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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

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So sick of violence against women as entertainment

47 replies

tinymeteor · 02/04/2018 21:25

Just had to bail on another movie because the plot pivots, as usual, around the murder of a beautiful teenage girl. With extra emotional juice added by having her mother find her in a dumpster.

I am so fucking sick of being served graphically violent misogyny as entertainment. Seems like where TV and movies are concerned, daughters only exist to be colourfully brutalised and mothers only exist to emote for them, and we're supposed to detach from the ghastliness in front of us and somehow see it as entertaining. While is basically only possible if you're not at all invested in the female characters and only interested in the male protagonist's revenge kick / voyage of self-discovery / redemptive quest for justice (delete as applicable). I can't do it any more.

Full disclosure: I am nine months pregnant with my second daughter so not at my most serene right now, and scenes of mothers grieving are going to push all my buttons. But I'm not fucking wrong, am I?

OP posts:
WhoWants2Know · 02/04/2018 21:28

Nope. I noticed something similar when looking at paperbacks in the supermarket. They all seem to be women and girls trying to get a man, being killed by a man or running from a man.

thebewilderness · 02/04/2018 21:35

I bailed on the same film for the same reason as you.
We had been discussing it on the FB group Media Through a Feminist Lens so I went to IMDB and counted how many films currently on offer were about rape torture and abuse of women or men killing for fun and profit. Virtually all, except the children's films and even they were full of grooming children for abuse, ahem Zootopia, cough.
Porn has had a dramatic influence of the corporate media.

LastGirlOnTheLeft · 02/04/2018 21:40

I wonder (in my less-cynical moments) if it is because crime thrillers are swallowed by women more so than men (do YOU know a man who reads fiction....I don't!!) So I wonder if it is a ploy to make women more invested in the story...she's one of us..let's see the comeuppance!!!!

TemporarySign · 02/04/2018 21:40

I definitely agree. Rape has been used as entertainment for centuries, millennia even. Think of Rape of Lucretia? It's a sure sign of how men view women and always have.

TallulahWaitingInTheRain · 02/04/2018 21:44

This

I've gradually come to the conclusion that it's deliberate misogynist propaganda to keep us in our places.

himalayansalt · 02/04/2018 21:44

You're not wrong, I've been saying the same for years and I am not pregnant and I am not just the mother of daughters.

But look at the Mumsnetters defending Ripper Street for example. So demoralising.

On a FB group I'm on, someone asked for the best day out ever in London recommendations. A young woman replied do the Jack The Ripper experience. People are so. fucking. thick.

MrsTerryPratchett · 02/04/2018 21:45

So bored of the idea that if you want a male character to seem REALLY bad there's a short cut... sexual violence. Such an easy, painless way to do it without any real consequences. Angry

boatyardblues · 02/04/2018 21:54

I stopped watching Criminal Minds and the SVU frachise a few years ago for the same reason. Bailed on Altered Carbon on Netflix because it had a casual misogynistic tone and I’m fed up of watching semi-naked women being used as wallpaper. GOT - same.

Closetlibrarian · 02/04/2018 21:58

This is why I stopped watching TV crime series during that wave of Scandi crime stuff a few years ago. I watch film and TV for a living so I certainly don’t want to watch ‘for fun’ something that revolves around sexual violence against women/girls.

DancingLedge · 02/04/2018 21:59

I hear you.

TallulahWaitingInTheRain · 02/04/2018 22:41

So bored of the idea that if you want a male character to seem REALLY bad there's a short cut... sexual violence

Yes. Or if you want a female character to seem interestingly wounded. Or if you want your plot to have a plot. Or if you want to give any character a motivation to do / not do something. It's absolutely fucking ubiquitous.

PamDooveOrangeJoof · 02/04/2018 22:45

I went to the cinema to watch “The Skin That I Live In” or something with Antonia Banderes

Everyone seemed to be getting groped or raped. I ended up crying about 20 mins in and I left. Awful.

I watch a whole load of stuff on catch up purely so I can fast forward through the inevitable rape/sexual assault or violent scenes. Depressing.

PamDooveOrangeJoof · 02/04/2018 22:46

@thebewliderness what do you mean about Zootopia?

Clawdy · 02/04/2018 22:52

Yes, I've seen Zootopia twice, and don't know what you're talking about?

LassWiADelicateAir · 02/04/2018 22:54

(do YOU know a man who reads fiction....I don't!!)

Many.

Isn't Val McDermid's work pretty awful too? I have not read any but a friend said The Wire in the Blood was horrible.

But generally other than Agatha Christie /Midsomer Murders I avoid crime.

LARLARLAND · 02/04/2018 22:55

I stopped watching Hard Sun, which was on recently for the same reason.

thebewilderness · 02/04/2018 23:01

Zootopia taught children that predators are not dangerous to herbivores. That is it bigoted, bad, and wrong, for a female bunny to distrust a male fox.

MyRelationshipIsWeird · 02/04/2018 23:03

I stopped watching Criminal Minds and the SVU frachise a few years ago for the same reason Boaty me too. It's a shame as Criminal Minds had some good female characters in it as part of the team solving the crimes, but it just became a bit too much, yet another swathe of murdered girls and all the time/energy spent tracking down the animal who killed them.

LassWiADelicateAir · 02/04/2018 23:11

Zootopia taught children that predators are not dangerous to herbivores. That is it bigoted, bad, and wrong, for a female bunny to distrust a male fox

I had to Google the film but really that applies to virtually all anthropomorphic children's fiction apart from the odd Beatrix Potter story. The point being made by the OP is valid but this sort of "Milly Tant" posturing does no good.

enpointeredshoes · 02/04/2018 23:17

Yes but I stopped watching about 10 years ago.

thebewilderness · 02/04/2018 23:17

I am not surprised, Lass, that you disapprove of my opinion on a film I have seen and you have not. I am particularly amused by your calling my opinion of the film you have not seen Millie Tant posturing.
I always think of you as the disapproving rabbit.

WhingyNinja · 02/04/2018 23:25

I couldn't agree more. I'm so fucking sick of the predictable violent scenes.

LassWiADelicateAir · 02/04/2018 23:37

Bewilderness I really could not care less what you think of me. I however frequently see posts from you which to me are the very epitome of the humourless feminist determined to see sexism in everything and likely to alienate any one other than the members of your own echo chamber.

The OP raised a very valid point about violence and sexual violence being used as entertainment. Your response reads like satire.

MsMalcontent · 02/04/2018 23:45

I agree OP. But generally the violence and misogyny that is apparent in films is shocking. I watched The Bodyguard the other night and Kevin Costner's character is vile - punching people, threatening with stabbing - all for no real reason, and then our female lead falls into his arms when he throws her silk scarf in the air and it gets cut in two by the extremely sharpened samurai sword he has. Yeah, sexy, right?
It's just all so so awful.