Stop Kiss Analysis

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Analysis of the Violent Theme in Diana Son’s play “Stop Kiss”
The play "Stop Kiss," by Diana Son is a story about the diversity of love as portrayed by the main characters Callie and Sara. The play elaborated the previous love experiences of these two female characters until they fell in love with each other; however, they were subsequently harassed and attacked by a stranger one evening, which caused Sara to fall into a coma. The play made use of a dual story line sequence by alternating the scenes that happened before and after the attack. Although there are recurring themes about love and paralysis, the theme about violence should be further studied as it deals with grave social issues such as violence against women and gender discrimination.
The female characters’ experiences in the play corresponds to the incidents of violence against women suggesting the pervasive nature of the crime. This gender-based crime is recognized by the United Nations as a crime manifestation due gender inequality between the parallel power of men and women that can lead to multiple forms of harassment (“Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women”). However, harassment, specifically sexual harassment, is defined by the point of view and experience of the victim (Fairchild 193), not the perpetrator. In the second scene of the play, it triggered an unexpected twist of violence to the female characters by an unknown person. The whole story about the assault was fur...