top of page
pop culture references & aesthetics
Lorena Bobbitt
For better and for worse, Lorena Bobbitt's story was huge in the early 1990s. On June 23, 1993, Lorena Bobbitt cut off her husband John Wayne Bobbitt's penis. Lorena left the scene, throwing the penis out of the car window. (Police officers later located the penis and it was successfully reattached.)
This story took the United States by storm, but with Lorena becoming the butt of the joke and John Wayne the hero. When Lorena explained that she committed this act in response to the years of abuse she had endured at the hands of John Wayne--and that the incident directly followed nonconsensual sex--the public was not particularly sympathetic. Lorena was painted as crazy, and John Wayne became a pseudo-celebrity (he even did porn!).
John Wayne Bobbitt was acquitted of marital sexual assault at his 1993 trial, despite multiple police reports with evidence of domestic abuse over the course of their marriage. He went on to abuse several more women, collecting criminal charges and serving time in prison for violating parole. In her 1994 trial, Lorena was found not guilty by reason of insanity, and subsequently spent 45 days in a psychiatric institution.
The Lorena Bobbitt story exposed that the United States was not ready to face the reality that sexual assault can be committed within a marriage.
A four part docuseries on Lorena was released in 2019 and it included interviews with both Lorena and John Wayne. John Wayne continues to vehemently deny that he ever abused Lorena (or any women).
Lorena founded the Lorena Gallo Foundation in 2018, dedicating herself to domestic violence and sexual assault awareness and prevention. You can go to the foundation's website here.
A Lifetime Movie based on this story, called I Was Lorena Bobbitt, was released in 2020. Lorena was an executive producer on the project and the trailer for the film is featured on the Lorena Gallo Foundation website.
Tampons, SlimFast, and Sexual Harassment Inspo Videos
(specifically 8:00-10:15)
(Okay, this one won't let me embed it here, but this one is amazing. Click the image to watch it on YouTube.)
Sources
“Lorena Gallo Foundation.” Lorena Gallo Foundation. Last accessed February 7, 2025.
Rofe, Joshua, director. Lorena. Monkeypaw Productions, 2019. https://www.amazon.com/Lorena-Season-1/dp/B086HWCYP9.
Waxman, Olivia B. “‘He Could Have Killed Me.’ Lorena Bobbitt on Domestic Abuse and What She Wants You To Know About Her Case 25 Years Later.” Time. Last modified June 22, 2018. https://time.com/5317979/lorena-bobbitt-today-anniversary-interview/.
bottom of page