Sexual violence in the media / Daniel Linz and Edward Donnerstein

Sexual violence in the media by Daniel Linz and Edward Donnerstein Or Linz is an Assistant Professor of Communication, and Or Oonnerstein ts Professor of Communication and Chairman of the Department of Communication, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA V iolence against women occurs in every country and in every social and economic class. In many cultures, wife-beating is considered a man's right. All too often, routine beating and rape of women and girls are considered "private mat- ters" that do not concern others - whether the legal authorities or health personnel. We became alarmed at the growing amount of violence in films during the past two decades, and especially at the sexual violence directed against women. In the United States, movies and television are viewed regularly by a majority of the public, and these media undoubtedly both reflect and influence public attitudes . We undertook our studies of violent pornography both because we are intellectually curious about the effects on the public of exposure to such material, and because we are con- cerned about their negative impact on society's attitudes about women in general and the attitudes of our fellow men in particular. Imagine for a moment a malevolent psychologist who wanted to design a programme to enable people to view, calmly, the torture and dismember- ment of women. What steps would be taken? Firstly, the psychologist might have his or her subjects read about the torture and mutilation of women. Most of these patients would find this trou- bling at first but, as they read more and more, they would probably be less disturbed by it. After the patients became accustomed to these readings, the psychologist might use stronger stimuli. The patients would be asked to view photographs of mutilated female bodies. then, as the patients became "desensitised," they might be asked to Television is a focal point for all age- groups in millions of households today. The growing amount of violence - and especially sexual violence directed against women - is alarming. 26 watch actors engaged in simulated scenes of violence. After watching scene after scene of such violence, we might expect the patients to have become quite tolerant of actual mutilation. To make the procedure more pleasant for the patients - and also to make the desensitisation process more efficient - the psychologist might provide the patients with their favourite food, say, or have them imagine something pleasant in the scene. Better yet, the psychologist might intersperse the vio- lent scenes with pleasing scenes, such as mildly erotic depictions of a woman disrobing. Violence towards women In the United States during the past ten to 15 years, a whole genre of films - sometimes called "slasher films" or "splatter films" - has emerged. These films play to millions of people in the US movie theatres and on television through video cassettes. Surveys of local high schools in Southern Califor- nia and in New York City indicate that these are the most popular types of film among 11- to 13-year-olds. While the sex in such films is not explicit, the violence is graphically displayed and is most often directed at women. Our concern is that these films may be doing to society exactly what the fictional psychologist described above might have done to make his patients · more tolerant of violence and cruelty. So we set about testing the premise that violence towards women, like rape and beating, becomes more acceptable to people after they have seen infinitely greater violence in films. We conducted basically two types of study - those in which participants (frequently university students who have volunteered to take part in the study) are asked to watch only ten to 20 minutes of films, and those in which participants view films over a longer period, maybe over several days or weeks. We found that young college men who viewed even short film segments depicting sexual violence expressed greater acceptance of rape myths than those young men who watched non- violent films of women. Other resear- chers have obtained similar results in their studies. Men who watched slasher W ORLD HEALTH. Aprii -May 1990 films, and films in which men physically and verbally abused women in order to have sex with them, recommended lower sentences for an accused rapist in mock trials which were part of the study. They also found that, compared to men who watched non-violent sexually suggestive films, many more men who watched sexual violence expressed the belief that women they know "would enjoy being raped." In our studies in which young men watched films over a period of days or weeks, we found that sexually explicit material without violence had no effects on attitudes towards women. But results were very different for those young men who watched films showing overt violence against women or films which intermingled sex and violence - the so-called slasher films. This second group of men showed far less concern for women who had been raped and were much more accepting of using force in sexual encounters. In brief, our findings show that it is the violent component of these films that does the damage to viewers' attitudes, not the sexual component. A major health problem In today's world, violence against women constitutes a major public health problem. In the US, nearly two million women a year are beaten in their homes and it is a fair assumption that many more such cases go unre- ported. Cases of rape are even more numerous and even less frequently reported; it has been estimated that only one rape is reported to the US authorities for every ten actually com- mitted. Many other countries do not even have data on these crimes, since frequently it is not socially or culturally acceptable for women to reveal that they have been beaten or raped, nor are such revelations recognised. Although our studies do not prove that men who watched sexually violent films will commit rape as a _result, they do show that these men will find rape and violence against women more acceptable. As men, husbands and fathers ourselves, we are personally and morally deeply offended by media depictions of women that lead to such attitudes. We hope that film-makers everywhere - for this problem is in no way confined to the United States or even to the "western" world - will recognise the damaging effects that such films have on society in general and on women in particular, and will begin to show themselves capable of exercising a greater degree of social responsibility. • WORLD HEALTH. April -May 1990 Discrimination hurts by Michie Gitau Kenyan journaltst and public relations consultant ][ n Kenya - and in Africa in general - women are at the heart of economic and social development. They are tradi- tionally responsible for pri- mary health care, food, water, clothing and the well-being of society. During a seminar on "The role of home economics in women's lives and health," held recently in Nairobi, Pro- fessor M'Mugambi, a former director of the Kenya Medical Research Institute, lamented that women in developing countries contribute more than two- thirds of the working hours, yet they control less than one per cent of the gross national product (GNP) in their respective countries. Women account for half the food production in developing countries; perhaps 80 per cent of Africa's food is produced by women. Cultivation and harvesting is only the first stage; twice as much time can be taken up by food processing and preparation. The time and energy required for these pro- cesses and for the fetching of fuel and water - which may involve, for example, a walk of ten kilometres three days out of four - rarely figure in national labour statistics. The multiple problems that are responsible for undermining the health Community action groups like this are beginning to seek ways of combating discrimination in Kenya. of women have been analysed and studied, but according to Professor J.K. Mati, a senior population scientist with the Rockefeller Foundation, unregu- lated reproductive function, inade- quate food intake, overwork and a host of medical factors have militated against the well-being of women in Kenya. Kenya's women have one of the highest fertility rates in the world today. Many women become pregnant at too early an age and continue having babies until a late age. This unfortu- nate situation is due to the fact that bigger families and a preference for sons is deeply rooted in the patriarchal tradition, and women have little say in the number of children that they can give birth to. Consequently women have so many children that this affects their health. Professor Mati notes that the situation becomes worse if one takes into account that many of the pregnancies occur among women whose health is already poor. This has led to high mortality among women, especially in the countryside. Maternal 27 I u I