The Trouble with Romina Garcia

Lately, a lot has been going around regarding Romina Garcia (also known as Romina Kardashian) and her videos and posts regarding domestic violence. For those of you who don't know, Romina is a popular girl on social media. She is well-known for a recent video of hers, where she tells girls all over that if their boyfriend beats them, it means that he loves them and therefore they should stay with them.

Now, this video is very problematic in many different ways. For most of us, those ways are quite obvious. Abuse is about power and not love. No one deserves abuse and should have to put up with it. Even if most people will not fall for this message, there are young girls who will take Romina's advice. Although she has taken the original video down on YouTube, she has re-posted it on Facebook, where she continues to give messages of violence and slut-shaming using social media. (I won't get into my issues with her use of the N word either.)

Like I have said, there are many issues with Romina's message. However, I find there are problems in the responses of many people as well. I am in no way saying that I support her and what she is doing, or am even the slightest bit okay with it. I'm not. But we have to dig deeper in order to see what's really going on.

Is this a way of getting attention and millions of views? There's a high chance that causing an uproar is only for attention. While the idea that she is stating this publicly is outrageous, the fact is, there are many women who actually believe that their partners abuse them out of love. And while I do not support Romina, I do support  the strength and resilience of survivors of domestic violence,

Many individuals who are victim to this sort of violence feel trapped in their relationship. Regardless of their decision to stay or leave, they are never at fault. It is always the fault of the abuser. Many people, in order to survive, associate positive qualities with their abuser. This is called Stockholme Syndrome.

While it might seem like a good idea to call Romina out for her ignorance on the topic, calling her names such as stupid for believing that her boyfriend is beating her out of love is also putting down many other victims of abuse who feel the same about their partners. Yes, there are many reasons why I can understand why people are pinning her as foolish, but thinking that her boyfriend beating her up is out of love is not one of them. This is a serious issue that we all need to think about.

That being said, I do hope that this video is taken down. I will continue to report her social media pages because in no way are they acceptable.