I recently saw some cranky hag on TV whining about how TV violence against women has increased 120%. It was only a short commercial, so I wasn’t entirely sure what her point was. Was the original level ok? Should they have spread it out more? Maybe she was angry that the 120% increase wasn’t enough, in which case I’d have to agree. TV would suck without violence against women.
She couldn’t have been trying to make a feminist point. There’s nothing more feminist than beating men and women equally. The patriarchal power structure would be thrilled to ban all those badass, violent shows that make you respect women, like Air Master and Black Lagoon.
I tracked down the study. (It’s short and very readable, so I encourage you to give it a quick look.) Here are some of the major findings:
- Violence, irrespective of gender, increased 2% from 2004 (N=3840) to 2009 (N=3929)
- Violence against women increased 120% from 2004 (N=195) to 2009 (N=429)
The 120% stat is mathematically correct but highly misleading. Look at the sample sizes. TV violence against women remains an underwhelming minority. According to these numbers, violence against women increased from 5% of all TV violence to 11% of all TV violence. There are still nine depictions of violence against men for every depiction of violence against women.
Another problem with the study is that the definition of violence against women is extremely broad. It includes literally any act of violence against a woman. It doesn’t matter whether the violence was gender-based. It doesn’t matter whether there was a justification for it. It doesn’t matter whether it was grossly unrealistic. It doesn’t appear to matter whether the perpetrator was male, female, or unknown. As long as there is a female victim, it counts.
Here are some examples from the study:
This is a legitimate (and awesome) example of violence against women. Other examples aren’t so convincing.
Sylar never cared about the gender of his victims. It could’ve been a man and nothing would’ve changed.
I am so offended that an armed murderer got punched.
Satire of the legal system’s historical bias against women? We certainly don’t want that thrown into public discourse.
So, regardless of the type of violence, its intent, or how little it appears, the depiction of violence against women at all can be harmful, right? The study cites a research paper demonstrating that TV violence against women desensitizes viewers. All I could find was this paper’s abstract, but that’s enough to show there’s more to the story.
The present study was designed to measure physiological desensitizatian (heart rate) and to investigate the relationships between this measure and other cognitive, affective, and attitudinal components of the desensitization process. Subjects were either exposed to a two-hour videotape portraying violence against women or to exciting, nonviolent material (i.e., auto races, nonviolent sex). Following this, all subjects were exposed to two brief clips of violence perpetrated by a man against a women. During these clips, all subjects’ heart rates were monitored. Afterwards mood reactions and perceptions of the perpetrators and victims depicted in the dependent measure clips were measured. The results indicated that heart rates for subjects exposed to the violent videotape were lower during the final 90 seconds of each violent dependent measure film clip than controls. Although the violence-viewing subjects experienced no change in moods, control subjects experienced significant increases in hostility, anxiety, and depression during the dependent measure clips. Subjects in the violence-viewing condition attributed less injury to the victims but greater responsibility to the perpetrators in the dependent measure clips, compared to control subjects. There was no apparent relationship between physiological desensitization and later victim/perpetrator judgments. (emphasis added)
When the viewers are desensitized, they attribute greater responsibility to the perpetrators. Isn’t that a good thing? This study is conclusive proof that TV violence against women makes the world a better place.
Violence of women against women kicks the most ass I presume? I’d like to think so given the awesomeness in the showdown between Balalaika and Revy in Black Lagoon.
Even better if it’s caused by lesbian jealousy. I am certain that it makes the world a better place if nothing else.
It depends. There are really only two roles in a fight: the ass-kicker and the ass-kickee. Male/female and gay/straight distinctions have minimal bearing on the violence itself. However, if we’re talking about the story surrounding the fight, then yes, yandere lesbians are nigh impossible to beat.
Wait a second, I’ve seen pictures of that anime before…Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro right? OK, I know what’s going on my to-watch list next
Wait a few weeks. I’ll be reviewing it soon.
