Running Head: FAMILY VIOLENCE IN WYNONNA EARP 1

Family Violence in Wynonna Earp

Megan Foley

Florida State University

November 20, 2017

FAMILY VIOLENCE IN WYNONNA EARP 2

Summary

The SyFy television drama Wynonna Earp first aired in 2016 and has since finished two

seasons. The story focuses on the Earp sisters, Willa (29), Wynonna (27), and Waverly (21), who

grew up in a small, rural Canadian town called Purgatory. The science fiction element of the

series is that the Earp family, descended from Wyatt Earp, is cursed to eternally fight the

resurrected demon outlaws Wyatt killed. The three girls father, Ward, was the heir in charge

of eliminating these demons while they were growing up, and that duty would later fall to

Wynonna when she reached adulthood. The girls mother, Michelle, left their home

unexpectedly one night when the girls were 12, 10, and 4 years old. A pivotal moment of their

childhood occurred one night when they were 14, 12, and 6 years old, when a gang of demons

attacked their home, kidnapping Willa and in the scuffle Wynonna shot and killed her father.

Following this event, the youngest, Waverly, was raised by her aunt and uncle. Wynonna

was in their custody as well, but was frequently institutionalized in juvenile detention centers or

mental hospitals. Willa spent the rest of her childhood and young adulthood held captive in

isolation, and was later placed by her captors in a cult. Wynonna and Waverly end up being

reunited in adulthood after a three year separation caused by Wynonna travelling to escape her

hometown. A few months after her return Willa, who had been thought dead, is discovered with

memory loss when the cult is dissolved. This brings the three sisters together again after an

extended separation.

Forms of Family Violence

Wynonna Earp deals with multiple forms of family violence in its portrayal of the Earps,

from broader domestic violence and spousal abuse, to physical and emotional child abuse, child

neglect, abuse between siblings, and ultimately parricide. With so many aspects of this family
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affected by violence stemming from multiple levels of the familial unit (community, parents, and

children all being sources of violence), family systems theory serves as a good starting point for

understanding the Earps case. According to family systems theory, individuals in a family do

not exist in a vacuum. Instead, their behaviors and attitudes are influenced directly and indirectly

by other members of the family, as well as by other systems connected to the family, such as

extended relatives and communities (Kerr 2000). According to this perspective, the general

climate of fear the Earp family has had to live with for generations due to the supernatural curse

influenced the way Ward Earp approached his own life and parenting style. This theory also

describes how all of the different levels of family violence could sustain each other; for example,

increased environmental stress from supernatural activity leads to Ward bringing home a greater

amount of stress and increases his alcohol use. When Ward drinks more alcohol, he is more

likely to be verbally abusive to his eldest daughter, Willa. When Willa is abused, her mother may

try to intervene, which could lead to her being battered. Finally, Willa decides to let out her own

frustration at being abused and attempts to regain that control by abusing her youngest sister,

Waverly. This scenario also describes the intergenerational transmission of violence, which

family systems theory supports (Kerr 2000).

A second theory of family violence that greatly help with understanding the Earp

familys case is social learning theory. In essence, social learning theory states that people learn

social behaviors and attitudes simply by observation, and then model those same behaviors and

attitudes (Barnett & Miller-Perrin 2011). A simple example of how this theory can apply to the

Earps is that Willa, observing her fathers violent behavior towards his wife and children, while

simultaneously being told that he loves her and his family, may come to the conclusion that you

use violence to show you care about others. She may later apply this pattern of behavior to her
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interactions with Wynonna. Social learning theory has also been implicated in the transmission

of substance abuse through generations, and this can likewise be seen with Wynonna Earp, who

similarly drinks to cope as her father did (Andras 2016).

It is the existence of a broader environment of domestic violence between the Earp

parents, plus the stress of their living circumstances, that creates the home environment of abuse

and neglect for the three Earp children. Child abuse, child neglect, sibling abuse, and parricide

are all areas of family violence given much greater attention by the show, and so can be analyzed

in greater detail and made the central focus of this paper. Additionally, the effects of these

various forms of violence on the three Earp sisters will be discussed, as well as compared to how

research portrays similar circumstances in reality. Throughout the analyses, family systems

theory and social learning theory will be used as lenses for the violence causes and outcomes in

the Earp family. Finally, the social systems that failed the Earps in the show and ways these

systems could have intervened and provided support will be discussed.

Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) or Marital Violence

Of all of the forms of family violence portrayed in Wynonna Earp, marital violence

receives the least attention. Violence between Ward and Michelle is only briefly mentioned by

Willa when she tells Wynonna that ...[Mama would bring us here] when she couldnt take any

more of dads fists (Andras 2016), and though fleeting, this observation lets the viewer know

that intimate partner violence (IPV) was commonplace in the household when the Earp sisters

were growing up. In the United States, it is not uncommon for children to be exposed to marital

violence like this; it is estimated that 3.3 million to nearly 10 million children have witnessed

violence between parents (Barnett & Miller- Perrin 2011). Past research has also demonstrated

that the presence of intimate partner or marital violence in the household significantly increases
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the chances of child abuse, especially physical abuse, occurring as well. A factor analytical study

conducted using the Artemis Intake Questionnaire found that child abuse is one of the seven

major factors associated with male-to-female IPV (Barnett & Miller-Perrin 2011). Husband-to-

wife aggression is most strongly related to the co-occurrence of child abuse from both mothers

and fathers, and is the only direction of marital violence that is related to fathers being

subsequently abusive to their children (Margolin & Gordis 2003).

For the Earps, alcohol was a major factor regarding violent behavior from Ward. He is

depicted in the show as an alcoholic, which falls in line with one of the earliest theories of family

violence studies; that alcohol and drug abuse in perpetrators (AOD) is a significant predictor of

future violence. For example, AOD has been linked with lifetime prevalence for physical abuse,

sexual abuse, and battering, and is a significant predictor of emotional abuse perpetration

(Barnett & Miller- Perrin 2011). The implication of a hostile home environment provides a likely

explanation for why Michelle left home one day and never returned. Alcoholism and marital

dissolution have a bidirectional relationship (Caces, Harford & Williams 1999), meaning that

Wards behavior likely contributed to Michelle abandoning the family. This decision, however,

left her three daughters to deal with the violence on their own; this choice could be argued as

child neglect according to the endangerment standard, since she was aware of the violence taking

place and left the children there to face the potential harm alone (Barnett & Miller- Perrin 2011).

Child Abuse

The three Earp girls experienced various forms of child maltreatment growing up with

their parents, including physical, psychological, and verbal abuse from multiple sources. The

brunt of the physical and verbal abuse, however, was taken by the eldest sister, Willa. For Willa,

the abuse mostly came from her father, Ward. Because she was destined to be the next heir,
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Ward began training her from a young age to use a gun, always be on alert for danger, and

essentially to be a soldier- with all of the traumatic instability that entails. He tried to instill a

sense of duty and fear in her through surprise midnight weapons drills, and would verbally berate

her when she didnt live up to his expectations. He would tell her that her sisters and friends

would be killed, and it would be her fault that it happened (Andras 2016). The flashbacks to

when young Willa is being abused by Ward show him drinking alcohol, implying that his

alcoholism played a role in his behavior towards her as it did with his wife. This climate of fear

along with the immense pressure to protect her family from danger shaped Willas development

as she grew through childhood and entered adolescence.

It is generally understood that adverse events or conditions during developmental periods

in children can have permanent consequences on that childs physical, emotional, and social

wellbeing (Barnett & Miller-Perrin 2011), and Willa is no exception to this reality of surviving

severe, chronic abuse. In adulthood, the time of life the viewer observes her the most, Willa is

characterized as quick- tempered, obsessive, and lacking compassion or empathy for others. In

one scene, she is being taunted by a captured demon, and instead of ignoring the taunts like

Wynonna, she lashes out at him and ultimately shoots and kills him. Willa is also singularly

focused on her mission of revenge against the small town of Purgatory, who she blames for the

trauma she experienced, and is willing to sacrifice other human lives to obtain her goal. She

shows during multiple scenes that she is more than willing to leave Waverly to die in order to

pursue someone she feels wronged her, attempts to kill another character, Nicole, in order to

continue her mission, and wants the entire town to die for how they treated her, even people

who had never met her. She also explicitly calls Nicole, Waverlys girlfriend, one of Waverlys

things equatable to an object (Andras 2016). Willa also tries to kill Wynonna in order to
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spare her and free her from the curse out of love (Andras 2016). This behavior is predicted

by social learning theory, as violent acts were the way Ward showed Willa he cared about her

safety through a tough love philosophy. Since this was how love was modelled to Willa, it

became how she later attempted to show love for Wynonna.

