My doc and my book are taught in many classrooms. Here’s one assignment that I thought was great. Thanks for sharing this Sara!
SEARCHING FOR ANGELA SHELTON FOUND A HOME IN SOCIAL PHENOMENA
Sara Faught
Pittsburg State University
Angela Shelton was born December 5, 1972, in Asheville, NC. She is a model, actress, author, speaker, comedian, film maker and incest molestation survivor. Shelton began modeling in New York City as a late teen, but at nineteen moved to Paris to model until settling in Los Angeles in 1996 in pursuit of an acting career. Although Shelton first began acting at age eight, it wasn’t until her move to Los Angeles that she began her career on television and in movies. After landing her first leading role, she joined with that film’s director and adapted her first novel Tumbleweeds: the film won the filmmaker’s trophy at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival. Shelton made her directing debut when she chose to travel America interviewing other Angela Sheltons in an attempt to survey women. The multi-award winning film Searching For Angela Shelton captured the journey of the healing process from her childhood sexual abuse via traveling the country in a rented RV. Shelton surprised herself, and the world, when it placed a spotlight on sexual abuse and domestic violence and unified a movement of healing for abuse survivors worldwide (www.angelashelton.com).
Angela Shelton’s film Searching For Angela Shelton has become a social phenomenon. The journey of one woman has spoken volumes to both victims and survivors worldwide. Shelton’s movie is shown to students across the nation, in film festivals, and is now available to buy all over the internet. The impact of her movie is certainly a result of the material it created from, but also due to the honesty of the material which makes it different than what society is used to being exposed to. Shelton has been welcomed to universities, seminars, conferences, Congress, and many more places to share her story, experience, and ideals about the prevention and awareness of sexual abuse and domestic violence. There are many attributions that all have to deal with the amount of support that both the movie and Angela Shelton herself have found as a reaction to the movie. I believe that five of the key components in the success of Shelton’s movie are: peer pressure, credibility, representation, peripheral persuasion and the affect of the media and propaganda.
Peer pressure is a huge problem for today’s adolescents and even for some adults; there are consequences to those who tend to go “against the grain.” There is such a demand to conform and to go along with what everyone else is doing, so as not to stand out in a negative way. Individuals are constantly judged by their actions and ideals. There are multiple articles that talk about the negative impact of peer pressure; however, there can be a peer pressure in a positive way as well. In certain situations, an individual could be against doing something for fear or failing, however, with persuasion from their peers they may be convinced to try and find themselves succeeding.
Credibility is defined as the quality or power of inspiring belief (www.merriam-webster.com). There is a large amount of questioning of credibility going on with the amount of information that is now available via internet. There are numerous websites that claim to have reliable information; it is the job of the individual requesting information to decipher if it is credible or not.
Representation is defined as a statement or account made to influence opinion or action and a usually formal statement made against something or to effect a change (www.merriam-webster.com). Speaking as an incest survivor, Angela Shelton is representing an entire group of people who share a story of abuse. Being able to see that she was able to successfully complete her healing journey, let alone find success in her life, is very important to victims who have the potential to heal and become survivors themselves.
Peripheral Persuasion is being persuaded to a decision or idea based on your emotional biases instead of relying only on fact and logic. I believe that a great amount of the societal reaction to Shelton’s movie is not because of the statistics that she shares, or the research that is associated with her endeavor; it’s about the everyday people that share their story with her. The warmth that is portrayed between survivors and the hope that all victims can one day be better is what makes this movie different than any other in its genre.
The media and propaganda heavily influence society today. The majority of American’s get their information primarily from the internet and news stations. While credibility or lack there of, is a huge part of this, there is still a large amount of the world who do not take the time to research the information that they are presented any further than the article they are reading or the show that they are viewing.
As an incest survivor, Shelton now travels the country to try and help more victims find their way down their journey of healing. Shelton was invited to speak in Congress, numerous universities, on military bases, high schools and elementary schools, community centers, conferences and seminars (www.angelashelton.com). The reaction from her movie, Searching For Angela Shelton, is undeniably because of her relation to her fans. She is someone that people can believe, and can believe in. She not only travels to speak, she is networking and making an immense amount of friends everywhere she goes. There can now be a credibility associated with her name because of her affiliations and alliances. Just as important to her credibility, is her representation of her story because of the personal experience. Shelton’s personalization of the crime makes her marketable to the victims who come across her film. She is very relatable and personable; more importantly she’s accessible. She is always updating her MySpace, Facebook, YouTube channel, websites, etc. She stays after seminars and conferences and will not turn down the chance for someone to contact her. She has a blog page, a website specifically for people to email her about their stories and she often writes them back with words of encouragement. She has also started the Angela Shelton Foundation (www.angelashelton.org)
Angela Shelton’s movie has been viewed and shown all across the country. It is shown in classrooms, homes, theaters, and film festivals. Because of the success that it has gained as a tool for educators, there is the chance that a student may see it against their initial consent. Not all students who have watched Searching For Angela Shelton are victims; however, those who are may have a difficult time with the material. A victim who hears the synopsis may choose to shy away from the experience if they do not feel that they are ready. Depression, anxiety, guilt, fear and withdrawal are just a few of the common problems associated with sexual abuse victims (www.apa.org). A victim who is experiencing a mixture of those problems could be afraid to speak out against the movie or even state that they don’t want to watch it. In doing so, the movie could turn out to be a negative experience for them. The positive reaction, however, is for a victim to watch the movie in class and be moved and inspired. Discussing sexual abuse is a difficult task, however, watching the combination of stories told by various Angela Sheltons may be a way for the victim to relate and see that they are not alone. The women who are portrayed in the movie are everyday women: mothers, wives, daughters, sisters, friends, neighbors, co-workers, etc. There is nothing that they did that led them to that fate. Seeing that portrayed in a movie may help a victim realize that their rape was something that happened to them, not something that they did.
