Rape, sexual violence in movies and tv

[twoton]

Rape and sex crimes against women are very common plot elements of movies and tv shows. It’s almost a given that a crime drama or an action adventure will have some element of either physical or threatened sexual violence against women.

At the risk of making a generalization, I presume that female viewers have a stronger emotional response than men have.

Here’s my question: how do you react to these scenes? Are they disturbing enough that you avoid watching movies that contain them?

 

[TexanStar]

Rape and sex crimes against women are very common plot elements of movies and tv shows. It’s almost a given that a crime drama or an action adventure will have some element of either physical or threatened sexual violence against women.

At the risk of making a generalization, I presume that female viewers have a stronger emotional response than men have.

Here’s my question: how do you react to these scenes? Are they disturbing enough that you avoid watching movies that contain them?

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Eye for an Eye are two films I recall with more graphic rape scenes in them. Both were scenes were disturbing, but don't make me shy away from watching those kind of films.

 

[Tight_N_Juicy]

The Hills Have Eyes, the Rob Zombie Remake of Halloween, and a few other horror flicks are some of my favorites. They contain graphic rape scenes. I do usually take those particular scenes to step away and grab a drink or something when watching, but I won't refuse to watch the movie all together.

I also watch a lot of gangster flicks like American Me. The scenes in that movie are so insanely terrifying, but it gives impact to the film itself.

Monster was also an amazing movie.

So, no. It doesn't make me avoid watching.

What's disturbing is that these movies/shows can't truly communicate how it actually feels to go through an experience like that.

 

[693987]

It depends on the material, for how high or how low my tolerance for the subject matter is. I've read the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo/etc trilogy. I've read other books where sexual assault happens to a character. Those... are less uncomfortable for me than to watch it in a movie or TV show. I stopped watching The Handmaid's Tale.

I read the book and was able to handle it. The show I did not want to subject myself to anymore. It made me anxious and feel sick to my stomach and there just was to much of it. I like a fair bit of crime-y shows. If it comes up in those, I'm fine. I don't watch Law and Order in general because I don't find it as interesting as other shows, and intentionally don't watch SVU.

I personally know sexual assault happens. I know it happens to all kinds of people and it's horrible. I don't think I'm weak for choosing to filter how much of my life, much less my entertainment sources have that kind of content. It isn't as though I pretend it doesn't exist. I just don't want it to be in my face all the time. In a partially similar but mostly different way, it's why I opted not to pursue nursing assistant/care giving work as a career. It just made me so fucking depressed and so fucking angry and it made me feel like everything in my life was awful.

To long, didn't read: I mostly don't avoid entertainment media that contains that contains that kind of content. The exception being when it is a main focus for the duration of the show or movie.

 

[Enid]

These themes/imagery/topic in media sometimes makes me uncomfortable, sometimes disturbed, sometimes frightened, sometimes sick. Sometimes it's thought-provoking. There's a myriad of feelings I can have about it.

It depends on the movie/show/book and its presentation of the topic as to how I react.

Only one show I've seen comes to mind which I know I'll NEVER be able to watch again. It was the episode of The Sopranos where the therapist gets raped. For some reason, that scene in that episode made me physically ill, I could not sleep for a couple of days, I vomited a couple of times afterwards.

It truly horrified me.

 

[TinyPrincess]

Depends.

If the scene feels realistic, it can be really uncomfortable - to the point where I want to turn it off.

However more often than not, the scenes are unrealistic and feels more like a lucky chance for the instructor to show some (female) skin than an integral part of the movie. This is often the case in American movies and series. This really turn me off as it's so utterly unnecessary - but the scene was probably done a few times to allow the entire film crew to get off...

 

[deleted924715]

Only one show I've seen comes to mind which I know I'll NEVER be able to watch again. It was the episode of The Sopranos where the therapist gets raped. For some reason, that scene in that episode made me physically ill, I could not sleep for a couple of days, I vomited a couple of times afterwards.

It truly horrified me.

I found that incredibly disturbing too.

The Accused was absolutely horrific and it played on my mind for a long time afterwards. If I could go back in time I wouldn't watch it. This was the one that immediately sprang to mind.

Game of Thrones has gone too far for me at times. Outlander too.

 

[deleted924715]

I know it's usually portrayed as against women, but I've had equally strong reactions to sexual violence against men on TV. There were episodes of The Shield I couldn't watch.

 

[693987]

I know it's usually portrayed as against women, but I've had equally strong reactions to sexual violence against men on TV. There were episodes of The Shield I couldn't watch.

Oh. I didn't think to quantify that I was talking about media portraying sexual assault against anyone. Not just women. But. Anyone.

 

[twoton]

It's true that I was thinking about the situations where women are the victims because there are hardly any where a man is the victim.
There was a fairly brutal prison rape scene in "An Innocent Man," that I would not choose to watch again. However, that (and my personal reaction) is nearly irrelevant in the context of film violence focused on female characters.

 

[Tight_N_Juicy]

Yeah, the vast majority of rape scenes in movies that I've seen are focused on a female victim. Almost anytime the victim is a man, it's a prison/gangster movie, and the scene is usually in the shower.

