These domestic violence ads were banned from television:
and:
and:
But yet television executives apparently have no problem with onscreen violence against women. According to The Parents Television Council:
- Incidents of violence against women and teenage girls are increasing on television at rates that far exceed the overall increases in violence on television. Violence, irrespective of gender, on television increased only 2% from 2004 to 2009, while incidents of violence against women increased 120% during that same period.
- The most frequent type of violence against women on television 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%).
- Every network but ABC demonstrated a significant increase in the number of storylines that included violence against women between 2004 and 2009.
- Although female victims were primarily of adult age, collectively, there was a 400% increase in the depiction of teen girls as victims across all networks from 2004 to 2009.
- Fox stood out for using violence against women as a punch line in its comedies — in particular Family Guy and American Dad — trivializing the gravity of the issue of violence against women.
- From 2004 to 2009 there was an 81% increase in incidences of intimate partner
So there you have it, a culture of visual impunity that implies that violence against women is a perfectly okay form of entertainment is acceptable but talking about the real thing is unsuitable for viewers.
