Violence

I have never been a victim of domestic violence, but I have known females who have been physically abused by males. When I moved into my first apartment in Hattiesburg this year I stayed with my two cousins. The apartment complex we moved into usually doesn't allow guys to live with girls, but since we were all related they allowed it. At first everything was fun because classes had not started yet. We were all just hanging out and having a good time. My guy cousin was the only one with a car at the time. My girl cousin had a car, but it was being fixed up at the time so he was our only mode of transportation. Once classes started however, the whole ride situation was starting to get out of hand. We all had classes at different times and we knew that our cousin was getting tired of driving us around. We started finding our own rides, but it seemed like that was even problem. We started to associate it with him losing power. He started to feel like he didn't control us anymore because we could do things without him.
Eventually we stopped speaking to each other, and he started always bringing guys over to keep him company. They were guys he grew up with like his brother and his best friends from high school, but they always ate the food we bought and we had to clean up after them. Finally one day things went bad. Our cousin didn't answer our phone calls to pick us up from campus, so we had to find a ride again. When we got there he was sitting on the couch with all his friends laughing. We didn't speak to him we each just went into our rooms. Soon I heard him banging on my cousin's door, cursing her out, and making a huge scene in front of his friends. She walked out her room and they began arguing. Soon his brother joined in and they both started grabbing on her and pushing her around. I tried to help, but my cousin's friend told me to stay in my room. I came back out just in time to see my cousin pick my other cousin off the ground and throw her across the room into a wall. She blacked for a little while then got up and tried to call the police. He started to wrestle her for her cell phone and I called people to come help. Eventually all the guys left, and my cousin and I went to the police station so she could file a protective order against him. We had him removed from the apartment and placed somewhere else. I thought I would witness something like that, and I felt completely helpless. She had many bruises on her arms and back.
We both agreed that all played out just so he could seem manly and in control in front of his friends. We still really do not speak him, because he never seemed to realize he did wrong. I've tried to reach out to him because I think he needs help, but you cannot help somebody who does not want to be helped. It was a scary moment and I hope I never have to witness it again. I'm just happy my cousin is okay.

"Sex Talk"

My mom has always been the one to give me "the talks." My dad tried once to give me a talk and it was all bad. I remember it was before I went to prom my sophomore year. I didn't have a date necessarily or anything because it's a junior-senior prom. My friend didn't have a date either so she invited me to go with her. Either way I wasn't going with a guy. My dad had it stuck in his head that since I'm going to prom I had to be going with a guy.
My dad decided to take me out to eat one day, which was very strange. Since I don't live with my dad I only see him on holidays or when something dealt with sports in my life. Because he wanted to take me out to eat, I knew something was wrong. He started off the conversation joking around with me about if wanted to order a limo for prom and all that stuff, then things went bad. He said, "Prom is such a cliche thing." I already knew where he was going. He started saying, "When I guy thinks your pretty, he'll be real sweet and ask you to go to things like prom and such." He then said, "And after a guy is real sweet, he's gonna want you to be sweet in return." I practically threw up in my mouth. I wasn't sexually active at the time, and to think my dad was trying to give me the "talk" just grossed me out.
He started saying how "giving it up" on prom was cliche and I would regret it for the rest of my life. He is so bad at things like that and it was so awkward. It took me a while to even think about sex again because every time I tried to I pictured my dad.