Willas experience of severe physical, emotional, and verbal abuse from Ward, and the

lack of intervention she received, directly contributed to this personality as an adult. Research

showing that antisocial behavior is often caused by external influences like child maltreatment,

and not inherited traits alone, has been building in recent years. A study published in 2010 found

this causal effect existed even in a large- scale sample, with child maltreatment determined

through official instead of self reports, and with genetic variables accounted for (Jonson-Reid,

Presnall, Drake, Fox, Bierut, Reich& Constantino 2010). With the additional factor of

alcoholism present in the Earp household, one may speculate that this would only have

exacerbated the effects from the physical abuse, and made the development of antisocial traits

even more prominent in Willa. This idea, however, is refutable since the presence of physical

abuse itself, with or without alcoholism, is what correlates to antisociality (Pollock, Briere &

Schneider 1990). Essentially, the bad seed model stating an antagonist is born bad that one

often sees in media does not accurately reflect reality. Wynonna Earp is an exception to that

trend with its true-to-life portrayal of an antisocial personalitys development from family

violence.

A socially intriguing aspect of Willas characterization is that her psychological response

to the abuse was to develop traits of conduct disorder from a young age, exhibited by her violent

treatment of younger sister Waverly (Andras 2016). Conduct disorder traits are most often seen

in male survivors of physical abuse, while females often develop traits of codependency
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(Roehling, Koelbel & Rutgers 1996). Instead of seeing this as a factual inconsistency in the

show, it instead seems to reflect the social role Willa occupied in the family. As the future heir,

Willa is responsible for the wellbeing of her entire family and community and must protect them

using violence (shooting and killing demons). The qualities this role requires- stoicism,

emotional distance, bravery, and strength- are often associated with masculinity in our culture. It

should then be noted that the same study that found males developed conduct disorder after

experiencing physical abuse measured maleness based on masculinity trait scores, which it can

be hypothesized Willa may score higher than most women on (Roehling, Koelbel & Rutgers

1996). It is also possible this propensity for conduct disorder characteristics over codependency

is a reflection of the family projection process under family systems theory. According to this

concept, parents transmit their own emotional problems to their children through a self-fulfilling

prophecy of creating situations that elicit a certain behavior, and then intentionally or

unintentionally reinforcing that behavior (Kerr 2000).

Another key consequence of growing up with severe abuse that is not often addressed in

television and movies is the effects on delaying development, yet these delays contribute greatly

to long term maladaptive effects in survivors. One of the most common types of developmental

delays is with emotional regulation (Hanson, Bos, Roeber, Rudolph, Davidson & Pollack 2017),

a skill that is naturally poor in young children but is expected to improve with increased frontal

lobe development, especially the prefrontal cortex. Ironically, this delay can increase the

likelihood of some antisocial behaviors such as impulsivity, which is controlled largely in the

prefrontal cortex (Kolb, Mychasiuk, Muhammad, Li, Frost & Gibb 2012); yet it is rarely given

attention in media as the cause for an abused antagonist's behavior. Wynonna Earp is again

outside this trend by showing Willa to have emotional developmental delays, though this is never
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stated explicitly (Andras 2016). Willa has a fairly uncomplicated, black-and-white view of the

world around her, demonstrated by how she characterizes the town of Purgatory as a singular

entity that hates us and deserves that [demon], which shows a lack of ability to think about

other people as complexly as you would expect an adult to do. She also demonstrates signs of

poor emotional regulation not only with her outburst towards a mildly taunting demon, but when

she starts to get angry that Wynonna isnt letting her do what she wants (beat someone up) and

when she finds out that a six year old Waverly did not grieve her alleged death in a way that met

her standards, i.e. Waverly spent more time focused on the food than Willa (Andras 2016). These

small triggers elicit oversized reactions from Willa, which indicates the poor emotional

regulation capabilities usually seen in elementary-aged children.

Neglect

Child neglect was also a commonplace form of family violence in the Earp family.

Waverly and to a lesser extent Wynonna were both victims of this form of violence growing up.

In the United States, it is estimated that approximately 7.5 per 1,000 children experience physical

neglect, or deficits in having their basic needs such as food and bathing, met. 10.5 per 1,000

children are similarly expected to experience emotional neglect, or deficits in receiving positive

emotional responsiveness and social interaction from caregivers (Barnett & Miller- Perrin 2011).

