I live in Los Angeles and while I've often known that the entertainment industry is by far the most sexist industry in the country - only 7% of working directors are women (for reference, approximately 16% of federally elected seats are held by women - not exactly a bragging point to begin with).
Even so, I'm constantly amazed by the movie posters that I'm subjected to on my way to work. I won't even get into the "Black Snake Moan" poster that is just beyond bizarre, or the "Captivity" poster that basically showed Elisha Cuthbert being MURDERED (it was taken off of buses after protest).
I'll just mention the three movies being advertised now on every billboard and bus stop on my eight mile commute. See if you can spot the theme:
"Perfect Stranger" - Halle Berry looks terrified at a menacing Bruce Willis.
"Disturbia" - The tagline is "Every killer lives next door to someone" while a terrified female is both menaced by the shadow of a man AND watched by another man through binoculars.
"Fracture" - Anthony Hopkins looks menacing and the headline is "I shot my wife."
I know. It's not something we normally think about but what do you think the unconscious reaction to this kind of messaging is?
2 comments:
WOW! Amazing when you line them up in a row like that. I saw that Perfect Stranger billboard yesterday and it freaked me out.
Then I went home and watched a Sopranos rerun (season 3) where Tony Soprano's female therapist gets raped. Then you see scenes of Tony watching two almost-naked strippers pretending to be lesbians.
And people wonder why there are so many rapes and violent crimes against women. The media shows women as sexual objects and victims.
It's really interesting to me that people don't seem to be very aware of this. It's just a given.
In the late nineties, feminists starting saying there was going to be another backlash and I think we're firmly in it.
It's difficult to see how pervasive the violence is because we're so entrenched in it, and because the pendulum swings slowly. (All of a sudden we're wondering how we got to a place where starlets go out without underwear -for example!)
Problem is, the violence is steeped in sex. It turns people on and they don't want to examine it, it's too uncomfortable.
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