Fuck yes, and I love the use of Neuro images in this post. I once wanted to beat the shit out of a girl. She was built like aman, and she picked on me (in the 10th grade, so I wasn’t a little kid) I called her all kinds of horrible names (like ‘slutcunt’) but she was also my best pal’s girlfriend, and I wanted him to put her in check. He would not. One time she threw a serving of mashed potatoes at me (thankfully minus gravy) – why didn’t I do anything? I didn’t alert authorities because I was a kid, and I didn’t fight her for the same reason I didn’t fight anyone in high school – I was a pussy who didn’t want to get expelled. Still, if I had beat the fucking shit out of her, it would have been completely justified. I consider women and men equal grounds to be insulted and beaten, and not out of some gay feminist need for equality. I just know that if you piss me off, you don’t get a fucking special card.
If the same girl ever touched me today (thankfully I haven’t seen her since she broke up with my friend that same year) I would break every element of her facial structure.
If someone physically violates you, you have (almost) every legal right to hit them back in self-defense.* If a girl ever hits you and thinks she can get away with it because she’s a girl, hit her right back.
*There are some limitations. For example, you can’t kill someone unless they attempt to kill you or cause you serious bodily injury. Basically, you’re fine if you strike back in proportion to their attack, plus a little interest.
Get thee to a Takashi Miike.
First you have Audition, which has atrocious violence against men, and Ichi the Killer, where other men beat up on men in horrific ways.
Hell yeah Ichi the Killer <3 <3 <3
Let me check Wikipedia.
Sold.
Wait, if I understood correctly, the good effect of showing more violence against women in tv shows is that when the viewers are desensitized on it, it affects the perpetrators (those doing the abuse) more than the victims? If I understood it wrong, please forgive my stupidity and enlighten me on this ^^;
Ah well, whatever the point was, as long as it does bring good effects, then I’m not complaining.
But hhhhmmm . . . I prefer “Violence Against PATHETIC/ANNOYING Women Kicks Ass”. Haha . . . that might be something becoming personal . . . . but there are so many women like that in the TV world that makes me want to butcher them (reminds me of the post I’m planning to do) . . . with that it would be something I would find enjoyable, though it’s something that I’ll supposedly feel bad about (I’m female after all). Haha!
Anywayz, I agree on the Sylar statement. He never cared about the gender. Even the age. Real psycho killers can’t be that biased on their victims xD Hahahaha! (unless their victims are based on their preferences I guess)
Basically, when the viewers are desensitized, they think the perpetrator is more to blame for the act of violence than the victim. If the goal is to prevent violence against women, this is a good thing, because people are less likely to think something like, “she deserved it.”
I’m of the opinion that violence against everyone kicks ass. Who doesn’t enjoy a good cripple fight?
I get your point about misleading results, if violence against women is low, it should be raised to a point it gets mathematically equal to men’s (50% to each side), which would give us a fair amount of violence that is not discriminating genders…but we could further improve this study to show there is discrimination in races, skin colors, creed, belief, ages… et cetera, and not only in genders.
So if some bullshit feminist is arguing that violence against women is increasing and should be dropped to 0%, i argue that not only
violence against women should be increased and equaled to men’s, but also violence against blacks, whites, asians, children, olds, catholics, protestants, and so on… should also be increased and equalized so we all get fair amounts of violence equally divided to everyone, plus we can mix all of this and get diverse and multi-ethnical beatings.
Btw, this post reminds me of maddox and you golden jurassic era of pre-sellout.
~kawaiiiiii
=)
I was thinking the same thing. This post really had nothing to do with anime aside from the pictures. It’s fine though. I’ve built up enough credibility over at Anime Nano to write about non-anime topics as much as I want.
I wholeheartedly encourage violence against everyone. I don’t really care if it’s exactly proportionate real-life demographics, but something is terribly wrong when people think it’s too much when 50% of the real-life population gets only 11% of the violence on TV.
So watching beat downs
Helps you tell who’s hitting who?
Waste of research funds.
Musket scene funny,
With my violence training
I know he shot her.
Did martial arts once
Trained against girls my own age
They could take a hit
The musket scene was
funny because it was true
See Henry the Eighth
I don’t know why the lady was bitching. Clearly she’s never been slapped.
Disney agrees: slapping = love
why does the video not work?
