Rape Culture: Visceral Storytelling or Gutless
Exploitation?
I remember sitting in the living room with
my cousin watching Rob Zombie’s Halloween
(2007). We were watching the movie, appropriately disturbed by viewing a little
boy torture animals on his bleak path to full-fledged sociopathic status. But
then all I remember is staring at a pretty, floral-striped shower curtain in
the bathroom because I got up and left the living room. I didn’t leave because
the movie was too scary; I left because of a scene, not too far into the film, where
a woman is raped.
Rape is uncomfortable for me as it should
be. As an avid film viewer I’m aware that there are numerous films, many
critically acclaimed, which involve scenes of sexual assault. Yet, as with all
mediums—books, films, art—it is up to the director (and writers) to be
responsible with the presentation of such content.
Murder, abuse, and rape are ugly topics
and unfortunately such topics hold a place in the stories we tell: life is full
of horror. For example, Law and Order: SVU is a T.V. show all about sexually
based offenses and heinous crimes. Rarely do I smile when I watch the show. But
the abhorrent themes are presented with a seriousness and tact that conveys the
horror without overdoing it. Oftentimes a rape occurs, sending the viewer on a
manhunt with the detectives, without beating the viewer over the head with
gratuitous content.
The scene in Zombie’s Halloween is empty and flat: it does nothing to propel Michael Meyer’s
story. Did the filmmaker run out of dialogue and content and think to himself, “It’d
be nice to fit in a gratuitous rape scene right here, just for the hell of it?”
Also,
the rape scene is pretty lengthy. From the bathroom I’m thinking:
Alright
already! The viewer knows this girl is being brutalized! How long do we have to
watch it? Why is it necessary for us to gaze endlessly upon the victimized,
objectified woman?
If
my memory serves me correctly, I think Michael kills the rapist, but the kill
doesn’t do anything to redeem Michael or affect some sort of turnaround for the
mental and emotional state of the character—he goes on to murder many more
people throughout the remainder of the film. And the woman who was raped? What
of her importance to the propulsion of the plot? Seems to me she was cast
merely to be a naked, stripped, and brutalized female body.
Many young people are desensitized as it
is! I actually walked out of the theater a few years back when I overheard a
group of young boys, teenagers, laughing and snickering when a girl on screen
was being raped. Laughter, watching a woman being raped is laughable?
Disgusting!
I’m not proposing some ban; I’m simply
calling attention to the offense of some filmmakers and writers who take a
lackadaisical approach to content that inevitably perpetuates the casting of
women as the center of violence and objectification. Am I the only one who
notices that a naked woman garners much more screen time than a naked man—what naked
man? He rarely exists!
How many films have you seen where a rape
scene is centered on a man? With this line of questioning I am not suggesting
that I want to see gratuitous male rape scenes either, I’m simply making an
important point. There are films where this is the case, and I ask that we put
these male-centered scenes up beside that of the one in question from Halloween and perform an analysis. American History X (1998) is an
absolutely wonderful film—visceral, brutal, and dealing in heavy themes that
are not easy to watch. But there is a stark contrast in how the assault and rape
of the male protagonist was shot, and ultimately how his rape is a turning
point for his character arc, integral to the development of the story, as
opposed to the poor girl in many movies I see whose assault is hinging on
pornographic.
As
a film student I remember reading that in horror and suspense it is oftentimes
what we don’t see that achieves a delightful level of terror. Think of Alfred
Hitchcock films; think of the creepy sounds and shadowy silhouettes lurking in
dark corners. What are we doing to minds and hearts when certain horrors are
exploited and crammed into numerous frames of current film and television content?
Would it warm your heart to think of your son smiling and laughing upon a scene
of brutality and terror? On the other hand, would you want to send your
daughter out into a world where rape is thrown around like mindless filler in a
story?