Physical neglect is not seen on the show, but both emotional and supervisory neglect are

portrayed during flashbacks to Waverlys childhood. Supervisory neglect can be defined as the

failure of a caregiver to provide sufficient supervision to keep a child safe from preventable

injuries (Barnett & Miller- Perrin 2011). While supervisory neglect is not highly correlated with

an increased likelihood of physical injury to a child in the absence of risk factors in the child

themselves (such as chronic runaway behavior), it does still pose concerns for development
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(Ruiz-Casares, Trocm & Fallon 2012). A child who is rarely supervised is also not likely

receiving the emotional and social care they require, so those forms of neglect are more likely to

exist as well.

When Waverly describes her childhood, she talks about how her father would never

remember her birthday. Drawings she made as a preschooler show her being sad with her family

but happy when she was with her imaginary friend, who turned out to actually be a demon

(Andras 2016). A young child being able to befriend a demon and trust him more so than her

own family, while not a situation that can happen exactly in real life, speaks to the level of

neglect she was feeling from her family. It also shows that the supervisory neglect was severe

enough that someone else could spend time with the child and no one knew about it. Waverly

also talks about how Ward was never attentive with her like he was with Willa, who was the

focus of his attention, and that no one ever cared about her progress in school or ordered class

pictures (Andras 2016). The final example of supervisory neglect shown in the show up to this

point is an incident when Waverly was about five years old. Willa had stolen Waverlys teddy

bear and thrown it onto a lake with thin ice, anticipating the young girl would run out and drown

when she fell through (Andras 2016). No adults were present to intervene and protect Waverly or

discipline Willa.

Despite being spared from the kind of physical and verbal abuse her older sister Willa

endured, the severe neglect Waverly experienced had similarly long-lasting consequences on her

development into adulthood. It is important to note that Waverlys mother, Michelle, seemed to

be the only caregiver who viewed her positively and provided emotional and social care to her

(Andras 2016). The subsequent abandonment by her mother at four years old added a cumulative

effect to the later supervisory neglect she experienced when Ward was her only caregiver.
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Parental alienation, such as abandonment in childhood, has been linked to lower self-esteem and

insecure attachment style in relationships in adulthood (Ben-Ami & Baker 2012). As a 21 year

old adult, Waverly continues to show an insecure attachment style in her own interpersonal

relationships, such as with her girlfriend Nicole. For example, Waverly alters the focus of her

identity from the more independent supernatural investigator to Nicoles girlfriend, and

subsequently tries to devote herself entirely to this role at her own expense (Andras 2016). A

similar situation is described by one of the subjects in Ben-Amis study, who wrote The

experience of alienation has infected my own ability to have authentic intimate relationships. I

am constantly approval-seeking, merely transferring my need to keep my mother happy onto

intimate partners (Ben- Ami & Baker 2012: 178). In Waverlys case, it is her attempts at

making her father happy that have transferred.

Additionally, Waverly shows signs of poor identity formation for a young adult.

Essentially, she does not have a strong sense of self and the ability to delineate her wants and

desires from those of other people. This is seen not only when she tries to devote herself to the

girlfriend role first for her high school boyfriend, then with Nicole, but is also explicitly

pointed out by her aunt Gus who tells her that [shes] been trying to do what other people want

for so long, its time she did something for herself (Andras 2016). Family systems theory

provides an explanation for how this unstable identity may have resulted from her childhood

maltreatment. One of the concepts of the theory is differentiation of self, or the ability for an

individual to step away from groupthink and form independent ideas and beliefs (Kerr 2000).

This theory also states that individuals who have a poorly-differentiated sense of self do so

because of influences in their family environment that did not promote differentiation (Kerr

2000). In Waverlys case, the emotional neglect from her father created a reaction in her to work
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as hard as she could to try to earn his approval; when this approval was never earned, she

continued these people-pleasing behaviors, which became so common as to form a basis for her

identity formation as she developed through the preschool years.

Wynonna seems to have experienced a lesser degree of neglect from Ward than Waverly,

but was also never the focus of his attention like Willa was. While not as much a victim of

supervisory neglect as Waverly due to her close age to Willa, Wynonna did still experience

emotional neglect. She is portrayed as taking on a parental role of both Willa and Waverly from

a young age, and this is likely because she was forced to deal with the aftermath of Wards abuse

towards Willa on her own, providing the support a caregiver normally would (Andras 2016).

