Is Entertainment Industry Exploiting Violence Against Women?

There are many factors that contribute to the increasing numbers of women being violently assaulted. The economic decline, foreclosures, and the highest unemployment rates in years have all triggered an atmosphere of anger, desperation and hopelessness. The entertainment industry, in some respect, exploits the profusion of murder, sex, and rape that is happening in today's society.  Consequently, these images may trigger violent reactions in certain individuals. Realistically speaking, however, we cannot entirely fault the media as a major contributor to the violence that is happening to women.

Preventing violence against women starts within the family unit, and parents need to educate their sons to respect the opposite sex as well as teach them that equality is true across all cultures, races, and religions. In turn, female family members need to be taught self-respect and that they have the power to control the destiny of their lives without fear of intimidation and violence.

At the end of the day, violence against women is not going away anytime soon, at least not until there is tough law reform on how criminals are prosecuted and sentenced. The ignorance from cultural beliefs and prejudice behavior plays a part as to why there is victimization of women on such a global level. It's been nearly 50 years since the feminist movement spoke loud and clear that women are equal to men in every way, but have we really come a long way baby? Women in the 21st century are still being paid lower wages than men, their reproductive rights are under scrutiny, and the female population in foreign countries are still being sexually mutilated and tortured.

The entertainment industry is not only at fault here. In fact, if it weren't for the exposure of heinous treatment of women through movies, television and documentaries, many of us would be ignorant to the truth of what is happening not only in the U.S. but around the world. We need to wake up and realize that there is not one factor to blame but a collective response from hundreds of years of intolerance, discrimination and chauvinism.