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From: bev@hlexa.UUCP (Beverly Dyer)
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: rape and violence
Message-ID: <3029@hlexa.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 19-Sep-84 09:09:31 EDT
Article-I.D.: hlexa.3029
Posted: Wed Sep 19 09:09:31 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 25-Sep-84 09:01:49 EDT
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Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Lines: 83

Following are some excerpts and some summarizing of an article published
in the New York Times a couple of weeks ago describing some research
on violence against women and rape and men's reactions to films
and attitudes in surveys.  

I read a fair amount about violence against women, and think about it, and
although I dont necessarily trust statistics and psychological research, it
might open some of the readers of this newsgroups' eyes to read or hear
about more studies.  I find incredulity here and in lots of other places
about the pervasiveness of violence against women.  Recent comments
expressing ideas like "not that many women are raped" or "Redbook says women
want to be raped" or "old women wont get raped, young sexy ones do" 
or "rape is not violence" are examples.

Studies at the U of California by Dr Neil Malamuth found that a third 
of the men watching films which showed extreme violence against women,
but contained nothing explicitly sexual, were sexually stimulated. 
"Psychologists had previously thought that this pattern was unique to men
who actually raped women."

"Several researchers have found, moreover that repeated viewings of films
such as "Friday the 13th" and "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" instill attitudes
in the minds of the viewers that are similar to those found in rapists."

Studies at the U of Wisconsin by Edward Donnerstein showed 5 "slasher" type
movies to men over a period of a few days with psychological tests 
before and after.  The men found the movies "progressively less upsetting,
more enjoyable and less debasing to women."  They more often blamed the 
woman after the movies in a mock rape trial.  "A guy who has raped 20
women is at the extreme of where those attitudes point," says Dr. Gene
Abel of Emory U., and "straightforward pornography movies dont seem to
have that effect on peoples attitudes towards women.

Women also were found to have a desensitized reaction to progressive
showings of violent movies, and to more often judge a rape victim to
be at fault.

(Some of the men in the "slasher" film study were not allowed to see all 
5 films because they exibited strong similarities to the profiles of men 
willing to commit rape in initial testing.)

John Briere of the U. of Manitoba reported that 10 percent of college men
admitted to having "physically forced a woman to have sex against her will"
in a survey.  He also found that "attitudes among men that were once thought
to signify the thinking of rapists were held in some degree by many men."
The men who admitted to having raped shared attitudes held by convicted 
rapists, including myths such as that women enjoy sexual violence and want
to be raped, and that rapes do not occur but women lie about them.

Almost 50 percent of college men subscribe to similar myths.
In a survey of 2000 men, "35 percent said they might rape a woman if they
could get away without being caught."

Men who watched films combining sex and violence became more callous towards
women. (The film "Swept Away" is mentioned.)

Rapists are aroused by the fantasy of violence against women, but do 
not seem to be among the most frequent users of violent pornography in
entertainment.  Most rapists were victims of sexual abuse as children.

***************************
These are some of the more interesting points to me.  It doesn't surprise me
that people become more callous as they are shown violent films.  It doesn't
even surprise me too much that women also blame the rape victim for the
crime ... this attitude seems to be entrenched fairly deeply.  That (30%)
men are sexually aroused during violent non-sexual scenes surprises me, also
that (35%) men would like to rape if they could get away with it.

Watching violence against women in films has become a horror story for me.
I cover my eyes, and if the movie is a bad one I am afraid for a few days
afterwards.  I often go to a movie with some friend, not knowing that
the content includes some scene where a woman is (killed/raped/cut up/
kicked around) and spend 3/4 of the movie with my head down, while my
friend is saying "it's just special effects, it's not really blood."
(We all lauph about it now ....... Beverly's going to spend the movie
looking at the ceiling)

Beverly Dyer
ihnp4!hlexa!bev