By Al Fatir Connor
In the Netflix series, Maid, there was a mother named Alex and a daughter named Maddy facing all different types of adversity throughout this show.
Maid portrays the struggles of the character Alex as she tries to make things better for her daughter escaping her abusive boyfriend. It underscored the significance of experiencing abuse as a child and all the repercussions later in life. Throughout the series, Alex repressed memories of her father’s abuse of her mother, which caused her to leave with Alex when Alex was young. Alex’s past with her father led to this one scene when she was suffering from financial abuse. Sean turned off her phone knowing she needed it, and that stopped her from going to work. This scene shows how much Sean mentally abuses her by turning her phone off knowing she needs that to be financially stable. Viewers would pay attention to how emotional this scene is because it's about her mental health. This is very scary what she got to deal with while being with Sean. But the show reveals that Alex herself experienced trauma that she hadn’t fully grappled with as a child, and this trauma completely leads to what we see in the scene.
Generational trauma and abuse was not only affecting Alex’s childhood but also her abusive partner Sean's. Sean's backstory was his mother being a drug addict without having a father, and he also had to raise his younger brother. Then both coming from families that have been getting emotionally abused and physical abuse, it’s what they're used to. Throughout this whole series, Alex tries the best that she can do to create a better life for herself and her child Maddy. While Maid has received praise in portrayal of difficulties the main character has had escaping her abusive relationship and finding financial independence, the show is especially powerful in a way it should portray the effect of childhood abuse.
One of the ways Maid shows the effects of childhood abuse on Alex’s and Maddy’s story is the generational effects of domestic violence that are portrayed. Generational effects of the characters on this show are because Paula, Alex’s mother went through domestic violence, Alex herself, and now we see evidence that Maddy, the third generational effect, is starting to experience domestic violence. All of these points to something that's coming from formative years and experiences of childhood. In this one scene where it shows Maddy going through domestic violence is when Alex and Sean had a bad fight in their trailer, and she caught Maddy hiding in a cabinet. But when Alex was younger she also hid in a cabinet when her mother was getting abused right in front of her face. Maid: Netflix Series Addresses The Complexities Of Generational Trauma Between Mothers And Daughters states that, “Consequences are dealt with more rationally as we see Maddy securing a rather better future than what Alex could get for herself. Despite being emotionally vulnerable, both Alex and Paula leave their abusers with the hope of giving their daughters a safer space. This quote means that even though Maddy experienced the same abuse that her mother Alex did, Alex still tries her best to keep that away from Maddy.
While Maid does a good job of portraying the effects of childhood researchers have also documented childhood is a leading cost of domestic violence. This one source, The Impact of Violence on Children states, research indicates that the most important resource for protecting children from the negative effects of exposure to violence is a strong relationship with a competent, caring, positive adult, most often a parent. If kids are around domestic violence, they can bring that with them into their adulthood. This statement means that if you grew up around domestic violence, it will follow you into adulthood. Another source that explains childhood can lead of domestic violence is Prevalence and effects of child exposure to domestic violence states, The specific effects may differ depending on a host of variables, such as the children's ages, the nature and severity of the violence, the existence of other risk factors in the children's lives (for example, poverty, parental substance abuse), and whether the children are also directly physically abused. These sources suggested not only Maid is portraying this, but it is portraying it very accurately.
This show Maid is mostly about domestic violence during their childhood, but one reason that Sean was abusing both Maddy and Alex is because he was an alcoholic. Alcohol can affect people's attitude and demeanor. In this one article, The combination of domestic abuse and alcohol, shows that alcohol abuse can make men be aggressive . The article states, “In a global study of intimate partner violence, the odds were higher worldwide in relationships where one or both partners had problems with alcohol, compared to relationships where neither of them did.” This statement is proof that if there’s a couple in a relationship and the woman is getting abused physically and mentally the majority of the time, the guy has a drinking problem. Another article, Men with alcohol problems 'six times more likely to abuse a partner' was also an example of men with alcohol abuse affecting women. The article states, “Men who are dependent on alcohol or drugs are six or seven times more likely to be involved in domestic abuse against women than others, according to an extensive new study.” These sources show that Maid doesn't only portray childhood abuse but also alcohol abuse.
Lots of people would see the custody issues as an issue of the court, but if we looked deeper we would find the custody situation stems from Alex’s childhood. In this one episode, Alex was going back and forth with Sean through the courts with a week left to stay before she goes to Montana. Her lawyer Regina, served Sean with a restraining order, but he was arguing that he never abused her and that she was lying. To get evidence for her case, Alex asks her father Hank to testify that Sean has abused her, but that her father has a deeper relationship with Sean. Hank refused to testify against Sean. When Alex points out the emotional abuse he saw, he makes excuses for Sean and says the incident was a simple argument. Everything changes when Sean gets his court-ordered visitation with Maddy. When she has a tantrum, he loses his temper and yells at her. He explains to Alex that he hadn't had a drink in 24 hours, and that if a supervisor wasn't with him and Maddy, he would have taken the toddler with him to get a drink. He doesn't want to do that to her, so he decides to sign full custody to Alex.
While child abuse and the experiences of child abuse are certainly prevalent in Maid because others may object that poverty is the underlined issue behind these experiences. Poverty is making the experiences more challenging because people wouldn’t have the resources to go to therapy for help or safety and can be triggering if you don't have that. Poverty is absolutely impacting this in the show because when Alex was leaving her ex-boyfriend Sean, she didn’t have the funds to move into a different house or go to a therapist. So Alex went and found her multiple jobs and worked as hard as she could so she could make a better life for herself and her child. One source I found stated,” Research shows that a variety of factors may contribute to the poverty of women and children who have experienced domestic violence, including lack of affordable housing and lack of accessibility to legal assistance”. Childhood abuse might be the biggest impact that is portrayed in this show, but, poverty also has a big impact in this series.
However, domestic violence at a very young age can affect someone's life and pass it on down the generations in your family. As you can tell Alex's mother Paula, was the first one in the generation to go through domestic violence as a child and it affected her daughter and grandchild. In the scene where Sean turned her phone off to stop her from going to work did have poverty involved with it but, this scene really shows us that Maid portrays poverty, but shows how hidden sometimes the causes of abuse are. Maid also portrays the struggles of the character Alex as she tries to make things better for her daughter escaping her abusive boyfriend.
Author bio: Al-Fatir Connor, Business student at Bloomfield College
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