Last year the ‘epidemic’ of violence against women and girls was classed as a national emergency. This is something which is reflected in the digital age of today where there is no shortage of violence against women plastered across our screens and the films we consume. 

The film ‘memories of murder’ comes to mind when discussing this topic. The film is based on real events, detailing the police investigation into a wave of murders and rapes that took place in the 1980s across South Korea. Graphic scenes of women being strangled, gagged, and raped saturate the plot. This raises the question of normalisation, as it walks a fine line between shocking and educational, or harmful and desensitising.  

Overconsumption to these types of scenes and films can almost become normalised or diluted in their enormity as we begin to foster an immune reaction to their shocking nature. This fact alone can be dangerous in two ways. The first being that violence towards women and rape culture can integrate into society without the correct level of outrage, as we can slowly become indoctrinated to these scenes through exposure to them across our screens, especially young people. 

Read more about desensitisation to news narratives of war and conflict here 

This indoctrination is a universal phenomenon that has long captured the attention psychologists, known as the contagion of violence. As psychologist Rowell Huesmann says in his paper, “people “catch” the violence bug from being exposed to other people who are violent” – it’s the idea that violence breeds violence. This is clear when you see the generational cycle of abuse, as children who are abused are more likely to abuse others in their adult life.  

However, this contagion has also been extended to those who observe violence at distance, like through a screen. The scenes on the screen can become a mirror image of the consumer’s real life and actions. Research has found that people mimic what they see, so those who have increased screen time proximity to scenes depicting violence are very likely to also be violent in a same way in the future, as well as becoming emotionally and unconsciously desensitised to the gravity of these acts.

When these scenes and tropes become normalised not only can they occur more frequently, but they can epistemically harm the victims of similar acts who may even begin to self-desensitise their own experiences, as these occurrences run the risk of no longer being regarded as a serious by society. When statistics on violence against women and girls already speak volumes this is alarming.

As it stands 41% of girls aged 14 to 17 who are in an intimate relationship have experience some from of sexual violence perpetrator by their partner. On top of this, across England and Wales 1 in 4 women are victims of either attempted sexual assault or sexual assault in their lifetimes, and 20% of all crime recorded by police is violence against women and girls. 

These two forms of harm through desensitisation coupled with the rising idolisation of figures like Andrew Tate who have publicly spoken out about violence towards women and glorify hegemonic masculinity poses a threat to the safety of women.

Read more about Andrew Tate across these two articles: article one & article two

Many people rely on the technology for their information and worldly perceptions, and an increase in graphically violent content against women is arguably doing more harm than it is raising awareness to and preventing these issues.