Out of this week's readings, the reading on Constructing a Violent White Masculinity stuck with me the most. I find today's popular media often are intent on portraying the violence of males through news coverage and popular film and television. Often times, the female roles in television are perpetuated as victimized and abused. While there is some truth to this portrayal that could be construed as realism rather than feminism, there is also a rise in the amount of female on male violence that at times goes unnoticed because it occurs in far fewer numbers. Many times when discussion of feminist media and violence are brought up, scholars mention the movie 'Thelma and Louise' is brought up. In many ways, this is a great example because it shows a feminist uprising against oppressive and violent white males. However, in most of these demonstrations of female violence the women are responding to indiscretions that occurred to them while they were totally innocent. Very rarely is female violence shown as unwarranted where male violence is almost always unwarranted. Can you think of any examples that conflict with this observation?
Deborah, Blog Post, Week 10
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I think you bring up a good point. Almost any time the issue of domestic violence (for example) arises, the assumption is the heterosexual male hit the heterosexual female. We seem to have intertwined the ideas of violence and masculinity in a way that is more than likely really confusing and unhealthy for adolescent men (and women) to be exposed to.
I think you bring up a good point. Almost any time the issue of domestic violence (for example) arises, the assumption is the heterosexual male hit the heterosexual female. We seem to have intertwined the ideas of violence and masculinity in a way that is more than likely really confusing and unhealthy for adolescent men (and women) to be exposed to.