TV violence against women rising
The Bulletin reports that there's been an increase in violence against women on TV, especially against teenage girls:
You can read the whole PTC report over here.
A new report by the Parents Television Council (PTC) has found that depictions of violence against women has increased by 120 percent on the nation’s airwaves in the last five years, with portrayals of violence against teenage girls increasing by a staggering 400 percent.Well, this was the "family" cartoon series that made an obscene joke about the Iraq war and US army. As for violence against teenage girls, if you're looking for one of the most rock-bottom examples, here's an episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and the plot is most disturbing:
The report, entitled Women in Peril: A Look at TV’s Disturbing New Storyline Trend, studied treatment of violence against women on primetime shows between 2004 and 2009. During that time, violence against women depicted on the major networks CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox increased by 120 percent.
The most frequent depictions were beating (29 percent), threats of violence (18 percent), shooting (11 percent), rape (8 percent), stabbing (6 percent) and torture (2 percent). This violence against women resulted in death 19 percent of the time.
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However, the most disturbing finding was the 400 percent increase in the number of television episodes that depicted violence against teen girls.
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Portrayals of this type of violence against teens increased by an appalling 700 percent on Fox, following by 600 percent on CBS and 300 percent on NBC.
Fox also stood out for depicting violence against women as being funny. In one example, in the May 17, 2009 episode of Family Guy, a man refers to the “complex, extensive divorce procedures required by 18th century society” which is depicted as a man shooting his wife dead with a musket.
Stabler teams up with an new partner to investigate a sexual attack on Jessica DeLay, a sixteen-year-old girl who worked tobacco stings for the Department of Health and face an overweight young brother and sister who claim it was an act of vengeance for Jessica and her friend, Tommy Strahan, beating up their older brother Rudi for being fat. Stabler and Blaine arrest DeLay and Strahan, but when the two are released due to lack of admissable evidence, Rudi Bixton takes justice into his own hands.Wow. So let me get this straight. The male character named Tommy and his female buddy supposedly kicked the crap out of Rudi, and this literally justifies raping the girl, NOT calling the police and filing assault charges, and then, when the two are let go for lack of evidence, Rudi probably takes to using firearms to get, ummm, revenge? The title of this episode is "Fat", and one could argue that it gives fat people a bad name. Not to mention that it does trivialize the seriousness of the rape itself. Could this also be an insult to people who find smoking abhorrent? One more reason why this L&O franchise should be avoided.
You can read the whole PTC report over here.
Labels: communications, misogyny, showbiz, United States
