5.14.2012

there has to be a movement, and soon

i grow weary of evening television. more and more "feel-good" shows are cancelled out, and what remains are so many shows of violence, spewing with new ideas which are not necessarily good ideas. they've become a type of scrapbook in how to hurt someone; these someones being women most of the time. as if the twisted psyche of the mentally disturbed needed a reference manual of all the different ways to cause pain to the human body and spirit. above all, these shows perpetuate the victimization of women.

what bothers me the most is that by repeatedly showing women as victims of violence we do become numb to it, we almost expect that some form of violence will happen to us; because of course, television has shown us that. it worries me, because when you surrender to that thought, you loose your freedom to be you. you allow the fear of it to warp your life and how you live it.

society should step up, speak out that it is not acceptable to portray extreme violence as "entertainment". shows should focus on reforming what causes men to lash out at women, to how we portray women as sexualized beings alone, they should focus on letting girls and women know that it is never "all right" for another human being to cause them harm, they should push the idea that we are all deserving of the basic human right to live our lives without fear.

and then i saw this and thought, "yeah, i'm not alone in my thoughts."

3 comments:

  1. you absolutely right anastasia. i haven't seen the film, but will look for it (it was on my radar screen for a while there). young women, like you, have got to keep making noise aobut this. the girls i work with think it's all ok.

    ReplyDelete
  2. if enough women who are in people's everyday lives speak out, hopefully they can have a greater influence than entertainment. help "turn the tide", as it were.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I just read what you wrote, and agree completely. Thanks for speaking about it. A young woman artist I pay attention to is Erin Riley (tapestry) who uses images posted by young women of themselves on the internet, to question what motivates this self exploitation. She's moving into new territory with feminism, weaving and art, and as a young woman trying to understand herself in relation to a culture that makes women more vulnerable

    ReplyDelete