Hollywood, the Sexual Violence Factory (trigger warnings)
Hollywood, the Sexual Violence Factory
The statement that the primary function of movies is entertainment is clearly not the end of the question. All entertainment is education in some way, many times more effective than schools because of the appeal to the emotions rather than to the intellect.” — Hortense Powdermaker, Hollywood, the Dream Factory
As of this writing, more than 40 women have accused actor and comedian Bill Cosby of sexual assault. When the Cosby story finally went viral in October 2014 (not, notably, because of the gravity and proliferation of complaints, but because of comedian Hannibal Burress’ videotaped stand-up act), the Hollywood spin machine got thrown out of alignment. People, including Cosby’s former co-workers, rushed to his defense. TV son Malcolm Jamal-Warner responded to the allegations, saying, “Just as it’s painful to hear any woman talk about sexual assault, whether true or not, it’s just as painful to watch my friend and mentor go through this. … The Bill Cosby I know has been great to me and great for a lot of people.” Phylicia Rashad took a more aggressive stance on her Cosby Show co-star, complaining, “This is not about the women. This is about something else. This is about the obliteration of a legacy.”
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But patterns and histories lie behind what continue to be represented as exceptional, high-profile tragedies on lists of “bizarre Hollywood deaths.” The accounts of women and men working within this system are replete with instances of sexual violence, often at the hands of serial offenders. What we now know about survivors of sexual violence—that often they have histories of trauma and violent encounters—is true of many of the most celebrated “bombshells” or “sex symbols” in Hollywood, including Judy Garland, Jean Harlow and Marilyn Monroe, mythologized for what was perceived to be their inexplicably suicidal behavior.
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Lives of women said to be cut “tragically short” by fame were actually—like Harlow’s— cut short by the sexual violence that infused the industry. In the 1950s, aspiring young women hit the Hollywood party circuit in the hope of cashing in on the promises of the dream factory. According to Marilyn Monroe biographer Barbara Leaming, parties like those organized by former United Artists board chairman Joseph Schenck and others—some of Hollywood’s most powerful men—comprised a “a brutal, degrading, sometimes dangerous business” where “in exchange for dinner and the chance to meet some of Hollywood’s most important players, the women were expected to make themselves available” to the guests of rich and powerful film industry executives. That volatile mix of power and alcohol continues to be celebrated today in television shows like Ballers and Entourage.
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Over the past three years, sexual violence in institutions ranging from the Catholic Church to the military to university campuses has finally begun receiving the attention it deserves. But sexual violence in media industries presents an extraordinarily important challenge for movements against abuse. Media industries (and universities) are in the business of producing representations of, and knowledge about, sexuality and gendered behaviors. When it comes to Hollywood, industry-wide sexual violence has been normalized by images of sexual violence on screen, eroticizing it and making it a narrative staple. Horror films endlessly recycle tropes of sexually active women who are violently dispatched. When other genres include women (and a significant number still do not in any meaningful way), their narratives often begin with the rape, torture or death of women: Braveheart, The Fugitive, Gladiator, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Inception, The Prestige and others too numerous to list. On television, franchises like the eponymous Law and Order series, as well as “quality” shows like Top of the Lake, Twin Peaks, True Detective and The Killing, repeat messages that emphasize these narrative conventions. Dream worlds that show women of all colors and sizes as sexual agents who are happy and healthy and—importantly—alive, such as Magic Mike XXL or Scandal, remain rare indeed.
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http://msmagazine.com/blog/2015/11/23/hollywood-the-sexual-violence-factory/
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