MEDIA VIOLENCE

There’s no escaping it! We can’t run or hide from it because no matter where we go it’ll find us. We’re trapped! And the worst part of this scenario is that we’re addicted to it. Violence is everywhere and we all have an addiction for it. We’re exposed to it in everyday and we love to watch violence on television. There are many different representations of violence evident in movies and Television. Media violence can best be described in the words of Gerbner and Signorelli: “Most research studies have defined media violence as the depiction of overt physical action that hurts or kills or threatens to do so... It depicts social relationships that force to control, dominate, provoke, or annihilate. By demonstrating who can get away with what against whom factual and fictional representations of violence or terror can intimidate people, provoke resistance, aggression, or repression, and cultivate a sense of relative strength and vulnerability as they portray the social “peaking order” (Berger 136). As a viewer, we are bombarded with different representations of violence against humanity and animals. Particularly the portrayal of women associated with violence is often depicted with battering, rape, prostitution; the “good girl” verses the “bad girl” and the murder of a female character. Through chiaroscuro drawing (An art term for sketching with different tonalities of black and white), I have created my own representations of women in film and television that are common depictions of violence against women.

Aesthetically, through a visual analysis of my piece, there are a number of components that draw on the representations of women. The focal point is the feminine eye in which if one looks closely at it, a man behind the came...

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...hould finally note that the quote from Bill Cosby pertains to the idea that as humans, we’re addicted to violence. We can’t escape it or run from it. It’s everywhere but in the future we need to put an end to it...

Works Cited

Berger, Arthur A. Media Society: A critical Perspective. Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc, 2003.

Eschholz , Sarah , and Jana Bufkin. "Crime in the Movies: Investigating the Efficacy of Measures of Both Sex and Gender for Predicting Victimization and Offending in Film." Sociological Forum 16. (2001): 655-676 . 27 Feb. 2011 .

Fineman, Martha, et al. eds. Feminism, Media and the Law . New York: Oxford University Press, Inc. , 1997.

Ingham, Helen . "The Portrayal of Women on Television." Women on Television. 25 Feb. 2011. November 1995 .