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Original poster

Tv dramas showing graphic sexual attacks on women

53 replies

ParsleyTheLioness · 15/05/2013 16:32

Is it just me? There was another one the other night. Rapist who functions apparently 'normally' by day, goes out raping and murdering women at night. Is it necessary to be so graphic? Does it have entertainment/other value? Does it not scare the bejeesus out of those of us who live on our own? Does it in some way, re-inforce the idea that women are vulnerable, and need a (male) protector living with us to be safe?. Am I overthinking this? Thoughts please...

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Darkesteyes · 15/05/2013 16:42

You are talking about The Fall which started this week. I like psychological thrillers but these graphic scenes are overdone. They could always rely on the suspense a bit more. Hitchcock managed it.
I only watched the first episode of Ripper Street because it clashed with something else i wanted to watch but that was very graphic too.
According to a review in this weeks Grazia The Fall is set to get even more graphic.
According to them he is going to be shown dressing and painting the nails on a dead body and this scene is going to be interspersed with a sexual encounter taking place elsewhere.

FairPhyllis · 15/05/2013 17:02

The Fall is very well written and Gillian Anderson is excellent. However the graphic violence I thought was unnecessary and made me very upset - it would clearly be triggering for anyone who has survived a sexual attack.

I think it is part of a continuum of 'violent rape and murder of women being used as titillation', of the kind also seen in the Stieg Larsson books.

Darkesteyes · 15/05/2013 17:16

The Fall is very well written and Gillian Anderson is excellent

Agree with this though.

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ParsleyTheLioness · 15/05/2013 17:27

Thanks. But is it more than titillation though? To me it was just about sex, it was about male power over women.

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AuntieStella · 15/05/2013 17:27

I haven't seen it.

But sometimes I miss Mary Whitehouse. She made sure that the debate about standards in broadcasting was never allowed to lapse, as it seems to have done now. I don't think you needed to agree with her to appreciate the value of that role.

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ParsleyTheLioness · 15/05/2013 17:36

I agree Auntie. I saw the docu-drama thing about her a while ago. I didn't always agree with her, but it did seem she believed passionately in the cause.

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YoniTime · 15/05/2013 17:36

I hate any media that shows unnecessary graphic scenes of rape and violence against women like that. The creators obviously has no empathy for survivors and others who will be triggered/upset about it. I find it extremely sinister since I suspect they're trying to pander to a certain type of man with such content.

NiceTabard · 15/05/2013 19:26

YYYYYYY a million times

So much popular enterainment = woman as PREY and it gets on yy nerves.

The worst culprits are:

Criminal minds where you can cheerfully expect to sit down each week to a story of a woman / women being graphically raped / murdered / tortured / hunted / kidnapped. One would think that was the only type of crime that occurred in the US

Earlier series of CSI where having the victim as a dead young woman was always a bonus as the camera could linger lovingly over her almost naked body while she was on the slab

I've not seen The Fall but YES it is a definite thing and it really reinforces the idea widely held in society that women are prey and there are strange nutters around every corner so best stay with people you know (even though they're the ones most likely to attack you). And probably contributes to a society view of what a victim "looks like" which then causes trouble for victims who don't meet the criteria....

Good thread OP Smile

YouMakeMeWannaLaLa · 16/05/2013 00:06

Yes, this is coming up more and more. Lingering and graphic scenes that add nothing except 'titilation'.

There's an advert on at the moment, I can't remember what it's for (great ad, eh?!) that starts with a bank robbery/hostage situation and there's balaclaved men holding guns and a woman with a gag in, writhing and having the the gun to her head Shock. It's vile and ends up being a sort of jokey ad.

Guess it's just not considered scary/shocking to see women so graphically being the victims of violence anymore Hmm

I would personally tie it in with the rise in violent-porn on the internet but I have no proof of that and I'm sure a witty anti-feminist would looove to tear that theory apart.

YouMakeMeWannaLaLa · 16/05/2013 00:13

It's for Pimms

NiceTabard · 16/05/2013 00:48

You know what gets on my tits as well

That sexual violence seems to have entered the "mainstream" - esp in crime series obviously - as just a standard storyline

But the same amount of contact being shown in a consensual way rarely / never happens.

how is it, that it is more acceptable to show sexual violence, than consensual sex?

So you can show a nearly naked woman dead (topless in little pants) and show her body being showered off and linger on her breasts, but the same show would never show that amount of flesh and linger on a woman who was alive (I'd rather have neither TBH but the dead one and never the alive one is just awful)

And they will show clothes being torn off and all teh rest of it forced, but they would never show the same amount of clothes being torn off and similar sexual touching / faces etc if it is consensual and the people are happy

It's really fucked up. It's like they've found an acceptable way to show naked women / sex and the way to do it is through sexual violence.