When Waverly was born, Wynonna transferred this parental role to her younger sister as well

(Andras 2016). Being a child herself, however, she could not make up for the supervisory neglect

from Ward. Placing the emotional and social care of two children in the hands of another child

constitutes a form of emotional neglect because it disregards Wynonnas own development and

violates two of the three fundamental needs of a child: perceived support from caregivers and

non-exposure to family conflict (Barnett & Miller- Perrin 2011). Caring for Willa she was

indirectly, if not directly, exposed to Wards abusive behavior, and was just as likely as her

sisters to see the abuse towards her mother. She also did not perceive support from either one of

her caregivers, showing anger at her mother for abandoning them and at her father for his

behavior (Andras 2016).

It is mostly in her adult self that the effects of the maltreatment she endured as a child

can be seen, since the show is focused on their adult lives. For Wynonna, one of the most

prominent maladaptive consequences of her upbringing is her own alcoholism. Multiple studies

have linked alcoholism in young adults with neglect in their childhoods, even in the absence of
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other forms of maltreatment like physical abuse (Lalayants & Prince 2016). Childhood neglect

has also been linked to future substance abuse through a moderating variable of lower self-

esteem in neglect survivors (Oshri, Carlson, Kwon, Zeichner & Wickrama 2017). In this case,

social learning theory seems to also play a role in Wynonnas drinking. It is probably not a

coincidence that her alcohol of choice is whiskey, the same as her fathers (Andras 2016).

According to social learning theory, observing Wards frequent drinking as a way to cope when

he was upset led to a young Wynonna modelling the same behavior to cope with her own trauma

(Barnett & Miller- Perrin 2011). One consequence of this alcoholism that has impacted Wynonna

since adolescence is delinquent behavior. Throughout her teenage years, she did multiple stays in

a juvenile detention center, has a record with law enforcement, and past gang affiliation (Andras

2016). Research has linked childhood violence not only to substance abuse in adulthood, but also

to future delinquent behavior. Its been found that family violence survivors who are more likely

to abuse substances to cope with trauma are similarly likely to engage in more severe forms of

delinquency, such as stealing (Miller, Downs & Gondoli 1989).

Sibling Abuse

Sibling abuse is one of the forms of family violence given the most attention by the show,

yet it is the one most often overlooked when studying family violence dynamics. Estimates vary,

but in general 35 out of 100 children are assaulted by a sibling per year, and 3 out of every 100

children are considered dangerously violent towards a sibling (Boyse 2012). It is also

estimated that 19% of domestic assaults by juvenile girls are perpetrated against siblings, and

42% of 8th and 11th graders in one survey reported experiencing sibling abuse (Barnett &

Miller- Perrin 2011). Despite this prevalence, sibling abuse is still largely overlooked in family
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violence research and suffers from underreporting due to an inability to recognize sibling conflict

as abuse (Kiselica & Morrill- Richards 2007).

In the Earp family, Willa is severely abusive towards Waverly, who is eight years

younger than her. This abuse is largely psychological in nature, but does escalate to the point of

attempted homicide on at least two occasions. In the show, Waverly recalls how Willa used to

steal her teddy bear when she was little, and would torture him by gouging out his eyes until

Waverly did what she wanted (Andras 2016). Willa would also use her position of power as an

older sibling to direct Waverly to do things that could seriously injure or kill her, such as when

she forced a four year old Waverly to walk across a ceiling beam in a barn to prevent getting

tattled on (Andras 2016). A second, more explicitly homicidal attempt by Willa was made when

Waverly was around five years old, and Willa lured her onto thin lake ice in the hopes she would

fall through and drown (Andras 2016). This behavior clearly goes beyond the expected sibling

rivalry, as it puts Waverlys safety in immediate danger. It can also be differentiated as abuse

because of the power and control Willa has over Waverly. In a normal sibling rivalry, which

sibling has power tends to shift with each confrontation, but when abuse is present, one sibling-

typically older- always has that power and control. This mirrors the power and control that all

abusive relationships are built upon (Barnett & Miller- Perrin 2011).

What research that has been done on sibling abuse has tried to explore why it occurs.

Often, sibling abuse takes place in a larger context of family violence, where child abuse by a

parent or marital violence are already present (Barnett & Miller-Perrin 2011). One model of

sibling abuse proposed by Hoffman and Edwards uses social learning theory, feminist theory,

and conflict theory to explain inter-sibling violence. According to this model, marital conflict

between parents models aggressive behavior to children, who through social learning theory, are
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then likely to use that same behavior in conflicts with siblings (Hoffman & Edwards 2004).