I decided to not post this comment, as I am not sober now.
Fuck that…the comment was:
Fuck Disney! I’m not a bear! (this took a while to type…)
The thing, as you pointed out, the study is lacking some important info. Most increased violence between women is girl on girl. Just part of the shift of girls finding out it okay not to pretend to be perfect angels all the time. My experience as a high school girl anyway.
That’s another problem of keeping violence against women off TV. It fosters the misconception that girls can’t be violent. If girls are going to physically bully someone, it’s probably going to be another girl.
Oh definitely. The problem is, girls are the queens of being violent where no one else can see, and thus make getting caught extremely hard.
So did the study help you pick shows that you would enjoy?
I may consider watching Heroes again. Haven’t seen it since the end of the first season.
I don’t enjoy a man beating up a woman.. But I do enjoy a woman beating up another woman. wwwwwwwww
That’s sexist.
Any show with women that men watch is objectifying and oppressive. I mean, why would men actively seek chick shows, unless there are tits to be seen, or at least girl-on-girl entertainment? It wouldn’t be entertaining to most men, who like violence… violence period. This is why more men watch contact-heavy team sports than say, synchronized swimming.
Now, if you put women with men in a contact sport, even at equal weight classes, it’s going to be murder. And I don’t think men would enjoy watching any of that shit. So the very idea that men as a whole enjoy viewing violence against women in particular is problematic.
Counterpoint:
These feminists are always trying to make you believe they’re feminists when they actually only want to make stupid ads on TV.
When a man has a sex slave he’s a “sick fuck” but when a women has a man slave she is a “dominatrix… hmmmm dominatrix”.
That is why I fully endorse violence against woman on TV, because I want equality between the genders. So let’s go men, let’s make a protest in which we beat up women and wait for the tv reporters to finish them off.
In the end, some feminists don’t actually care about equality; they just want whatever’s convenient for themselves. They cry about equality when they think women will benefit, but they’ll fight to protect sexist stereotypes that seem advantageous. Can’t have it both ways. To be fair, many feminists aren’t short-sighted hypocrites, but the loudest ones often are.
Black Lagoon didn’t make me “respect” women. It made me feel sorry for every last one of them being a vehicle for Hiroe’s stupidity. Every time a pistol showed up onscreen, you could be assured that something breathtakingly cliché would happen. Every single time a weapon that wasn’t a pistol showed up onscreen, you could be assured that something breathtakingly retarded would happen. (I could catalogue them for you, if you so desire.) The anime was much more guilty of this. How can I respect a character who literally sits on her ass for three seconds while three men with properly braced submachineguns are (theoretically) emptying magazines into her at point blank? It’s one thing for every single shot to narrowly miss you as you’re running away from the firing baddies in cliché fashion, but sitting on your ass, scant feet from them?
I admit, it wasn’t nearly as vomit-inducing as trying to watch Akamatsu try to do fighting shit, but it was pretty rancid.
But more to the point.
It really has gotten bad when, if a series focused on any sort of violence has at least two female primary characters, I can automatically write off every single character with any sort of chromosomal diversity, and be perfectly justified. The rules of television violence mean that they’re going to be automatically completely fucking useless in any sort of fight, or else a superfluous background character.
Please do catalogue them. I smell potential for a post.
Sitting shiftlessly through a merciless downpour of bullets…I distinctly remember ignoring that part. You can’t be satisfied any other way. I suppose I liked the attitude they brought to the fight more than their competence in getting it on. More on this when I get around to reviewing Black Lagoon. Send me your catalog within the next month and I’ll find some way to make use of it.
Agreed on point #2.
Violence is manly. I’ll fight anyone who adheres to it; After all it hasn’t stopped Sloth in Fullmetal Alchemist to beat the shit out of Olivier, or Mustang burninating Lust to smithereens even earlier.
And that’s why FMA is a great show. There’s violence against men, women, homunculi, and child-dog chimeras. I’ll praise any show that finds a way to attack a child and a dog at the same time.
I soooo knew that Airmaster is showing up in this point.