It's much more likely that movies with female victims of sex crimes are widely known. TV shows are almost Purely focused on female victims when portraying sex crimes.

In either case I'm not one to refuse to watch just because of depictions of sexual violence.

The only rape scene that ever actually upset me to the point that it truly disturbed me was in the original "The Last House on the Left". That is a *seriously* fucked up movie... But I still watched it more than once. It's actually a fucking incredible movie.

 

[Phil Ayesho]

For every rape I see depicted on screen, I see about 20 murders.
And yet how many of us feel upset about that?


I think the rape of women is a handy narrative device for storytellers... because on the one hand its an excuse for showing women's bodies, And let's face it, 70% of ALL advertising is centered around depictions of the female form. Super heroines don't wear baggy outfits.

But let's not forget that the rape of women, as a plot device, is almost universally used to indict the bad guy in any plot.
the filmmaker wants everyone in the audience, including men, to hate the bad guy enough to justify the depiction of violence done to the bad guy. To make the good guy's violence seem warranted.
As such, its just one of a handful of oft repeated tropes used to make the audience support the violence that the protagonist ultimately is forced to enact. Its right up there with murdering someone's spouse, or kidnapping their children.

What that means, to me, is that showing ANYONE mistreating a woman is meant to make us all feel sympathy for the victim, and hatred for the perpetrator.

used in that context, I think it serves its purpose. Men- at least, decent men, are raised to feel protective of women and children.
In today's cinema, the only actions that warrant violence by a good guy, are threats or injuries to women and children.

in that context- depictions of rape can be reinforcing of cultural norms to protect women and children from the harm that other men can cause.

 

[Tattooed Goddess]

The Hills Have Eyes, the Rob Zombie Remake of Halloween, and a few other horror flicks are some of my favorites. They contain graphic rape scenes. I do usually take those particular scenes to step away and grab a drink or something when watching, but I won't refuse to watch the movie all together.

I also watch a lot of gangster flicks like American Me. The scenes in that movie are so insanely terrifying, but it gives impact to the film itself.

Monster was also an amazing movie.

So, no. It doesn't make me avoid watching.

What's disturbing is that these movies/shows can't truly communicate how it actually feels to go through an experience like that.

When my husband was a teenager he saw American me in the theater with his very conservative quiet father he said it was pretty awkward as you can imagine

 

[286798]

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Eye for an Eye are two films I recall with more graphic rape scenes in them. Both were scenes were disturbing, but don't make me shy away from watching those kind of films.

Compared to the book, I didn't think that the rape scene in TGWTDT was disturbing at all. I remember thinking "that's it?" in the film. I thought it was absolutely necessary for her character development, to explain why she became the badass she is.

In many other instances, I think that it can be gratuitous... an excuse for nudity or sex.

 

[Enid]

Compared to the book, I didn't think that the rape scene in TGWTDT was disturbing at all. I remember thinking "that's it?" in the film. I thought it was absolutely necessary for her character development, to explain why she became the badass she is.

In many other instances, I think that it can be gratuitous... an excuse for nudity or sex.

agreed about girl with dragon tattoo, saw both films (the foreign version and the american version) and while the rapes were upsetting, the books affected me more than the films did. guess it was how much more lisbeth came alive for me in the books, so her being traumatized like that disturbed me on a deeper level.

of course by the end she's pretty much digging herself out of graves and shit so it became less upsetting in retrospect.

i am not counting the 4th book, which i bought but haven't read yet. i dunno how the character is handled in the 4th.

 

[Tattooed Goddess]

The rape in Game of Thrones of Sansa by Ramsay really bothered me.

 

[twoton]

The rape in Game of Thrones of Sansa by Ramsay really bothered me.

I've never seen Game of Thrones and this makes me wonder why it is so wildly popular if it's so graphic. It also makes me think that I don't really want to watch it.

 

[Tattooed Goddess]

There are some really gruesome parts to the show you just get used to it. There may be a few deaths here and there that really break your heart but overall it is the best show I've ever seen in the history of television. The Back stories are really complicated so you have to start from the beginning. The rape wasn't brutal, you would just have to work your way through the character development to see how horrible it really was.

 

[Tight_N_Juicy]

The reason it's not as taboo to see a murder in a movie is the fact that basically everyone alive can understand what it's like to have the urge to kill someone. It's fucked up, but it's true.

Not everyone can relate to having the urge to rape someone.

 

[LaFemme]

The only rape scene that bothered me was the one in The Accused. It was too close to home. And it was based on reality.

Others don’t really bother me that much - real life is so much worse. I get more triggered by documentaries when real women share their stories. That’s real. That’s necessary so society can see what real rape is.

Game of Thrones, Outlander, or Girl with a Dragon Tattoo are fictional events. The assaults, graphic as they are, are meant to propel the character from a base of anger and trauma. Sometimes the fallout is handled well and sometimes not. I can be moved or disgusted, but no more than I am by a fictional murder. It’s a story. It’s not real life. Real life is worse.