Other aspects of this model include how the parent-child relationship affects the perpetration of

sibling abuse. The researchers found that abuse towards the perpetrator of sibling violence from

parents increases the likelihood of violence against siblings, and that favoritism of one child over

another also leads to violence (Hoffman & Edwards 2004). Finally, this model also examines the

sibling relationship and how it can contribute to violence, namely the presence of psychological

distress in the perpetrator and the perpetrator having caregiving responsibilities (Hoffman &

Edwards 2004). This proposed model is supported by other studies that have been conducted on

large samples of families, particularly that severe inter-sibling violence is most strongly

correlated with other forms of family violence in the home (Tucker, Finkelhor, Turner &

Shattuck 2014). Family systems theory provides additional support to this proposed model, as it

follows the expected intergenerational transmission of violence from parents to children (Kerr

2000).

In the Earp family, this applies to how Willa was favored by her father since she was the

heir, which gave her power and control over her younger siblings, in addition to being older

than them. Willa also bore the brunt of the abuse from Ward, meaning she was much more likely

to be looking for an outlet for the anger she felt towards her father, and a significantly younger

sibling is an accessible target to regain the sense of control that was lost. Interestingly, Willa did

not seem to ever have a caregiver role over Waverly, which research has shown is highly linked

to sibling abuse (Hoffman & Edwards 2004). According to this aspect of the model, one would

expect Wynonna to be perpetrating violence against Waverly, not Willa. It is possible this

discrepancy is due to Wynonna acting as a moderator in Willa and Waverlys dynamic. Willa is

shown to see herself as a caregiver to Wynonna, but was told by Ward as a child that both her
FAMILY VIOLENCE IN WYNONNA EARP 16

sisters safety was her job (Andras 2016). So from her parent, she gets the information that she is

caregiver for both her siblings, but instead of abusing both of them as one may expect, she

instead transfers that abuse solely to Waverly, who is significantly younger and was never

accepted by Willa as a family member from birth (Andras 2016). It is possible that it is the

closeness in age between Willa and Wynonna, and the fact that Wynonna simultaneously serves

as Willas emotional caregiver, that spares her from being abused like Waverly.

Like other forms of family violence such as parent-to-child abuse, sibling abuse can have

long-lasting, negative consequences on survivors. In a healthy home environment, older siblings

both directly and indirectly influence the development of younger siblings. Older siblings have

the opportunity to provide addition emotional and social nurturance along with parents, and thus

give their younger siblings an edge when it comes to understanding the thoughts and feelings of

others (Brody 2004). Conversely, an aggressive or antisocial older sibling can increase the risk of

antisocial behavior and conduct disorder traits in their younger sibling (Brody 2004). Siblings

also indirectly influence how other adults and community members view them; an older sibling

with a reputation to act out or be aggressive tends to pass down that reputation to their younger

sibling, who is treated similarly by adults as their sibling was (Brody 2004). This can create a

self-fulfilling prophecy in regards to the younger childs behavior, and their sense of self.

These types of influences can be seen in Waverly on Wynonna Earp. Several older adults

who were involved with the Earp girls as they were growing up describe how Waverly has had

to work to get out from [Wynonnas] shadow and work to be seen as a normal, good girl

(Andras 2016). Ironically, it is the behavior of the older sibling who did not abuse Waverly who

is negatively impacting her in this indirect manner, and not her abuser, Willa. Waverly also does

not have the antisocial traits that this research predicts she is more likely to have, which may be
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due to her being removed from the abusive situation at a young age (Andras 2016). It is

important to note, however, that Waverly does have unresolved anger stemming from her

childhood, which has been addressed sporadically across both television seasons. This anger may

be the root of what Brody observed developing into antisocial traits in sibling abuse survivors in

his research, but since Waverly was removed while still young, this may have mitigated the

effects. Wynonna, however, does display the delinquency and aggression one would expect a

severe sibling abuse survivor to show; since she was not the main target of Willas aggression,

these traits may instead reflect the results of social learning, since she did spend much of her

time with Willa and likely would have adopted some of her behaviors.

