The Abuse Litmus Test: A Classroom Tool to Assess Power and Control in On‐Screen Relationships

• Author: Julianna M. Nemeth,Amy E. Bonomi,Asia A. Eaton,Tameka L. Gillum
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12237
• Published date: 01 February 2017
• Date: 01 February 2017

A E. B Michigan State University

A A. E Florida International University

J M. N Ohio State University

T L. G The Sage Colleges

The Abuse Litmus Test: A Classroom Tool to Assess

Power and Control in On-Screen Relationships

Despite university efforts and recent evidence-

based interventions to reduce campus sex-

ual assault, few systematic approaches have

addressed how media depictions of sex and

romance that inundate young adults via popular

culture help to develop and sustain attitudes

and behaviors that tolerate sexual abuse and

intimate partner violence as normative. We

introduce a feminist-informed pedagogical

tool—drawing from the Duluth Power and

Control Wheel and the Women’s Experience

with Battering Framework—to facilitate col-

lege students’ decoding of relationship power,

control, and harm in popular lm, including

dynamics relevant to sexual assault. We include

step-by-step instructions for implementing the

tool in classroom settings, including estimated

duration, script, sample lms, discussion ques-

tions, and debrieng procedures (including

linking to campus assault dynamics).

Corresponding with this issue of Family Rela-

tions on campus sexual assault, we outline a

feminist-informed classroom tool, the Abuse

Department of Human Development and Family Stud-

ies, 552 W. Circle Drive, East Lansing, MI 48824-1312

(bonomi@msu.edu).

Key Words: Feminism, intimate partner violence, pedagog-

ical and curriculum issues, sexual abuse, television and

media.

Litmus Test, to help college students iden-

tify relationships reecting an imbalance of

power, control, and harm in popular lm,

including dynamics relevant to sexual assault.

Because most sexual assault takes place within

known relationships (Basile, Chen, Black, &

Saltzman, 2007; Truman, 2011), including in

college-setting hookup relationships (Bonomi,

Nichols, Kammes, & Green, 2017; Flack et al.,

2016), it is critical that students have skills

to decode power dynamics across sexual and

nonsexual interactions (Burnett et al., 2009).

Having these conversations in classrooms, using

popular lm as an analysis medium, opens dia-

logue and adds to the multiple-dose education

needed to address sexual violence on college

campuses (Coker et al., 2016; Nation et al.,

2003; Senn et al., 2015).

Our tool is informed by two existing fem-

inist frameworks: the Duluth Power and Con-

trol Wheel (Pence & Paymar, 1993) and the

Women’s Experience with Battering Framework

(Smith, Tessaro, & Earp, 1995). Both of these

frameworks highlight men’s dominance in posi-

tions of power and authority (Giddens & Grif-

ths, 2006) and the link to relationship vio-

lence perpetration (Forke, Myers, Catallozzi, &

Schwartz, 2008; Tharp et al., 2013). We also use

intersectionality theory to note how age, race,

ethnicity,gender, and being differently abled can

contribute to oppression in relationships (Cren-

shaw, 1989, 1991).

154 Family Relations 66 (February 2017): 154–165

DOI:10.1111/fare.12237