Poster of the Week

When Love Is a Contact Sport Women Lose
Liz Harvey
Women's Action Coalition (WAC)
Offset, 1995
9881

CSPG’s Poster of the Week features a photograph of Nicole Brown Simpson, made during trial of her ex-husband, football hero and television star O.J. Simpson, who was charged with murdering Nicole and Ron Goldman in 1994.  Nicole is shown with eye black, the grease football players put under their eyes to cut glare.  The black eyes also refer to 911 tapes played during the trial that revealed a history of domestic violence throughout their relationship.  Simpson was found not guilty.  It was one of the most sensationalist trials in U.S. history.

Unfortunately, domestic violence takes everywhere and everyday, but only make headlines when the abuser is high profile.  This week two cases of domestic violence involving prominent athletes were in the news—the video of the Baltimore Ravens football star Ray Rice beating Janay Palmer his then girlfriend, now wife, and the acquittal for premeditated murder of Oscar Pistorius, South African Olympic runner and double amputee, who killed his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, while she was  in the bathroom of their apartment.  Pistorius was convicted of culpable homicide on 12 September 2014, but plans to appeal.