| I |
n today’s digital world of super-fast technology, the media has great influence on how we see men and women in everyday life. It’s in everything we watch, read and listen to; and it shapes our ideas about gender. The cultivation theory reinforces the development and internalisation of attitude of viewers towards violence because of media’s portrayal of it. For instance, research confirms that male intimidation and female retaliation in wrestling entertainment normalise inter-gender violence. It indicates that violence portrayed in entertainment greatly influences how the public views gendered violence.
The normalisation of rape myths, the spread of gender stereotypes and pro-violence attitudes can all be attributed to media representation of violence against women, as research has repeatedly shown. Considering how common these representations are in popular media like television and movies, this is particularly worrying. Men’s subsequent aggression towards women was found to be facilitated by watching sexually violent films because the “repeated association of females with the victim of observed violence increases the aggression-eliciting stimulus properties of a female.” Similarly, male viewers of nonviolent pornography have been found to experience misogynistic effects. Popular media, such as movies, has an impact on young adults’ opinions and attitudes about gender and sex. The way women are usually portrayed in movies, which has disregarded most true human and social complexity, has perpetuated the idea that a “good woman” is obedient and tolerant, even when she is the victim of violent abuse or unfair treatment.
Despite its brief existence, the “new-wave” cinema movement altered the way women were portrayed as strong-willed and independent, defying injustice and those who stood in their way. Women’s lives have always revolved around their interactions with men, and they are never portrayed as having won the struggle for equality by speaking out against violence and oppression. In addition, movies usually stereotype women, ignore the nuanced representations of women’s realities and misrepresent reality.
Moreover, due to the introduction, growth and extensive use of media, male-dominated power structures have continuously changed how they are represented and have now discovered new methods of operation. As a result, both offline and online platforms have helped spread violence against women, which is currently becoming a pandemic and needs immediate attention. Reforming how women are portrayed in the media is acknowledged as one of the most important strategies to lessen this problem. One growing issue with digital platforms is the easier access and increased distribution of violent content. Numerous empirical studies have demonstrated that men who are repeatedly exposed to violent content exhibit an increase in sexually aggressive behaviour. As a result of this sexually aggressive behaviour, intimate partners – who are heavily influenced by pornography – are subjected to cruel and dehumanising treatment. Women are thrown out of the house, beaten or forced upon if they refuse to comply.
The contribution of misogynist media content to the development of demeaning attitudes towards women cannot be denied. Owing to the ease with which different forms of sexist media are accessible and the remarkable influence that media has on thought patterns and actions of its audience such as internet use trends also reveal gender bias, demonstrating that men use the internet more frequently than women. Pakistan ranked second last, 133 out of 134 countries on gender equality in internet use in the Network Readiness Index 2020. Nearly 50 percent of women in Pakistan don’t know how to use the internet and only 15 percent of women are using it (NCSW, 2023). Men, as a result, are exposed to sexist discourses and media more frequently; these have developed into effective means of inflaming violence against women.
Furthermore, women are held to unrealistic standards by the idealised female body that is portrayed in video games. For example, a majority of female characters in video games are depicted as sex objects, with hypersexualised body features and scant clothing. In other instances, female characters are portrayed as male heroes’ love interests or as victims who need to be saved by the heroes. Even though the number of video games with female protagonists has grown over time, the design of these characters either perpetuates negative stereotypes or turns them into sexual fantasies for heterosexual male players. Empirical research has shown that while men who were exposed to such sexualised representations of women in video games for a short period of time were more accepting of sexual harassment and rape myths about women, men who were exposed to such representations for a longer period were more tolerant of abuse of women in offline real-world settings. This implies that the representation of violence against women in the media can influence attitudes and actions in the real world, which may tend to sustain gendered violence.
Research also indicates that violence against women has increased over the recent decades, and that the way women are portrayed in the media is one of the main causes of this rise in aggression. The media’s propensity to portray incidents of violence against women as singular occurrence rather than placing them in a larger social context can further strengthen the notion that such violence is the product of personal dysfunction or abnormality. Addressing the underlying causes of gender-based violence may become more challenging because of this, as it may mask the structural and systemic elements that contribute to the issue. This issue has taken on global significance since the media has spread beyond national borders. States have been urged to take proactive measures to eradicate sexist stereotypes in the media by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, which has acknowledged the media’s pivotal role in the fight to eradicate violations against women. According to the Beijing Platform for Action, media companies should implement fair and consistent policies for their operations in order to eradicate all types of violence against women.
In addition to drawing attention to the perpetuation of long-standing patriarchal ideas, the rise in misogyny in new media has raised awareness of pressing social problems like sex trafficking, sexual violence and pornography as the sexuality of women in media content does not represent women’s sexual liberation; rather, it reduces women to mere body parts that men can consume and use for their own sexual gratification. This emphasises the need for policies as well as media sensitisation efforts to effectively play a socialisation role without encouraging violent behaviour in society.
The writer is the chairpersonof the Department of Gender Studies at the University of the Punjab, Lahore. She can be reached at raana.malikyahoo.com