VA's Lorena Bobbitt Article Explores THE Topic In Amazon Series

MANASSAS, VA — Lorena Bobbitt. If you lived here in 1993, you almost certainly recognize the name. Of course, if you were of cognitive age and lived almost anywhere in the country in 1993, you likely recognize the name. The abused wife who retaliated by slicing off her husband's penis. The abused wife whose actions became comic fodder for the likes of "Saturday Night Live," tabloids and on and on.

She's back in the news these days, what with "Lorena," a four-part documentary that debuted Feb. 15 on Amazon Prime Video. She also is the subject of a fascinating recent New York Times profile, "You Know the Lorena Bobbitt Story. But Not All of It." She talks about her decision to green light the documentary, how she felt emboldened by the #MeToo movement, as well as her present-day living in the same town where it all went down more than 25 years ago: Manassas.

Here are a couple of excerpts from the piece:

Even though she has physically transformed, now the picture of an upwardly mobile 49-year-old suburban mom with wispy blond hair, she has the same, sad, dark, orb-like eyes. And even though she goes by her maiden name and, shortly after the trial, the media moved on (thank you, Tonya Harding), people meet Lorena in Manassas and it doesn’t take long for them to make the connection that she is that Lorena in Manassas. “I live here. This is my home. Why should he have the last laugh?” she said when I asked why she didn’t move away.

And this:

. . .Lorena, motivated by her outrage about the election of Donald J. Trump and, months later, the #MeToo movement, decided the climate was finally right to tell her side. It just so happened that at the same time, a wave of movies, documentaries and podcasts (“I, Tonya,”“The Clinton Affair,” “Slow Burn”) had shined new light on other women engulfed in scandals in the 1990s. Lorena identified with Tonya Harding and Monica Lewinsky. “We were vilified by the media, vilified and that is so sad. It happens to women,” she said. Maybe, she figured, her story could finally get equal billing to John’s penis.

Click here to read the entire New York Times article.