Violence Against Women, Female Teens, Surges on TV:
LOS ANGELES, Oct 28 (Reuters) – Incidents of violence against women on mainstream U.S. television has increased by 120 percent in the past five years, with the depiction of teen girls as victims rising by some 400 percent, the Parents Television Council said in a report on Wednesday.
reuters http://www.reuters.com/article/mediaNews/idUSN2832457620091028
One of my former housemates was a 40 something year-old bachelor. He spent hours in his room watching HBO specials like Deadwood, and who knows what else. One day early on in his residence here, he invited me in to chat with him while he was playing Grand Theft Auto.
Now, I have never been into video games, and had only watched one other person playing one, a war game, complete with instant restocking and rising from the dead. I’d certainly heard of Grand Theft Auto, and I figured this was a good opportunity to see what it was for myself. I got there just in time to see his avatar running around city streets shooting random people, with, of course, some repeating weapon. After he blew a hole through someone, a computerized woman bystander screamed; the avatar said “Shut up Bitch!”, blasted a hole through her chest, and kept on running.
That was pretty well it for me, all I needed to know.
I will just add that this particular housemate was not one to listen much. I never had a two-way conversation with him. He’d come in, talk about himself, and leave. He was also the type who thought he knew everything – would occasionally get all lecturey; but because I’ve actually spent decades studying many different subjects, I would know how short he was on his facts. But what can you do?
Recently a female friend of mine was driving me home, and as we rounded the corner to my house, we were blocked from further movement by a monster truck stopped at an angle in front of a house recently refitted to be a monster house, taking up every spare foot on all sides of it. The dude who owns the house also owned the car. He’s a big dude. He was in the street with a few other people. I opened up the side door to say hey, we need to get by,what’s the deal, and he swaggered over saying “Hey Girls –”
Now, my friend and I are both grown women, but no big deal, I say ‘girls’ sometimes; but why anything at all? He was basically telling us to calm down, they’d only be a minute, his friend just got married, etc. He proceeded to tell me that he owned that house; I said “I know you own that house”; and then he said: “I know I’m the center of the universe.”
And what could I say? How could I argue? He was about twice my size, both up and across; he owns his big house, his big truck, and why the hell should he listen to me, a small woman who merely rents and doesn’t even own a driver’s license, let alone a powerful weapon?
And then there’s Afghanistan, and Pakistan, and Iran, and all the other increasingly Fundamentalist cultures.
And now this article in today’s news.
What’s a woman to do?
In 2009, what’s a woman to do?
Shut up Bitch.
:Victorials: 