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Sex, Violence and Rock 'n'
Roll
For one of my Women's Studies classes, we are reading Reviving Ophelia by Mary
Pipher, Ph.D. The book covers many issues facing adolescent girls today, but I would like
to focus on only one today -- sex and violence.
The link between sex and violence has been solidified in the past few years. Any look at the media, and you will see the two coincide. I recently saw a video on Mtv where a man grabbed a scantily clad woman by the neck and forced her down onto the floor. The idea of the video, to the best of my understanding, was that she was a spy or double agent, and the man had found out. What was disturbing was not simply the aggression showed against the woman, or the fact that she was scantily clad during the episode, but the fact that she smiled after getting to the floor. The smile of the woman subtly hinted that she really liked the aggression of the man, and that perhaps she was even turned on by the extent of his force.
Mary Pipher states some alarming statistics in her book. A study was done, consisting of teenagers. The teenagers were asked the question: "Under what circumstances does a man have the right to have sexual intercourse with a woman without her consent?"
80% said if the couple was married |
70% said if the couple planned to get marry |
61% said if the couple had prior sexual relations |
50+% said if the woman had led the man on |
30% said if the man knew that the woman had sex with other man, or if he was too stimulated that he couldn't control himself |
As Pipher says, "Clearly at least 80 percent of these teenagers didn't know that a man never had the right to force sex" (Pipher, 206).
The answers obviously show a problem with the thinking of America's youth. I doubt that many parents are teaching their children that rape is okay, so where is this message coming from? My answer is, the media. Videos like the one I saw on Mtv are not just entertainment -- for some children, they are the main source of education about the world.
America needs to start respecting the women of this country. Stop the degradation of our women; stop the miseducation of our children. The media is sending the message that sex and violence go together. Let's change that message.
Just think: every day in America, 480 women and children are raped and 5,760 women are assaulted by a male partner (Pipher 219).
Past Rants:
The Starvation of America's Women and the Special K Commercial
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