Sexual Violence in the Media - seminar plan

[kangeiko]

I'm woking on my 'Sexual Violence in the Media' seminar. I need to come up with a list of possible discussion questions. I've included some of my thoughts on possible questions below. I'm going to choose from the following pool of material to illustrate them:


FILMS

1) ANIME EXAMPLE: NINJA SCROLL
The attempted rape of Kagaro by one of the demons and/or Kagaro offering her body to Jubei as payment for saving her, her clan, the universe, baby kittens, etc etc.

AND

2) CSI: 'SLAVES OF LAS VEGAS'
S&M v. snuff films (and films about snuff films, eg 'My Little Eye' and '8MM' and another CSI episode).

Together: The currency of the body as portrayed by popular media. The body as a means to an end. How / what does the portrayal of sexual violence inscribe upon the body? Where does the issue of consent figure?

3) SEXUALISED V. SEXUAL VIOLENCE: INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE (& FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE)
Lestat biting Louis at the docks and rising into the air. The vampire myth that sexualises violence. How does this tie into media representations of sexual violence? Inc. catfight between the two gypsy girls in the Bond film.

4) CHILD ABUSE: SLEEPERS & MONSOON WEDDING
Talk about 'Brass Eye' and public outcry over paedophilia v. 'barely legal' page 3 girls in 'The Sun'.

NON-FILM MEDIA:

1) OPIUM ADVERT
Women as passive, inert bodies.

2) DISHONOR
Outcry about a play about representations of sexual violence, leading to new representations of representations of sexual violence. Baudrillard & Lyotard & victimhood v. plantiffs.




QUESTIONS

I'm basing it around these questions, with the examples to be chosen to reflect useful topics. Possible questions:

1) How does the portrayal of sexual violence in the media position the viewing subject?

2) How can we unpack the issue of consent wrt sexual violence in the media, especially in light of:
a) consent as a defence against rape in the court-room,
b) the portrayal of 'play-fighting' in semi-consentual sex scenes
c) the issue of consent (or, rather, it's lack of relevancy) in S&M realities.

3) What can be said about the sexualisation of violence in the media and its impact upon sexual violence in the media, or vice versa?

4) What are the roles and issues surrounding:

a) fantasy (v. impact upon reality),
b) fetish (& fetishisation),
c) object/subject relations,

in different forms of media?


OK, be blunt. Does this make any sense?

Comments

[hello-trouble.livejournal.com]

Hi, i came across your journal through one of the feminist journals and was drawn to it as you are doing a gender degree in london as am I so I thought i'd say hello. I am doing my MA at Goldsmiths. Have you done this seminar yet? It looks very interesting. I especially like that you're going to talk about the public's response to that Brass Eye episode and relate it to Page 3. I started writing something a couple of years ago (which I lost somewhere and never finished...) about how the day after they found the bodies of those two girls killed by Ian Huntley, the Sun didn't have their page 3 model out of respect, but then the next day she was back again like nothing had happened and like there is no connection between a culture which fetishises childlike 'barely legal' female bodies and paedophilia...

So yeah, it looks very good and does make sense!

Is it ok if I add you? I'm relatively new to the lj thing and feeling a bit lonely so far...

Terese

[kangeiko]

Oh course, dear, you don't even need to ask. It's always good to meet people in the same (somewhat leaky and unstable) boat. :-)

And the seminar went off without a hitch, thank god. Mucho talk afterwards, resulting in me going slightly pink with ill-concealed pride. *g*

[hello-trouble.livejournal.com]

thanks - i'm still getting my head round livejournal etiquette but thought it was polite to ask...