Frightening Truth

So I went and saw The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo night before last. I have not read the books though I plan to do so. The movie was really good, but difficult to watch. It was very disturbing—showing one especially gruesome rape scene. The girl, Lisbeth is basically forced into prostitution in order to get the money needed to survive. Aside from this, the plot includes a crazy rapist murderer. I kept thinking about what I had watched (especially the rape scene) and it really upset me because it is such a real issue. I just took a Women’s Studies class last semester, and we studied a whole unit on relationship violence and violence in general (rape and sexual assault predominantly). The frequency that this kind of abuse occurs is frightening. 1 in 4 women will suffer some form of sexual assault while in college. 25% is waaay too many women. We studied the effects of said rapes and assaults, and it’s horrible. The strategies for dealing with this growing problem seem like not enough. One man, Jackson Katz, has a whole program and way of thinking that targets the men (you can look his videos up on Youtube). Whatever we can do to deal with this problem…well, I don’t know exactly what that is, but we need to do it.

Aside from rape itself, I can’t imagine being in a situation in which prostitution was my only option. When I think of the stories of women who are forced to sell their bodies and endure abuse at the hands of their customers, it just upsets me so much. I had nightmares that night of being raped. The movie itself truly is fantastic, the acting incredible, and so on…but the truth behind the events is what really gets to you.

I already had these thoughts and concerns about rape and such, and then last night we watched this movie called American Psycho. The movie tells the story of a crazy rapist murderer who gets away with his crimes. The movie was also disturbing and the ending makes no sense at all. I don’t know if you have watched this movie, but I wouldn’t recommend it. But the quality of the movie itself is beside the point. Here also is a movie that shows a man who is insane and living well in society (no one knows he’s an insane killer) and shows his many victims. Rape is real, but is also real in the movie industry. You can’t help but question whether the amount of rape in real life leads to its vast portrayal in movies, or if showing it in movies has some effect on men committing these crimes in real life. On one hand, showing such horrible things raises awareness, but is that only positive awareness? Whenever I watch Criminal Minds, I always wonder if some crazy person is also watching and instead of being horrified at the serial killers, he/she is excited and filled with some sort of sick happiness. Are we giving them ideas and new ways to kill?

My post today is a little depressing (especially right after Christmas), but it’s something that has been weighing on my mind—especially ever since going to the movies the other night. I wish I knew something that I could personally do to help prevent rape and murder…but then again I guess we (we as in sane people) all want to know how to stop terrible things. Maybe we will be able to do something about it, and I will end this post hoping for a better future As the Clock Ticks…