Does anybody else dislike how normalised violence towards men is in Movies and TV shows?

ExMuzzy · 2022-01-21T08:58:44+00:00

I watch old and new movies and unfortunately it seems to have always been like this. Media trivialising violence against men tells women that it's okay to hit men. Men are taught that they should not only be okay recieving abuse, but also be apologising for whatever non-violent act caused a woman to physically attack him. How often do you see the comment 'what did he do to deserve it?'.

The only movie I remember where it's not seen as a joke is The Loved Ones (2009) where a girl kidnaps and tortures a guy for rejecting her.

TEL-CFC_boi · 2022-01-21T11:43:44+00:00

There was a TV show called The Fall, and it was just disgusting. The lead actress made a point that every man was a potential rapist or at fault for a murder. She had several lines denigrating men for being men, the most prominent of which was "men are a genetic defect" (seriously, this was an entire thing). And this is supposed to be empowering and progressive

VincentPhil · 2022-01-21T10:24:41+00:00

The aspect of it that irks me the most is how often the death of a male character is painted as a comeuppance for even a minor wrong.

In an action movie, if you're a minor character and: - say something sexist - say something "obejctifying" - act in a threatening way towards a female character - look at a woman in a "perverted way" - "mansplain" - "manterrupt" - "manexist"

You are going to die a gruesome death the movie will paint as a fair comeuppance.

Disposability is burned into our minds with a red hot iron from the youngest age.

Vegetable_Ad6969 · 2022-01-21T13:04:20+00:00

While I find the purposeful denigration and violence of men by women on screen quite irritating, it is generally a more recent phenomenon that stems from society's current fashion on 'punching up' on men.

What I find far more aggravating is the normalisation of torture, mutilation and violence towards male characters on screen, particularly no name bystanders or henchmen. In any movies that features heroes and villians, the henchmen will always be portrayed as well; men, regardless of whether the main villian is a male or female. They are completely expendable on screen and their horrific deaths are seen as pure entertainment for the audience.

Even more worrying however is our complete ambivalence to male bystanders in film being caught up in death and violence. If a scene in a movie depicts innocent bystanders being killed in horrific ways. 90% of the time the victim is a male. Furthermore if the victim is a female, she will almost always be killed off screen, however, if it is a male, we get to watch him die in all its 'gory goodness'.

An example of what I'm talking about is Season 2 of Altered Carbon. The directors actually changed a torture scene from a woman being tortured in the original source material to a man, to make the scene more palletable for the audience.

Waltzingwiglet · 2022-01-22T04:56:50+00:00

Trigger warning (sexual violence)

Someone I know (a woman) loves the movie Midsomer and said the scene where (not her words) the boyfriend is drugged and dragged in to a room of chanting women and raped was beautiful.

I asked her what she meant and she said the women guiding the girls experience was really beautiful. I got really mad at her and said she was ignoring the fact that the man was drugged and raped. She refused to change her mind and I’m convinced she wouldn’t feel the same way if the the gender roles were swapped.

Algiz56 · 2022-01-21T08:30:00+00:00

I find it incredibly disgusting. But I did not know this is a trend now, because I have quit watching modern movies long ago. Last thing with "powerfull women" that I have seen, was "Joy" with Jennifer Lauren's, and, actually I liked it. But that movie had zero violence, and main character was actually good and likable. It is a story of an inventeress.

Well, it is something that can be done about this. But Hollywood is just a mirror, things should be done about the culture that enables such shit.

hehimCA · 2022-01-21T15:17:05+00:00

Yes it’s call male disposability. And it’s disgusting, and most people don’t even recognize it.

TheSnesLord · 2022-01-21T10:51:27+00:00

I don't get why this clear double standard is so normalised in many tv shows and movies.

The reason for this is Social Justice Warriors and Feminism.

Does anybody else find it incredibly disturbing?

Not only disturbing but irritating. I also dislike the double standard of how handsome male actors in movies and TV are objectified (usually through unexplained and unnecessary focused shirtless scenes) just to titillate and pander to the female audience and female gaze; but yet we are not allowed an equivalent for beautiful female actresses anymore because it's supposedly "sexist", "oppressing women", "misogyny" and would cater to the dreaded "harmful male gaze".

