How pop culture and media glorify Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault
Ahead of 16 Days of Action for November, a global campaign raising awareness of sexual and gender-based violence, we’ve taken a look at some damaging and problematic tropes within popular culture that contributes to society’s blasé attitude towards the mistreatment of women.*
Our media and pop-culture has a way of misrepresenting abuse and sexual assault, and there are several tricks they use to downplay these instances of violence. By downplaying the severity of what they are portraying; advertisements, TV shows, films, music videos etc normalise abusive behaviour to the point where it is often interpreted as powerful, sexy or even aspirational. But what are the impacts on a society that comes to see gender-based violence and sexual assault as normal?
Please note — the word ‘gender’ here is used in its most basic way — meaning ‘men’ and ‘women’. The representation of non-binary and other genders in pop-culture, especially when it comes to sexual violence, are equally important to discuss, but that is a topic that requires its own focus.
This 2013 article by Business Insider details 15 advertisements glorifying sexual violence and abuse. They include ads from Dolce and Gabbana, Calvin Klein, PETA and Mitchum, depicting women being assaulted by police officers, groped by multiple men, hanging like meat slabs and being tricked into taking nude photographs. The implication of assault is bad enough; but what the adverts also suggest is that gender-based violence and sexual assault can be successfully redefined as consensual, even enjoyable. By displaying a very specific version of women (barely dressed, very beautiful, entirely submissive) in situations of power or equality imbalance, the danger and horror of the situation is downplayed, or worse, portrayed as desirable; something women should aspire to experience, and something men should aspire to do. It also allows blame to shift to the women — for dressing a certain way, behaving a certain way, or getting herself into a certain situation — as though men have responsibility or control over their actions.
Misogyny is the accepted status quo rather than the problematic ideology feminism has long understood it to be.
If you confronted any of those companies who ran those controversial advertisements, they would likely point out that a mere seven years ago was a ‘different time’ and they have grown and changed. They might point out the donations they have made to ‘women’s charities’ and their gender-friendly policies in the workplace. But this doesn’t change the fact that these incredibly powerful brands are comfortable with profiting off of advertisements that reinforce several rape myths, whilst also avoiding the responsibility that comes with being a global brand and influence.
I should point out that the majority of these examples feature thin, able-bodied white women. As is the case with gender, racism, fatphobia and ableism are all tropes that are used to justify abuse and assault — even encourage it. Again, to give each of these topics the space they deserve, we’ll be addressing them and their intersections with gender in separate blogs.
What about film and television? Sexual violence is routine on the big screen — and directors from Tarantino to Polanski — have made their name around films which centre around sexual violence and humiliation of female characters. Female characters often have trauma from previous assault which defines their entire plot or motivation — think of Beatrix Kiddo and O-ren Ishii from Kill Bill, or Rosemary from Rosemary’s Baby. This is problematic in many ways — but primarily because it portrays sexual violence and rape as hurdles to ‘get over’ and as character strengths, which takes the attention away from perpetrators and never pushes the viewer to ask uncomfortable questions — like why is rape and sexual assault such a common scene in so many genres of film? Why is it considered entertainment?
TV is not much better. One of the best examples that come to mind is Don Draper from the Netflix hit, Mad Men. Don Draper is a troubled character, who sleeps with hundreds of women and mistreats them almost as often. In Season Two of the series, Don sexually assaults a woman he is having an affair with and then threatens to destroy her and her husband if she doesn’t do exactly what he says. She complies and is visibly shaken, but later continues to pursue him — there is never a consequence for his actions, and he is far from the only character on the show to assault women.
The message is that men can abuse women and not only do they get away with it — they are often rewarded for it. This depiction of sex, power and violence can often be an accurate reflection of gendered experiences, which is important, but the lack of consequences for the perpetrators serves to reinforce the idea that seeing women being abused and belittled is normal, acceptable, and a means to an end. Although impunity from abusive behaviour is a very real problem in our society, if media and pop culture relies on this behaviour to entertain, advance plot lines and develop characters, but stops short of exploring the consequences and immorality of this behaviour, then the message is simply: this is how the world works, get over it. The abuse is depicted as how things are, which not only denies the audience the chance to confront and analyse it but turns it into something routine and mundane, rather than the terrible, complicated and damaging nature of sexual abuse and violence. Misogyny is the accepted status quo rather than the problematic ideology feminism has long understood it to be.
TV and advertisements may seem harmless, but think about how children’s toys have historically been used to reinforce gender roles — dolls, babies and pretend kitchens for girls, and cars, soldiers and guns for boys. The entertainment we enjoy reflects what our society’s values are, as well as how you should behave based on your identity. Gender remains one of the most deeply-rooted identities in human history, and the way we see it represented in consumer and entertainment culture affects the way we understand and adopt these identities.
Media has a long history of misrepresentation about healthy relationships, sex and the right of bodily autonomy — that is, the right to safely make educated decisions about what does or does not happen to your body. It has an equally long history with the way it shows gender expectations, and the way violence comes to have different meanings to different genders. Men are typically the perpetrators of violence — towards both men, and women — but only ever the victims of violence from other men. Women, however, are typically the victims of violence from both men and other women, and very rarely are central female characters depicted as inherently violent. Unless of course, they have a violent trauma and past to overcome.
So much of media and pop-culture is only willing to explore and exploit sexual violence and abuse to a certain extent — and extremely reluctant to explore the consequences and pathologies of this phenomenon. This shows that the whole purpose of sexual violence is only to entertain then move on, and the lack of engagement beyond a brief shock is what makes it just another scene of abused women. Then, when it has been shown enough times, it becomes the new normal. This creates an extremely dangerous acceptance of what is and isn’t okay to do to women — the Me Too movement is just one example.
*NB — this post was written prior to COVID-19 in early February 2020
