Hollywood’s Assault on Women: How Violence on Television is Damaging Our Children

How many times have you witnessed a murder in your lifetime? How about a rape, an assault or a kidnapping? Chances are, the answer is "never." Unless you watch television, that is. Of course, violence on television has been hotly debated for years, and overall, according to the Parent's Television Council's 2009 Report, television violence has only increased 2% since 2004. However, in that same time period, violence depicted on television against women has increased a whopping 120%! Hollywood has launched an all out assault on women on our publicly owned airwaves.

In the past, people who complained about violence against women on television were told to "change the channel." But there is no longer any thing to change it to! The majority of networks increased the violence against women on their shows anywhere from 39% for ABC to 192% on NBC. Dramas, comedies, even cartoons, are saturating the airwaves with murders, rapes, kidnappings, assaults, and torture perpetrated against women. As if this weren't bad enough, the women are getting younger and younger. Teen girls are being depicted as victims 400% more across all networks than in 2004.

Besides, say you change the channel and actually manage to find a show that does not depict violence against women. What happens every 15 minutes or so when the commercials come on? More and more of them are "highlights" of upcoming shows, which often involve gruesome murder scenes or violent altercations over and over and over again. So your quiet evening watching Amazing Race or Extreme Makeover: Home Edition is ruined by an assault on your senses via scenes of terror and the aftermath of mayhem with no context whatsoever.

So why does Hollywood hate women? One reason is that violence against women sells, unfortunately. According to change.org's Pema Levy, violence promised in an upcoming show increased viewership, and real-life violence by an actor against the woman in his life increased viewership of the show he was currently on. News programs get in on the cash cow as well. The National Media Archive looked at census samples of news stories and found that the news coverage of violence against women and children was not used to educate the public but rather to fascinate and entertain. But what kind of people find it entertaining to see women and teen girls victimized and brutalized? And what kind of message does this send to our children?

One message violence against women on television sends loud and clear is a message of fear. According to The National Media, television characters have been murdered at a rate 1,000 times higher than people in the real world and this has been happening on television since 1955. Even when the crime rate is going down, the perception among the public is that crime is getting worse and scarier. Women and girls in particular are fearful and anxious out of proportion to the crime rates against women. Women are predisposed to trust men to protect them. But constant exposure to harm at the hands of men instills a mistrust and even fear of men.

What about the boys? Boys (and men) are naturally inclined to protect women from outside dangers and also to control their own passions so they don't hurt women themselves. But constantly being exposed to degradations against women, presented as entertainment, about which they can do nothing, dampens that response and eventually desensitizes them to women's pain. Or, as the Parents Television Council spokesperson Melissa Henson says, "media helps normalize behavior."

For some time now, the women on television who are not murdered, raped or assaulted are portrayed as sluts, tramps, or greedy, grasping, hardened characters out to deceive everyone and use their sexuality as a means to their own selfish ends. We are beginning to see the effects of Hollywood's portrayal on many of our young women, who increasingly feel pressure to dress skimpily and act promiscuously. How much longer before the young men begin the violence against women that they are constantly exposed to? Are we then going to punish them for doing what we trained them from infancy to view as normal, even entertaining, behavior?

The public owns the airwaves, and it is time we asserted our rights as a society for wholesome entertainment. Contributing to the delinquency of a minor is a crime, and it is time that parents especially hold Hollywood to standards that protect rather than harm the development of our children. It is time for Hollywood to stop the assault on women. We as a society need to tell them loud and clear that we don't find violence against women on television a bit entertaining.

Sources:
Parents Television Council Special Report October 2009, Women in Peril, A Look at TV's Disturbing New Storyline Trend, page 3, 4 and 5

Pema Levy, Violence Against Women: TV's New Formula for Success, Change.org

Media Awareness Network, TV Crime Facts

Melissa Silverstein, Violence Against Women and Girls Surges on TV, Women and Hollywood