Probably the only non-sexist show that features fighting girls
…aside from Queen’s Blade…
violence against women is AWESOME… i mean my favorite scene in the movie Warriors is where the dude cracks a chair over some bitch… i mean its just good business… plus here are words of wisdom:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_PIixlTHfQ (embedding disabled by request)
relevant part is near the end but watch the whole thing…. you never break up a girl fight… EVER.
ALSO i thought i should mention that Majin Tantei Nogami Neuro is such a sick show… i should watch it again sometime
Just finished MTNN last night. Good stuff. Consider checking out the manga. It’s a lot longer and has a much different ending, or so I’ve heard.
sounds good to me
HOW CAN SHE SLAP!!!
With her hand?
I don’t think you got the reference. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJLTi0L3mPM&feature=related
Always enjoy reading your posts. TV violence against women makes TV awesome!
TV violence against women makes TV awesome, and it makes women awesome.
Violence against men, women, children, elderly or anything else kicks ass as long as it is a cold blood revenge 🙂
Correction: all revenge kick ass. Cold-blooded revenge is merely preferred.
Personally I blame the huge amount of CSI-like shows on TV… every episode involves a murder, and it’s 50/50 men/women. So that easily ups the total by quite a bit.
[…] series is full of violence against women. Sometimes it’s beautiful. Sometimes it’s ugly. Never does it fail to […]
Still, girl vs girl action looks tad more awesome that men fights. Reason why I loved Black Lagoon.
Man, that Airmaster thing must be the the show with the worst animation of the last decade. The drawings aren’t that good either. But then again this is an era in which shows with original concepts end up being produced on a very low budget, like the pretty good Tentai Senshi Sunred. So Airmaster has my benefit of doubt for now.
Lol, wow, btw, long time no comment (me for your blog that is lol), jeez yeah of course I don’t like hurting women at all, but looking at it from your standpoint, satirical or not, it makes sense. We’re all humans and shit happens to men and women alike. Of course, things to women is much more gruesome, but I guess shit happens 🙁
In the wonderful realm of ANIME however, this doesn’t quite get turned on its head but maybe to the side…mmm fuck that, lol, it definitely gets turned on its head lol. Violence against chicks in anime is great for the most part because the violence is usually being commited by another girl in the first place! Lol, and of course dating sims are great too…but that’s not really violence, that’s more complicated. Anyways, I could go on and on, but I need to catch up on your other entries ;D
[…] farther elaborate, I’ll show this video, because it’s different than the one everyone else shows, but it still happens early enough in the show where I won’t be ruining […]
Five things I know about women, that happen to be true:
1. No woman has ever, EVER, hurt a man in any way shape or form. EVER!
2. Women know everything there is to know about men. When it comes to women, men haven’t a clue.
3. Women can do ANY thing men can do & have babies too.
4. Women are ALWAYS RIGHT.
5. Ask any woman about the above. She will be more than happy to tell you.
I agree
can you piss standing up? didn’t think so
[…] of self-satisfaction. The female characters ran their own business. They were subject to comical violence typically reserved for males. They made occasional crude jokes without it feeling gimmicky. The […]
I do not really like violence against anyone on T.V., male or female.
Yes finally someone said it.. These shitty fucking double standards have no place in society.
In fact, for me personally, when I see a woman that hits a man and then he can’t hit back because “hitting women is wrong” I feel that if the perpetrator woman was in front of me, I will gladly wail on her in place of that sissy of a man.
Again, these double standards have no place in society especially in cartoons/anime where the viewer is likely a teenager and is much more susceptible and easily influenced to that kind of garbage.
[…] because Death Gun made rape cool again for boys and girls of all ages. Isn’t it obvious that violence against women on TV causes violence against women in real […]
[…] The Last of Us is considered the best game for the PS3 because it’s the pinnacle of political correctness. Remember how Ashley was totally helpless Resident Evil 4? (Ignore for the moment that it made the game more exciting.) Unlike Ashley, the women in The Last of Us are all hard-nosed, assertive, and can do everything men can do! Plus, while the zombie enemies are mixed gender, the human enemies are all male, thus not offending anyone with violence against women. […]