“It’s the movies that have really been running things in America ever since they were invented. They show you what to do, how to do it, when to do it, how to feel about it, and how to look how you feel about it.”
~Andy Warhol
This is part two of a multi-part series on the dangers of sexism in the mass media. If you haven’t already, you should read Part 1 first.
The Mass Media and Extremists
There are many who argue that people can easily resist the messages of mass media. They point to pornography or violence in the media, and blithely say that no one has killed or raped because of them. And while I agree that is usually the case, it is sadly not true for everyone.
In a now hard-to-find interview, serial killer and rapist Ted Bundy talked with psychologist and conservative christian James Dobson the day before his execution. In that interview {TRIGGER WARNING], he agrees with what has been said by many, that the mass media (namely pornography) did not cause his horrendous acts. However, he does say that it was a contributor to his crimes:
Bundy: Before we go any further, it is important to me that people believe what I’m saying. I’m not blaming pornography. I’m not saying it caused me to go out and do certain things. I take full responsibility for all the things that I’ve done. That’s not the question here. The issue is how this kind of literature contributed and helped mold and shape the kinds of violent behavior.
Dobson: It fueled your fantasies.
Bundy: In the beginning, it fuels this kind of thought process. Then, at a certain time, it is instrumental in crystallizing it, making it into something that is almost a separate entity inside.
[edited to remove triggers…]
Bundy: I was dealing with very strong inhibitions against criminal and violent behavior. That had been conditioned and bred into me from my neighborhood, environment, church, and schools.
I knew it was wrong to think about it, and certainly, to do it was wrong. I was on the edge, and the last vestiges of restraint were being tested constantly, and assailed through the kind of fantasy life that was fueled, largely, by pornography.
You can read the full transcript [TRIGGER WARNING] for yourself if you like, but the most interesting observation made by Bundy is this:
And this:
Bundy: I’ve lived in prison a long time now, and I’ve met a lot of men who were motivated to commit violence. Without exception, every one of them was deeply involved in pornography – deeply consumed by the addiction. The F.B.I.’s own study on serial homicide shows that the most common interest among serial killers is pornography.
I’m not going to address pornography directly just yet. That’s a topic for another post that that I’m still researching [1]. But pornography a mass media product, and the mass media moves those who are easily impressionable. When boys look at pornography, most don’t rape afterwards, but some do. When violent, unfettered, sadism is lionized through the Joker in The Dark Knight, most people shrug it off, but James Holmes idolized it and shot up a movie theater. When Penny Arcade co-founder Mile Krahulik spent years rallying for rape jokes over the backs of survivors, many of his supporters just laughed, but one PAX Enforcer later sexually assaulted a fellow volunteer [TRIGGER WARNING] [2].
But the creators of mass media aren’t at fault for those who literally follow the (inferred, blatant, or faux-ironic) messages in their work, right? Even Ted Bundy agreed to that.
But when depictions of violence or rape go far beyond just one work to become a near-universal trend among the entire industry, when they move beyond one artist’s self-expression to become their own cultural movement, when they serve little artistic value but en-masse serve as a form of tacit cultural permission for people already on the edge, why leave them in at all? Especially when such negative messages aren’t even necessary to the piece in the first place? [3] Even when there’s no direct culpability for what they write, where’s the responsibility?