final essay
Research Paper: Just let your skin fall
Vivian Kinanee
ENG 1020-06
David Lauriski
July 17, 2012
Just let your Skin fall
It began with chicken dumplings. One night Hefner left the pan she’d used to make a sticky batch of dumplings in the sink to soak and went to sleep. The man she was then married to had a thing about cleanliness---any sign of dust or dirt sent him into a rage. Seeing the dirty pan in the sink upon returning home, he woke Hefner with a punch in the face, breaking her nose and leaving a huge jagged gash under her eye with his wedding ring. Then he went to sleep. Bleeding profusely, Hefner drove herself to the local emergency room, where doctors sewed up her face with 16 stitches. For several years, those scars she received from the stitches told the story and remained as a constant reminder of a domestic abuse that will haunt her for years. Unfortunately, Hefner is only one of several women who have been left with abusive scars from their spouse and can no longer look in the mirror without a flashback of their nightmare. Their nightmares have left imprints of pain and embarrassment from their past; preventing them from moving forward in life. “It was like walking around with a sign on their face saying, I’ve been with an idiot,” recalls a woman from California. Since the physical evidence of her abuse is visible, it brought back painful memories and pulled her back in life instead of moving forward. However, erasing the scars of abuse can give these women a new life and rebuild their confidence in the society. After Glen Hefner received reconstructive plastic surgery, she explained that, “It’s wonderful to look in the mirror without my ex-husband staring me in the face.” Reconstructive surgery in her case was used as the final process of recovery to erase the physical evidence only after she has gone through the
Vivian Kinanee
ENG 1020-06
David Lauriski
July 17, 2012
Just let your Skin fall
It began with chicken dumplings. One night Hefner left the pan she’d used to make a sticky batch of dumplings in the sink to soak and went to sleep. The man she was then married to had a thing about cleanliness---any sign of dust or dirt sent him into a rage. Seeing the dirty pan in the sink upon returning home, he woke Hefner with a punch in the face, breaking her nose and leaving a huge jagged gash under her eye with his wedding ring. Then he went to sleep. Bleeding profusely, Hefner drove herself to the local emergency room, where doctors sewed up her face with 16 stitches. For several years, those scars she received from the stitches told the story and remained as a constant reminder of a domestic abuse that will haunt her for years. Unfortunately, Hefner is only one of several women who have been left with abusive scars from their spouse and can no longer look in the mirror without a flashback of their nightmare. Their nightmares have left imprints of pain and embarrassment from their past; preventing them from moving forward in life. “It was like walking around with a sign on their face saying, I’ve been with an idiot,” recalls a woman from California. Since the physical evidence of her abuse is visible, it brought back painful memories and pulled her back in life instead of moving forward. However, erasing the scars of abuse can give these women a new life and rebuild their confidence in the society. After Glen Hefner received reconstructive plastic surgery, she explained that, “It’s wonderful to look in the mirror without my ex-husband staring me in the face.” Reconstructive surgery in her case was used as the final process of recovery to erase the physical evidence only after she has gone through the