations so much more difficult.
It also makes us think more, specifically for me in the way Sarah and you were discussing in class today. I know myself very, very well, which is why thinking about what I would do in that situation is difficult. If I didn't know myself it would be easy. I know that I am generally pretty vocal about my beliefs and how we treat others, and very loyal to my friends and loved ones, and I have very strong convictions. However, I also know that it's hard for me to let go of people, and that i try too hard to please other people, and that sometimes I'm too passive to stand up for myself for fear of confrontation. So it'd be easy at a surface level to say "Oh I wouldn't have let that happen because I have strong morals and stand up for what I believe in," but that's not all of my personality and that's not how humans work. We're complex. Again, this movie creates such a complicated scenario that I respect.