murdered by my boyfriend is a drama on BBC3 showing the demise of a young girl as she's taken over by her boyfriend. as the name suggests, we know how it's going to end, but that doesn't make it any less shocking.
i consider myself relatively heartless but watching this has genuinely bought me to tears.
i think it's because of the strength of the character portrayal; ashley (the girlfriend/subject of abuse) is lively, chatty, popular. she doesn't fit any sort of stereotype behind the usual idea of 'abused'. reece (our abuser) does fit the representation somewhat.
the drama as a whole is very cleverly put together. the fact that it's a true story simultaneously kills me, and urges me to do anything i can in the future to lower domestic violence rates. it's all well and good everyone saying 'if my boyfriend was to hit me i'd leave him straight away'. everyone can say it, but in practice it's a whole different matter. not that i have any experience in this area, but watching and being in ashley's shoes throughout the programme does enlighten viewers into a real life situation for it.
that's the only thing missing from the programme in my opinion - although i can see where ashley is coming from when she takes reece back, i would do the opposite; run. obviously this is only from a viewer's point of view (it's gotta be completely different in 'real life' so to speak) but repeatedly taking someone abusive back is never going to end well. i'm 110% aware this is the most narrow minded view point ever, but i think, along with the help of this programme, more women (and men) will be able to see the long term prognosis of being in a relationship like that.
as a character, reece is dislikable straight away. his demeanour, his glances, his behaviour and attitudes towards ashley. that's no two way relationship - that's subtle abuse at its best. following on from this, the programme shows the friends in two different lights. on one hand, they are supportive - they urge ashley to leave reece and tell her they'll protect her. on the other side though, they don't do enough - although how much can you really do?
it could be argued that the statistics are the most shocking part. 229 women in four years are murdered as a result of domestic violence. that's just over one woman a week.
one woman a week is killed for being herself. because, realistically, that is where domestic violence is rooted from. however you try to phrase it, the cause is the same. one woman a week is murdered. i can't get over that.
my favourite thing about this programme is the awareness it brings to such a big issue. there are now hundreds of tweets/comments, meaning there are now a lot more young people who know the details of these things. the more people become aware, the less taboo it becomes to tell someone 'my boyfriend punches me' and the more can be done about it.
watching 'murdered by my boyfriend' has definitely sparked my interest (if you can call it that) into domestic violence and has encouraged me to challenge it and fight against it as a journalist.