While statistics are a huge part of the available information on sexual abuse and domestic violence, the leading persuasion of Searching For Angela Shelton was peripheral, not central. Shelton’s speeches consist of similar statistics that several websites share. The most common statistics found are that every two minutes, somewhere in America, someone is sexually assaulted; one in six American women and one in thirty-three are victims of sexual assault; about forty-four percent of rape victims are under age eighteen and 80 percent are under age 30 (www.cbsnews.com). Listening to statistics can often become a strain on listeners and viewers. More often than not, a viewer can remember more from a movie than they can from a lecture. It was the impact that the women portrayed in the movie had, not necessarily the information that was given. “In the back of my mind, I thought I was gonna find that the statistics aren’t really right, and that there are more women than you really think are being abused,” said Shelton, “But I didn’t really want to find that,” Shelton shared with Bill Lagattuta when she was interviewed for 48 Hours (www.cbs.com). What was found was that seventeen out of fifty-five Angela Sheltons, who agreed to talk with Shelton, had been sexually and/or physically abused and had a story they were willing to share. The stories differ between sexual and physical abuse and some are not personal, but rather a family member or friend’s abusive experience. One of the women shared a story about how she was walking with a friend and was grabbed by a perpetrator, but her friend followed them and helped her to escape. There are also stories about abuse that happened from the hands of spouses and significant others.
Media and propaganda are two of the most important reasons that Searching For Angela Shelton has reached the stature that it has. Media and propaganda are the largest influence in our society today. The majority of American information access lies solely on what you can read online or see on television. There is a greater pull towards the internet because of its convenience and accessibility to the public, unfortunately, in a lot of cases the credibility of the source isn’t questioned. Although Angela Shelton is marketable because of her personal ties to the material shown in her movie, I believe that the impact lies heavily in the fact that the material was shown in a media format and not seminar. I think that there is something different about watching the movie and experiencing each individual story; as opposed to reading it on a piece of paper, website, or by hearing it through word of mouth; which I believe plays directly to the emotions of the individual audience members. Seeing an Angela’s face as she recounts her experience and watching the bond grow between the women, will stick with the audience members for years if not their lifetime. I am not saying that there isn’t a benefit to research and teaching. It is still very important that teachers use traditional tools to get the message out about sexual and physical abuse. Teachers across the country are finding more ways to add media into their curriculum. Professors often supplement PowerPoint, educational videos and YouTube, to add a visual aid to the information that they are teaching. It’s common practice to talk about a topic and also show a movie about the topic as well. It’s a way to give the information in a generic way but to also add a creative spin to try and heighten the retention of the material. Doing this not only can increase the interest of the material but also give an example for the student to remember that will help them later associate the idea.
What can we learn from this? There is a lot to be learned from Angela Shelton’s example as a person, as well as from her movie. She has taken her negative experiences and from them has created a positive, social phenomenon. Her story has been shared with all generations, all genders, and at multiple venues. Her actions, as well as her hope for our world to one day be bettered by individuals taking the time to care, are what make her movie more than just a generic documentary. I believe that two of the largest things that can be learned, are the importance of having a visual aid to go along with information as well as the availability and accessibility of awareness and prevention of sexual abuse and domestic violence.
Another thing that can be, and has been learned from this movie, is the creation of the Angela Shelton Foundation. The Angela Shelton Foundation was created to help “inspire and empower all survivors or abuse and to heal and lead joyful lives” (www.angelashelton.org). The foundation works on many projects including The Survivor Manual, workshops, providing assistance to other organizations and projects that have the same hope and passion, and to empower and aid all survivors of sexual abuse and domestic violence. The Survivor Manual was created by Angela Shelton as a way to better reach out to the victims that she has met, but also to hopefully be able to reach out to the masses as opposed to only individuals. She says that the goal is to provide answers to the myriad of questions that survivors face as well as ideas, inspiration, information, resources, healing techniques, and recommended reading, watching and doing as well as ways to get involved, news to know, and ways to change the world (www.angelashelton.org). Shelton hopes that the manual can be a guide to the victims who come across it. Not every victim or their story is the same, however, the information found in the manual can be perceived in a unified way that can hopefully relate to any and all circumstances.
Angela Shelton will continue her work promoting awareness and change for as long as there is a need to. The hope of Searching For Angela Shelton is to open the eyes of society and create help for advocates like Shelton. The fight to end sexual abuse and domestic violence can appear to never end, because of the evidence of the cycle of abuse. The cycle of abuse eludes that an individual who is victimized often grows up to victimize another. While breaking the cycle may be only a hopeful action, finding more people to help in the promotion of awareness can be as easy as turning on the television, looking at a website, or the passing of information by word of mouth.
Works Cited
1. 48 Hours. (n.d.). Breaking News Headlines: Business, Entertainment & World News – CBS News. Retrieved July 28, 2009, from http://www.cbsnews.com
2. Angela Shelton Foundation. (n.d.). Retrieved July 28, 2009, from http://www.angelashelton.org
3. Angela Shelton. (n.d.). Retrieved July 28, 2009, from http://www.angelashelton.com
4. Leung, R. (2004, July 30). CBS.com – Official Site of CBS. Retrieved July 28, 2009, from http://www.cbs.com
5. Searching For Angela Shelton trailer.. (n.d.). Retrieved July 28, 2009, from http://www.youtube.com
6. What Do You Think About Angela Shelton?. (n.d.). Retrieved July 28, 2009, from http://www.youtube.com
7. What are the Effects of Child Sexual Abuse?. (n.d.). Retrieved July 28, 2009, from http://www.apa.org/releases/sexabuse/effects.html
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