Parents Television Council just released their new data comparing the incidence of violence against women and girls by CBS, NBC, ABC, and FOX during prime time sweeps in 2004 and 2009 (report here). They found a 120% increase in depictions of violence against women and girls amidst a steady rate of overall frequency of violence.
They write:
Cumulatively, across all study periods and all networks, the most frequent type of violence was beating (29%), followed by credible threats of violence (18%), shooting (11%), rape (8%), stabbing (6%), and torture (2%). Violence against women resulted in death 19% of the time.
Violence towards women or the graphic consequences of violence tends overwhelmingly to be depicted (92%) rather than implied (5%) or described (3%).
So those’re the numbers, how about some examples of the normalization of violence against women: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty, twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three, twenty-four, twenty-five, twenty-six, twenty-seven, twenty-eight, twenty-nine, thirty, thirty-one, thirty-two, thirty-three, thirty-four, thirty-five, thirty-six, thirty-seven, thirty-eight, thirty-nine, forty, forty-one, forty-two, and forty-three.
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Lisa Wade is a professor of sociology at Occidental College. You can follow her on Twitter and Facebook.
Comments 16
“The Killer in Me” Promo (NSFW! And Major Trigger Warning!) » Sociological Images — November 8, 2009
[...] our posts on increases in violence toward women on primetime TV, sexualized violence on TV crime procedurals, and the movie “DeadGirl.” Leave a [...]
SELF DEVELOPMENT BLOG » “The Killer in Me” Promo (NSFW! And Major Trigger Warning!) — November 8, 2009
[...] our posts on increases in violence toward women on primetime TV, sexualized violence on TV crime procedurals, and the movie [...]
Verlinkenswertes (KW 45/09) | Criminologia — November 8, 2009
[...] Violence Against Women on Prime Time Up Since 2004 (Sociological Images, 07.11.2009) [...]
Anne — November 8, 2009
Next time you link to a bunch of previous posts on a topic, could you number the links? It's hard to keep track of which link I clicked on last when they're all "here."
Brian — November 9, 2009
The FBI says that women were the victim in ~40% of violent crimes in 2004, and ~45% in 2008. The PTC finds women to be the victims of ~5% of violent crime on TV in 2004, and ~10% of violent crime on TV in 2009.
Is "normalising" it in this sense preferable to minimising it? Would it be better if television presented only men as the victims of violence? (Though I suppose it's not far off that now anyhow.)
M Jacobs — November 9, 2009
Does anyone have numbers regarding the percentage of violence toward men that is depicted, as opposed to implied or described? I'd really like to know if we get a 92% depiction rate there.
Christian — November 9, 2009
If a female action hero is fighting against a female villian and they are beating each other would this be counted as violance against 2 women?
If so, it may be just because there are more strong women in Television.
Starbucks in the new version of Battleship Galactica gets beaten, shot at and stabbed. if she would be just caring for children, she wouldn´t be. What would you prefer?
Ben — November 9, 2009
Is this because the rise of online video is causing TV (who watches TV anymore?) to become more sensational?
Mariaelena Gonzalez — November 10, 2009
Any good sociologist would look at the source of the data and conclude that the Parents Television Council data should be viewed with some skepticism given their right wing affiliation, links to religious groups, and tendencies to make hyperbolic claims. Furthermore, many of the shows rated are judged on promoting "traditional values" (which means depicting lgbt characters is out).
In the past this group has claimed the WWF program led to four childrens' deaths and that Buffy the Vampire Slayer was the worst moral television show (made the top of the list in 2002)
freaks & squeaks — November 11, 2009
[...] women’s problems over – do we live in an egalitarian, just society that treats them with respect, as my mother’s boyfriend argues [...]
Melissa — November 11, 2009
Interesting. I understand why CBS is in the lead since that's the channel that shows all the crime scene shows like "CSI" and "NCIS". Like other commenters I am interested in seeing the stats for crime against men on TV. Just thinking about the shows I watch that are about crime, I don't recall it being considerably more men than women. I wonder whether this data is indicative of more crime against women being depicted or more crime in general being shown, especially as the popularity of criminal investigation shows grow.
Human Rights Facts (164): Violence Against Women On Television « P.A.P. Blog – Human Rights Etc. — November 16, 2009
[...] source, [...]
jamal toussaint — November 20, 2009
Violence against women? How about violence against men by women? The single most prevalent trend in movies and television, over the past several years, is the depiction of the 100 lb. hot female punching out a much larger male. In almost every t.v. show-comedy, drama, cartoon, whatever- there is at least one uber aggressive female character who regularly beats up any male she desires to. Female empowerment is fine- but there are no more helpless heroines in our media now. Instead, there are countless scowling, confrontational little girls, teens, young women, middle aged women and old ladies, who delight in physically overpowering males, even when the males are pointing a weapon at them. This is a destructive message to be sending boys and girls; might is right, resolve all disputes with your fists (if you're female- if you're male, remember "boys don't hit girls").
Violence Against Women Is a Global Pandemic — December 2, 2011
[...] we can all be more aware of the spectrum of violence against women, the subtlety of a culture that promulgates it, and its prevalence in the lives of all women. Don't ignore it, don't trivialize it and don't let [...]
» Women Shaming in Africa and the Descent into Barbarism — November 16, 2014
[…] we can all be more aware of the spectrum of violence against women, the subtlety of a culture that promulgates it, and its prevalence in the lives of all women. Don’t ignore it, don’t trivialize it and […]