TheDoctrineOfSnatch · 16/05/2013 05:47

Good point, NiceT

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ParsleyTheLioness · 16/05/2013 08:20

Good points. Yes, the Pimms advert disturbed me, but I think I had lodged it somewhere at the back of my mind. It's the endless drip drip of this stuff.

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ParsleyTheLioness · 16/05/2013 08:21

But if we are being subtly/not so subtly 'encouraged' to stick around with people we know, we're being controlled again...and this is part of my point.

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AutumnMadness · 16/05/2013 10:13

I think there is waaaay too much violence on the telly and in the cinema in general. Too much detail, too much realism, too much gore and very little left to imagination. I don't watch a lot of the stuff because of it. Often too much gore spoil a good story for me (I spent 50% of the Game of Thrones with my face in the pillow). I do not understand why the media companies are so determined to go to outdo each other at the extreme violence as I don't see people around me hankering for more and more.

AutumnMadness · 16/05/2013 10:16

NiceTabard, yes, I totally agree. It also pisses me off how violence is so much more acceptable than consensual and non-violent sex. It is extraordinary that it is ok for us to watch people killing each other but not making love. It's sickening, really.

YoniTime · 16/05/2013 11:15

And the actual pornography today is full of male violence against (real) women and girls, too.

Lottapianos · 16/05/2013 12:03

'how is it, that it is more acceptable to show sexual violence, than consensual sex?'

Hadn't thought about that before but you're so right. There has been an increase in violent sexual scenes on TV recently but hardly ever any positive, loving or even funny sex scenes to balance it out.

Darkesteyes · 16/05/2013 14:07

Does anyone remember the sex scene between Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie in Dont Look Now.
Beautifully filmed and realistic portrayl of a loving relationship

But seeing a scene like that in a drama these days is bloody rare. Id much rather see that than this awful violent sexual stuff.

Lottapianos · 16/05/2013 14:10

Yes I know that scene Darkesteyes, it's great. The first sex scene in 'The Politician's Wife' a few weeks ago was good too - it showed a married couple having a good time in bed together with a bit of domination/control stuff but it all looked fun and consensual. Very rare, as you say.

YoniTime · 16/05/2013 14:15

So happy consensual portrayals of sex is rare now. Instead we have...
-TV dramas showing male violence against women

  • Adverts showing male violence against women
  • Porn showing real male violence against women
  • A certain series of popular romance books for ladies featuring male violence against women
It's scary. What the fuck is going on!
AMumInScotland · 16/05/2013 14:24

"they've found an acceptable way to show naked women / sex and the way to do it is through sexual violence"

this ^

UK shows are following what US shows do - sex and nudity are problematic, but guns and violence are fine. So you can linger over the "blue tits" on the slab as long as you like, so long as you go on to punish the perpetrator. But the capture and punishment gets about 5 minutes of air time, and the rape and sexual violence fills out the rest of the 3 hours. And gets repeated in the "Previously on..." at the start of each episode.

Plus of course it feeds into "Women! Know your place!" - if you didn't go out to work, walk home alone, attempt to live your life without a male chaperone, then you wouldn't have to fear the fact that lots of men want to do this to you as a way of making themselves feel slightly less of a loser. So forget any ideas you might have got into your head that you are a real person, you are just a victim.

gertrudestein · 17/05/2013 16:15

I'm really glad I found this thread. I've been quite disturbed since seeing The Fall on Monday night and wondered whether it was just me - I thought the sexual violence was portrayed as titillating, and the violent male murderer was presented as a physically attractive, desirable man.

I agree that there's a general trend to only portray sex as something that happens as part of a power dynamic, and not through love or consent. A particularly laughable example was the recent American show 'Boss.' My DP and I had a bet going at the start of each episode to see when the ridiculous, expolitative, violent sex scene would take place. All the women in the show had to have at least one violent sex scene where a man practically raped her to symbolise how powerful he was.

Darkesteyes · 17/05/2013 16:35

gertrude thats horrible. Ive never heard of Boss. (i live in the UK and i dont have Sky) im assuming it was on Sky though obvs i could be wrong.
If it does get shown on UK mainstream tv i will be giving it a huge swerve.

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ParsleyTheLioness · 17/05/2013 17:49

I feel we need to swerve so many of these dramas though. Shouldn't be that way.

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