Obsessed

In our society , we often make the mistake of underestimating the significance of stalking. Any pattern of unwanted attention, gestures and contact of any kind should not be taken lightly. When a person is being overly persistent, even after one has said no; many red flags should be going up. Stalking could result in far more than the guilty pleasure of the stalker, it could result in trauma or even death. Even though it could be assumed that most reports of stalking put the woman as the victim and the male as the perpetrator, our society has created a portrayal of stalking that has made it seem like it is an act that only a man  could commit. That however, is very incorrect. A woman stalking a man could be just as dangerous as a man  stalking a woman. For instance, the Movie Obsessed, staring Beyoncé Knowles. Her husband is being constantly stalked and manipulated by the new secretary. This new secretary has a hard time understanding that  she is not wanted and that the male character is not interested. Throughout the film she fails to understand that her persistence is not admirable nor desirable as she believes that it is. She is under the impression that  all of her  actions are romantic and that  she should  be repaid with  gratitude and love. She tries to  use her sex appeal  and  seduction  as a way to  win over the male, however due to  societies assumption that women  are hopeless romantics and men have the power and privilege to  bring women  to  a weak  submissive state, the male is blamed for seducing her.  This could be seen  in  the film   by the way  in  which  the detectives  would question the male over and over about his behavior,  rather than  the secretary’s. In  this film, the police officials assume that the man,  who is a successful,  attractive  business man, has the privilege of fixing this problem if he “wanted to”. Given that we live in such  a patriarchal society, the sexism  within  it shows that  men  have all the say  in these situations. That however is not the case in this film when the power of the woman show the consequences of stalking. Beyonce, the wife, takes matters into her own  hands when  the situation gets out of control. After realizing that her husband was not at fault, she defends him and her family  by  stopping the stalking. The fatal ending of this story  is only  one example of what can  happen when  stalking gets out of hand, it can also  demonstrate the danger of stalking even when being committed by a woman. As a society we should try working on  not putting a gender on the crime, but rather seeing a problem as what it is.