THE TRUTH: LIFE IS UNFAIR

Violence is one of the most disturbing issues nowadays and it’s becoming more dangerous. Violence has
always been defined negatively; it is a behavior of a person which involves abuse or aggressive force to hurt or even
kill someone. There are different types of violence and each type has their own signs and symptoms. It can occur in
different relationships, it can be inside your family, husband and wife relationship, friends, or even violence within
yourself. Many factors can affect the approach of the violence.

The movie titled “I, Tonya” is a 2017 true to life comedy-drama film directed by Craig Gillespie and written by
Steven Rogers. It is a story about Tonya Harding, a figure ice skater, who experienced different kinds of abuse that
affects her life, career, and even her future. Starting from her childhood, she grew up loving and obsessing over ice
skating. She was enrolled by her abusive and foul mouthed mom, LaVona Golden, in an ice skating class that would
develop her skills. At the age of 4, she already won her first competition and that was the start of her career. As she
aged, her mom started to become harder on her wherein her mom gives her criticisms that would make her feel
degraded. She wants Tonya to be really focused on ice skating to the point that she manipulated her when to use the
bathroom, prohibit her from talking or spending time with other people, and even humiliate her in front of others.

Tonya when off the ice is just a happy well-adjusted girl who spends time shooting rabbits with her dad. She really
has a good relationship with her dad until the time he left because of her mom. At the age of 15, she lives with her
brother who abused her sexually by holding her breast while preparing for her first date with Jeff. Her first date
became more memorable since her mom accompanied them on their dinner. When Tonya and Jeff got in a
relationship, Jeff started to show his love through creating damage. They had verbal fights and beat each other in just
few months. Tonya would just let him hit her and forgive him when he utter that he’s sorry and he loves her. At that
time, Tonya had a perception that getting beaten means getting loved. She then started to show signs of being a
battered wife when she started to have this guilt thinking that the abuse was normal and was her fault. While Tonya
becomes older, signs of physical abuse were also seen, as she avoids physical contact from her mother when they
converse about Tonya losing the competition; like she always do, she always blame Tonya. They cursed at each
other until her mother didn’t control her anger, threw a knife at her and hitting her arm. After the incident, she moved
out with her boyfriend, lived well together and even married each other.

Tonya continued her career in ice skating career as she sacrifice a lot of things including her school. She would
always lose in every competition she attended because the judges would give their higher marks to those who are
less talented girls with a good attire and attitude. In the 1991 Nationals at Minneapolis, Minnesota, she skated her life
through success but before performing her mother paid her stepbrother to make her feel bad but instead she was
motivated to prove everyone wrong. At that time, she succeeded to do an extreme stunt that only few would attempt
and it leaded her to the top, making her the first American to do a triple axel. By that, she immediately felt loved. After
the nationals, living well with her husband didn’t last; they both think that something has changed. On the latter part,
Tonya was always getting beaten with every move that she makes causing her to file a restraining order to her
husband and left him alone. But they still went on and off with their marriage.

Tonya continued to make her mark on the world of figure ice skating as she continued to live with violence. She
trained really hard and skated her way up to the Olympics. Her life was full of success until an incident happened that
destroyed her whole career. 1991, few weeks from the Olympics, Jeff and his sidekick, Shawn, started to make
competitive ideas to frighten Tonya’s opponents which was planned to be threat letters but ended up whacking the
knee of Nicole Kerrigan, her rival skater. Jeff planned everything thinking about the anger he has from Tonya. Tonya
got accused, catching the fault of Jeff and Shawn. She had her final performance at the Olympics, then got a fine and
became prohibited from ice skating forever.

I, Tonya is a movie that shows how much impact it can give to a person who is exposed to it starting from
her childhood. The director delineates how it affects the upbringing of Tonya. She grew up in a cruel world where she
received physical, verbal, social, and emotional violence or abuse. Having bruises or wounds on every part of her
body, foul words hanging up on her ears, and living with the smell of cigarettes and liquors didn’t really give her a
chance to live a better life. She was toughened to become a fierce competitor wherein she was taught to use blame
and shame as a defense mechanism to face the hardships of life, just like the way she blames the ice skating shoes,
its blades, or laces when she lose in a competition. Instead of being corrected in a proper way, she would use her
power to physically hurt her and she said that it’s her own way of giving criticisms. She endured every beating she
experienced and failed to learn that if it hurts then it’s not love; she always reasons “My mom hits me and she loves
me”. Domestic abuse was seen in the movie as soon as her husband entered her life. She would blame herself for
the abuse that she has gone through because she was desperate to feel the love that she never experienced;
including the fact that she became a battered wife. Ice skating was the only thing that makes her happy. When she
made the triple axel, she smiled ear to ear and said “At the moment, I was love”. The most heartbreaking violence
that has happened to her was when she was economically abused as they removed her privilege to skate ever again.
Hearing those made her feel that the order was like a life sentence and that she would rather do the jail time because
she said, “I am no one if I can’t skate”. Tonya continued her career which is boxing, she reasons “violence was what I
knew anyway”, wherein she felt loved again because people still wanted to see her.

This movie showed a story of violence rooting someone’s life. Being abused can affect the person’s growth and
development. A simple physical abuse can be immediately associated to verbal and emotional abuse. Living with it
seems to be normal when a person grew in a family violence, but with violence a person would have a hard time
getting the love that they need or want. In the movie, Tonya didn’t really know how life can be better because she
doesn’t experience or know the example of a healthy family living. Life isn’t fair. Tonya had her journey worse than
anyone. She failed a lot of times but one thing is for sure, she stood up and fought for her life. Her life may be the
living world of violence wherein everyone just tried knocking her down but she stood up with her passion wearing
smile and razor thin blades.