Parricide

The fifth and final major form of family violence addressed in Wynonna Earp is

parricide. Parricide is defined as the killing of ones parent (Barnett & Miller- Perrin 2011), and

in this example, it is more specifically patricide- the killing of ones father- that occurs (Barnett

& Miller- Perrin 2011). On the night that several demons attack the Earp home, Wynonna shoots

and kills her father as he is being taken away (Andras 2016). The official story told by the

characters is that it was an accident; Wynonna was aiming for one of the demons, but having

never handled a gun before, she missed and hit her father instead. Multiple times throughout the

show, however, it is hinted at that the shooting may not have entirely been an accident, such as

when Willa tells her sister maybe [dad] deserved it (Andras 2016).

It is not outside the realm of possibility that Wynonna could have had some intention

behind shooting her father that night, since it is revealed that as a child, she was aware of her

father betraying them and making a deal with one of the demons to allow them to attack the

home that night (Andras 2016). As an adult, Wynonna had not remembered this betrayal until a
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letter triggered her memory. In reality, repressed memories are still considered highly

controversial. Researchers and practitioners debate the validity of such memories, and if they do

exist, the ability to properly retrieve them without inadvertently planting false memories

(McNally, Clancy & Schacter 2000). The existence of some form of repression, however, has

recently been well documented in regards to traumatic experience, including war and sexual

abuse (McNally, Clancy & Schacter 2000). Impulsively shooting and killing your father on the

night you believe your older sister was kidnapped and brutally murdered qualifies as a severely

traumatic experience, and it is possible that Wynonna repressed the memory of her fathers

betrayal in order to convince herself that it was entirely an accident (Andras 2016). Doing this

would help her mentally distance herself from the stigma of the word murderer, which mirrors

how survivors of childhood sexual abuse may use repression to distance themselves from the

stigma of being dirty from sexual exploitation (McNally, Clancy & Schacter 2000).

The act of parricide can be explained and conceptualized through various theoretical

models. One such model proposed by Meloy states that parricides can be thought of as

catathymic homicides (Meloy 1992). What this means is that the act of killing ones parent is

built up to through increasing emotional tension between parent and child. The actual murder is

impulsive in nature, and is followed by a sense of relief as the internal emotional tension is

resolved in the child (Meloy 1992). This particular model is adequate to describe the parricide of

Ward Earp when following the repressed memory theory. Wynonna would have had increasing

amounts of emotional tension with her father as she was forced to take a caregiving role with her

sisters, witnessed his abuse and neglect, and ultimately saw him betray their safety to enemies.

This emotional tension reached a breaking point when she and her sisters were put in danger due

to her fathers actions, and a catathymic homicide was the impulsive solution to the problem.
FAMILY VIOLENCE IN WYNONNA EARP 19

Family systems theory provides an explanation for why the extreme solution of parricide is the

one Wynonna may have chose in that moment; emotional cutoff is one one the eight primary

concepts of this theory, and it states that in order to manage unresolved tensions with family

members, an individual may emotionally cut themselves off from the family or segment of the

family causing issues (Kerr 2000). Parricide can therefore be conceptualized as an extreme form

of emotional cutoff, since it completely eliminates the possibility of Ward interacting

emotionally with any of the Earp sisters again.

Impact of Systems on Family Violence

Not many social systems are addressed in Wynonna Earp, and those that are referred to as

being involved with the family violence in the Earp family overwhelmingly failed the three

sisters and their parents. Law enforcement is one of the systems given the most attention, as

Ward was a deputy in the Sheriffs Department (Andras 2016). There is never any mention of

other law enforcement officers addressing Wards drinking problems or treatment of his family,

though Sheriff Nedley is hinted at being at least somewhat aware of it (Andras 2016).

Historically, it has been difficult to implement mental health interventions with law enforcement

officers due to the hypermasculinity of police culture, which favors in-group support and is

wary of external interventions (Woody 2006). There is also an acceptance of violence and

aggression in this culture (Woody 2006), which may make it more difficult for other officers to

spot domestic violence perpetration by their peers.

