This is an important article written by Pema Levy on a number of levels…First, it shows that violence against women is not limited to Hip Hop..It’s interesting to note as this article points out, how the mainstream seems to to have no problem accepting and promoting this sort of violence in True Blood as art and thus should be applauded and even rewarded. The fact that violence against women has been stereotyped to just a handful of communities, what gets overlooked is how easy it is for us to overlook it when it shows up in our own backyards. We come up with b=nice excuses and even flowery names like ‘Hate Sex’ to describe atrocious actions like rape.
So many folks are busy smashing on the local rap artist and not checking the local actor and film maker who may actually have more of an influence in sparking a culture of violence..Hopefully upon reading article this folks will expand their horizons and conclude that violence whether in the form of entertainment or in real life is foul..
-Davey D-
Why I Won’t Watch True Blood Tonight: Violence Against Women
by Pema Levy
There’s a difference between “pushing the envelope” and an excuse for exhibiting gratuitous violence against women. In the last few weeks, HBO’s True Blood crossed that line.
True Blood has always had its fair share of violence, but lately that violence has become increasingly sexual. Then two weeks ago, an episode crossed the line by portraying a violent rape scene — although they refuse to call it by that name. The most recent episode continued this trend with almost every scene containing some sort of violence against women, whether it was punching a female vampire into a wall, Tara being kidnapped (with implied rape), and a woman being undressed and branded by a crowd of men in a bar.
A lot of people write this stuff off as True Blood challenging sexual mores or being edgy. Slate‘s Jason Zinomanapplauds the writers and suggests their rape scene deserves an Emmy: “The sick genius of Episode 3 … is that it finds other creatively perverse ways to mingle sex and violence.” Zinoman finds intriguing what should be disturbing: that the women being raped and assaulted do not condemn this behavior. Zinoman calls it “hate sex” (rape by another name) that the female character enjoys; as he twists her head around her shoulders with blood coming out of her mouth, she repeats “I love you.”
It’s not violence per se that is unacceptable, but rather the context in which it is portrayed: showing violence against women without simultaneously condemning that violence. The writers believe that they can justify this by using a theme: vampires are inherently violent, like blood, like violent sex. In doing so, True Blood buys into the same myths about violence and rape that do real harm to women today:…..
continue reading at http://womensrights.change.org/blog/view/why_i_wont_watch_true_blood_tonight_violence_against_women