I finished watching Netflixās new series, Love, Death, and Robots, (or maybe more accurately Love, Death, and Violent Misogyny) and it made me think about how thereās an important conversation to be had about the difference between sexual violence and sexualized violence, and how insidious copious amounts of sexualized violence is, especially when just like sexual violence women are overwhelmingly the target
Warning: this post contains descriptions of sexualized violence, descriptions of gore, and discussion of sexual assault
We all probably know what sexual violence is, itās sexual assault and any sort of forced or unwanted sexual acts or contact. Itās usually done as an assertion of power over the victim.
But what is sexualized violence and how is it different? A good and prominent example of this that most of us have probably seen and are aware of is present in slasher films starting in the 70ā²s and up until now. Usually it involves a woman whoās young, sexy, conventionally attractive. Sheās in the middle of changing, or naked just because, or she just engaged in a consensual sex, and then BAM the killer shows up and brutually gores her, sheās screaming, thereās blood, and probably a shot of her nude body and exposed breasts while sheās being gored and brutalized. It other words, sexualized violence is violence made sexy, with it almost always being women who the violence is against thatās being made sexy and gazey.
In Love, Death, and Robots thereās copious amounts of sexualized violence, which is incredibly insidious from a show that appears to try to be angling itself as āgirl power / empowering for womenā in some of the episodes. Itās especially disgusting and insidious because this show also felt like it tries to appeal to adolescent boys, a lot of media that tries to appeal to adolescent boys just love Love, Death, and Robots has copious amounts of sexualized violence, itās so insidious because itās coding boys from a young age to associate violence and brutality against women with sexiness, and when itās a repeated theme again and again and again in many different shows, movies, and games you can see how this could have a great deal of influence on the sexuality of adolescent boys. Then look at the rates of women who are murdered by sexual partners, ex sexual partners, or just men who were sexually attracted to them and you might be able to piece together why copious amounts of sexualized violence against women in the media is a fucking problem when weāre coding young boys to see brutality and violence against women as sexy.
I mean, think of Pavlovās Dog and the power of association. When itās a repeated theme again and again and again in media, which sexualized violence is, weāre trained to associate the arousal of seeing a young and conventionally attractive nude woman on screen with the gore and brutality that inevitably ensues in a lot of media, such as your typical slasher film or in this case Love, Death, and Robots.
Adult men are not immune to this either, so yes Love, Death, and Robots has a MA rating for adults, but adolescent boys arenāt the only ones Iām worried about. Besides, how many 14-17 year old boys have their parents supervising every little bit of media they consume and making sure their kids donāt watch any mature content?
Sonnieās edge was particularly insidious because of how it appears to wear a cloak of a āgirl powerā episode, but we have two women who begin to engage in consensual sexual touching, one gets half nude and thereās a lot of shots of her exposed breasts, and then when the audience is titillated suddenly thereās gore and violence against one of these women, then not too long after the half nude woman with exposed breasts gets gored as well.
The Witness was just bad and gratuitous, the whole episode is a half naked, and then suddenly forĀ āplotā reasons completely naked woman (a young, thin, conventionally attractive woman at that) being chased around by a man trying to murder her, of course heās fully clothed, while sheās running in fear for her life with her exposed breasts wobbling around, and plenty of shots of said exposed breasts wobbling as sheās terrified and running for her life from a (fully clothed) man trying to kill her. How is that not insidious and gratuitous? Ā
In Beyond the Aquila Rift we have a very graphic and detailed sex scene, then only a few moments later we see the male protagonist shoving and slamming the woman up against the wall we were just graphically shown him having sex with, oh but itās actually āokayā because sheās just an alien manipulating his mind. Actually, that brings up another trope Iāve noticed that I think is worth dissecting, how much we see this theme in media of where a man is physically aggressive with a woman heās dating/married to/sleeping with but itās justified by the plot because sheās secretly an alien/monster/spirit or w/e, and how this might normalize IRL men being physically aggressive with sexual partners because thereās some reason itās ājustifiableā
The worst and most disgusting example was in The Secret War. The only women we see the entire episode are mutilated corpses, the only speaking characters who are alive and have any dignity and plot other than being a mutilated corpse are men. In the beginning of the episode we see very brief shots of mutilated peasant women scattered around, but at least theyāre clothed like the male characters are. The most upsetting and disgusting part was halfway through the episode we see the nude corpse of a woman, her body fits conventional standards of sex appeal, sheās clearly young and skinny with large breasts, but sheās a mutilated corpse with her entrails hanging out, sheās tied up and restrained in a way reminiscent of sexual bondage with her legs tied spread eagle apart but wrists bound together. We get plenty of shots of her large exposed breasts, but also her entrails hanging out. I was too upset and disgusted that the only woman we see for more than a second in the entire episode is the tied up mutilated corpse of a young skinny large breasted woman that I couldnāt even fucking finish the episode. Fuck that. Most of the warnings I see for this episode only mention the gore, but fail to mention the specific misogynistic implications of having an episode where the only women shown are mutilated corpses and in one case the unnecessarily nude mutilated tied up corpse of a young skinny busty woman.
Shit I feel like it would have been less misogynistic to have just not shown any women at all the entire episode than to only show one woman, and sheās nude, and tied up, and mutilated, and dead. Fuck, how much does whoever made The Secret War hate women?
Can you imagine the male tears and outcry if an episode only showed women the entire episode, and the one shot we get of a man the entire episode itās the corpse of a young and conventionally attractive man, we get plenty of shots of his glistening chiseled abs and ass, and also see heās been violently gored and has his entrails hanging out, meanwhile living and clothed women stand around him and get plot and personalities and dignity? Can you fucking imagine that ever even being made in the first place?
This show might be trying to angle itself as āgirl powerā in certain episodes but with all the gratuitous sexualized violence, Iām not buying it. Itās actually deeply misogynistic and gratuitous. An especially big FUCK YOU to whoever is responsible for making the misogynistic garbage that is The Secret War
The only episodes I can really recommend if you really want to watch it are Three Robots, Lucky 13, Zima Blue, and Fish Night.
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