The only other social system mentioned in the show is psychiatrists and mental hospitals,

who are depicted failing Wynonna and worsening her mental health issues (Andras 2016). The

psychiatrists Wynonna is forced to see after the attack where she killed her father believe her

talking about demons to be a delusion, and decide to focus their treatment on eliminating her
FAMILY VIOLENCE IN WYNONNA EARP 20

psychosis. This treatment includes such outdated methods as electric shock (Andras 2016)- not

the electroshock therapy still used for depression, but a system more akin to what has been done

in some gay conversion centers. Their denial of her story- that demons attacked her home-

inadvertently created a gaslight effect in Wynonna. The term gaslight refers to a series of

manipulative behaviors done by one individual to make another believe that what they believe to

be true is not reality. Essentially, it is a way one person makes another feel crazy. This type of

behavior is most often seen in abusive relationships, but can also occur in a systemic setting,

where its effects are arguably even more damaging. The psychiatrists Wynonna was sent to as an

adolescent were expected to help her overcome her trauma, but they simply contributed more to

it. This not only contributed to an instability in her sense of self and sense of reality, but

destroyed her trust in social systems that theoretically, should be there to help.

While in reality, demons attacking a home is not a story mental health professionals need

to be wary of, this example sheds light on the broader concern of taking childrens claims

seriously. Children are still largely seen as the property of their parents, and when it comes down

to a parents version of events versus a childs, the adult is more likely to be believed (Barnett &

Miller- Perrin 2011). This power imbalance keeps children in danger, and is a major contributor

to the chronic underreporting of all forms of violence against children (Barnett & Miller- Perrin

2011). Additionally, it is important to not only address the safety and caregiver stability of

children in family violence situations, but to give equal attention to their emotional and

behavioral needs (Samuels 2011). This mode of treatment for survivors is called trauma

responsiveness, and has been shown to mitigate the negative emotional, social, and behavioral

effects from traumatic experiences, like chronic family violence (Samuels 2011).
FAMILY VIOLENCE IN WYNONNA EARP 21

Ideally, all three Earp sisters would have received intervention at a young age. The forms

this psychological intervention could take are numerous, but cognitive behavior therapy (CBT)

and its derivatives have been well established in research as effective treatments (Dorsey,

McLaughlin, Kerns, Harrison, Lambert, Briggs& Amaya-Jackson 2017). Willa and Wynonna,

being older, are likely to be most responsive to this form of therapy, which would aim at helping

them relearn how they think about other people and form relationships. Waverly, being of

preschool age, may benefit more from therapy that involves actions to explain her own inner

thoughts, as opposed to words. Play therapy and art therapy are two modes of expression that can

be integrated into a CBT model that allow for easier expression by young children (Dripchak

2007). Art therapy would likely be beneficial for both Waverly and Wynonna, who both

informally used it to attempt to deal with their trauma- Waverly by drawing her family, and

Wynonna by making a diorama of the attack on her home (Andras 2016). Taking this desire to

use art to express their experiences, a trained counselor could channel it into CBT therapy and

allow both girls to process their emotions through the medium. A final, larger scale intervention

possibility is through multisystemic intervention, which aims to treat all aspects of the violence

in a household at the community, parental, and child level (Barnett & Miller- Perrin 2011). A

multisystemic intervention for the Earps may have involved marital counseling for Ward and

Michelle, alcohol rehabilitation for Ward, group and individual therapy with the children, and

connection with social services to help with sources of stress.

Conclusion

The novel television show Wynonna Earp provides a detailed, true-to-life portrayal of the

complexities of family violence in a rural, midwestern family. The show deals with five major

forms of family violence- marital violence, child abuse, child neglect, sibling abuse, and
FAMILY VIOLENCE IN WYNONNA EARP 22

parricide. What is unusual about this shows depiction compared to similar genre programs is the

interplay between each of the characters and the forms of violence experienced by each of them

in the same household. The three Earp sisters represent the diversity that exists in survivors of

family violence. While most survivors do not become abusers themselves, it is a possible

outcome with the right mix of circumstances, as shown by Willa. Many survivors of abuse retain

the maladaptive coping mechanisms they learned when living through the trauma, and it can

continue to shape who they are through adulthood for better and for worse, as shown by

Wynonna. Other survivors may be able to, on the surface, seem to have gotten past their

traumatic experiences. But underneath, they still struggle with the emotional effects of their

negative childhoods, as shown by Waverly.

While the main plotline of the show may not apply outside the world of television, the

experiences of family violence that the Earp sisters went through is very much a real issue in the

world today. Millions of children experience severe family violence of the nature depicted, and

like the Earps, many of these children do not receive the intervention they need. With shows like

Wynonna Earp calling attention to the realities of family violence, there is hope that this

complex, important issue will be addressed more and more in the coming years.
FAMILY VIOLENCE IN WYNONNA EARP 23

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