I feel like there have been many shows, fictional based, that try and represent having strong female characters. Game of Thrones has many women representing royalty and power. The Fall has a strong beautiful female detective leading murder investigations as does Law and Order SVU. 13 Reasons why has a young, smart, pretty teenager as a leading character. Bates Motel has a female who is slightly crazy, a single mom, and business owner. Even though these shows feature beautiful, strong women, they also feature a theme that represents how women are still the weaker sex. All of these tv shows show women being raped. These were recent shows that I could think of off the top of my head. I’m betting you all can think of even more shows on tv or movies where rape occurs on screen.
Sometimes when a show features women being raped they let the women get revenge to their rapist. Kill the man, chop off his man parts, or throw him in jail. Other times they show how the women's lives have changed or even come to an end as a result of the rape. There are still other times when a show will just move on with it’s plot like the rape scene was no big thing. In my opinion this last example is the worst.
I worry that when you show a rape scene and do not address properly, that it says this is an accepted part of our culture. I worry that the lack of respect shown to women on tv and in films will influence young males and their attitudes towards women. These are just fictional examples of how disrespecting women can influence viewers.
Even more threatening to our society is our President saying “when you are a star you can grab women by the pussy. You can do anything”. Not fictional and not acceptable.
Sarah- Thanks for sharing these are all great examples that did not come to mind for me. I love the point you made about how the media or film may somewhat glorify things such as rape and not show the importance of handling and talking about the situation as it should be. It is sad to see that the media influence us. With the media showing negativity toward women it is sad to see that is how they are treated in real life
ReplyDeleteSara- First, I love the Fall. Gillian Anderson is a goddess! But there is still a sense that these women can be strong for the sake of being strong. They still have to be somehow attractive/attracted to men. Like for example, Gillian's character Stella is still somewhat in a twisted way into Peter and they build her strength and weaknesses around that attraction. Still an amazing show. :)
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