In a 1993 interview with Vanity Fair, Tina Turner was asked about what she had stood up for, to which she responded succinctly, “I stood up for my life.”
As a rock and feminist icon, Turner’s candidness about the violence she endured from her ex-husband and musical partner, Ike, was revolutionary. By openly addressing the issue, she became one of the first prominent figures to shed light on domestic abuse, giving a voice to countless others facing similar situations.
Her bravery initiated a transformative shift in the discourse surrounding domestic violence and the treatment of survivors. Importantly, Turner refused to let her experiences define her.
After first revealing the abuse to People magazine in 1981, in her memoirs and when asked subsequently in interviews, she spoke of the “torture” of her 16-year marriage; about the broken bones and the humiliation, the beatings before she would have to dazzle audiences alongside him on stage.
“I was living a life of death,” she said in the 2021 documentary about her life. “I didn’t exist. But I survived it. And when I walked out, I walked. And I didn’t look back.”
Turner was already a star. But after her marriage, she would later become an icon: the Queen of Rock’n’Roll.
“When a survivor who is in an abusive relationship hears a woman like Tina Turner talk about her experiences, talk about her survival journey, and then can see the success and recovery that she’s achieved – it really does give survivors and those experiencing domestic abuse the courage and the hope to reach out and seek help,” Women’s Aid chief executive Farah Nazeer told Sky News.
“[Turner shows] it is possible to move away from these harmful relationships, which can feel all-encompassing, which can feel like imprisonment. It’s incredibly powerful to have a woman like Tina Turner, an iconic woman, a celebrity, speak out in this way.”
When Turner first revealed the abuse she had endured, it was “revolutionary”, Ms Nazeer says. “It provided a voice to those women who felt that they could not talk about it; it wasn’t something that was societally acceptable to talk about.
“It began that transformation where we now do talk about these issues, and we now do accept more and more that domestic abuse is the crime of the perpetrator and survivors shouldn’t feel guilt, they shouldn’t feel shame. But that was very much the culture in those days.”
Boney M singer Liz Mitchell, who was friends with Turner, praised the star’s courage in overcoming the struggles she faced in life. “Today, her whole image is a testimony for many women to realise that things can go wrong in your life, but if you can find a way out of it, take the way, and move on like she did. She just stayed strong.”
Source: SkyNews