PsychologicalScale57 · 2022-01-21T16:02:51+00:00

It’s pretty infuriating. I try to point it out to my kids, and honestly whoever else will listen, because it’s ridiculous. Not just the physical assault, but sexual assault as well. I don’t understand how some can equate those actions with comedy. It’s unreal. It seems like it’s starting to get better, though, in movies. If you watch a movie from the 90’s or early 00’s, they’re quite cringeworthy, at least movies aren’t THAT bad, anymore, but I agree, we need to do better.

Douglas0327 · 2022-01-21T11:25:35+00:00

I don't get why this clear double standard is so normalised

Gender roles

JACCO2008 · 2022-01-22T01:12:25+00:00

One instance of this that always stuck out to me as a kid was when Willie straight up punched Indy after he saved her from the lava sacrifice.

I get/got that it was supposed to be humorous after a tense moment, but even as a kid I always thought it was unnecessary and kind of showed how she wasn't grateful that he literally just killed a bunch of people and risked his life to save her.

That was the first time I really began to question why it was okay to hit a man for a funny moment but Cal smacking Rose in Titanic was this horrific thing that cemented him as the villain. I was maybe 7 or 8.

coolboy_24278 · 2022-01-22T06:01:08+00:00

I agree, this never sat right with me since i was a boy and watching many shows even cartoons. people on reddit wonder why r/pussypassdenied exists. because of these dumb double standards shoved in our faces irl!

DrOrgasm · 2022-01-21T12:46:59+00:00

Remember this?

omegaphallic · 2022-01-21T15:33:16+00:00

Violence belongs on TV, I don't like it when it's normalized in real life.

Man_of_culture_112 · 2022-01-21T10:32:50+00:00

The man thing is not that worrisome, it's when violence against little boys is normalised that I cringe. An example would be Homer strangling Bart.

edit: I mean, what's more disturbing is how violence against young men and boys is normalised.

the-working-dead · 2022-01-21T14:44:28+00:00

It’s part of the extensibility of men. How many male soldiers die and nobody bats an eye? There’s a reason they aren’t women soldiers dying it would be too jarring to watch and people would feel too much sympathy for the characters the plot would be lost.

LordMandrews · 2022-01-21T18:47:23+00:00

While all of it bothers me, the act that's portrayed in media that irks me the most is the depiction of someone striking a man or boy in the genitals. Why is that seen as funny?

WeEatBabies · 2022-01-21T14:09:28+00:00

This, we can't have equality until every minor henchperson that are beaten up by the hero are 50% male and 50% female!

DishwaterDumper · 2022-01-21T21:09:03+00:00

Also if a villain shoots one of his own guys to prove how badass he is, it's always a man who gets killed, like if a bad guy is taken hostage and his friends all shoot him, or the villain is momentarily pissed off and kills a henchman, it's a man.

Also you could never get henchmen that way. People join gangs for protection, and criminal orgs value loyalty, which is a two-way street. They don't just kill insiders.

BitsAndBobs304 · 2022-01-21T19:22:59+00:00

In Orphan Black if the Donnie situation had been gender reversed the show would have been hit by a shitstorm, political intervention and cancelled, no matter how "guilty" the woman would have been. He's basically a punching bag, but worse

2022-01-21T13:01:16+00:00

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aknabi · 2022-01-23T10:01:29+00:00

Even in the most popular sitcoms of TV history. Friends the gals assault the guys in several episodes with laughter as a response, Two and a half men Charlie gets kicked in the nuts when he won’t say where his brother is… and again laughter. Men are being canceled for acts decades ago yeah these scenes won’t be cancelled. But we’re used to the hypocrisy of third wave feminism (just like there’s no demand from women to pay half the dinner bill)

Title	Does anybody else dislike how normalised violence towards men is in Movies and TV shows?
Author	Consistent-Elk4614
Upvotes	224
Comments	53
Date	January 21, 2022 7:50 AM UTC (4 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates/comments/s95jxr/does_anybody_else_dislike_how_normalised_violence/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates/does-anybody-else-dislike-how-normalised-violence.1098427 https://theredarchive.com/post/1098427

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