This year's Miss America competition has involved lots of satin and some excellent ventriloquism by Miss Ohio. But it has also involved a public health issue that's been in the headlines over the past week: domestic violence.
And it's not just because it's in the news. Miss New York, Kira Kazantsev ā who was crowned Miss America 2015 in Sunday's ceremony ā was in an abusive relationship during college.
Back then, Kazantsev says, she wasn't aware that there were resources available for victims of domestic violence. "I very well may have Googled it," she says. "But that's not the mindset that you're in when you're in that situation. You just feel alone. You feel helpless. You don't feel like anyone could possibly understand."
The fact that people are asking why Janay Rice stayed with Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice after he knocked her unconscious in an elevator shows a lack of understanding of the complex psychology of domestic violence, Kazantsev tells Shots.
"I want people to stop asking, 'Why doesn't she just leave?' " Kazantsev says. "Every woman is an expert in her own case, and there are so many extenuating circumstances that lead to a woman staying with her abuser."
[For more of this story, written by Maanvi Singh, go to http://www.npr.org/blogs/healt...st-domestic-violence]
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