Changing the World through Art

One thing that people sometimes forget is how powerful art is.  Individuals and people can change the world through artistic expression of their beliefs and ideals.  The public’s awareness and perceptions can be changed by exposure to art. 

TV, film, video, comic books, and video games are all examples of art.  They are messages transmitted to the public via artistic media and are often created by artists.  They are powerful tools of persuasion and transformation.  They have impact and leave impressions at deep levels of the human psyche, just as all art has the potential to do.

We’ve all heard the expression, ‘art imitates life.’ One frequent example of this occurs in films that involve lots of killing.  We seldom, if ever, see male victims actually being killed, all close up and graphically. When male victims are killed by “some sadistic killer,” we seldom see the stalking, the fear and terror in the young man, and the killing is typically brief and often performed off-screen, with just an afterwards shot of the dead man to show that the deed was done. Or it's done from afar, with a few gunshots and maybe a quick splatter-shot. We don’t see the horror  – the torture, the last fear and screams, followed by a terrible act of graphic violence (in near close up) and a final ‘death shot’ of the lifeless, once handsome corpse. 

With women victims, however, the art-medium of film shows us the hunt, the fear, the crying or screaming, the vulnerability, and often the sexuality of an explicit and gruesome death on screen for viewers to witness.  Very seldom to never is there sexuality involved in the onscreen murder of male characters in films.

Films of all kinds are art, oftentimes prolific and artistic art, regardless of their intrinsic message content – at least when considered by cult followings of fans and film buffs that recognize artistic technique and stylization.  But still, the messages that get sent repeatedly over and over through this powerful artistic medium – film and television – about women are a strong example of how art imitates life.

In life, traditional values have many people oriented to feel culturally uncomfortable with seeing men weak or vulnerable or sexualized.  Those traits have always gone more naturally hand-in-hand with depicting women. The reason is because our social structure as humans has largely been based on the men strong/women supportive model of sex roles.  It has long been known and understood that women are vulnerable and easily frightened, and that men are brave and stoic. Cinematically, there is perhaps more obvious drama in depicting the former.

Art in general tends to be a further expression of our human condition, in countless ways and mediums. And the differences in human sexuality between men and women make for a dynamic artistic starting point.  But art is also an interpretation of perspective and can pull elements from reality to distort and intensify for the purpose of making a point.  So, while it’s true that films aren’t showing any male-female dynamic that doesn’t exist already in reality per se, it is the prevalence of these messages and the continuous bombardment of images of women in the same way, over and over on screen, that compromise women’s status in society and bias men in ways that don’t benefit women. 

Art gives us a representation of our beliefs that we can experience through some kind of interaction.  Historically it has been used to reinforce teachings we want to preserve, like Biblical stories or heroic battles.  Humans tend to want to believe that men are fearless, brave and not sexually vulnerable.  Reflecting back to audiences an image of a world that they already recognize and accept can be a smart strategy for selling art.  Most television and film producers, writers and directors are in the business of making money even moreso than making art, but since they produce messages through an artistic medium, the implications of how that impacts women are intensified and pervasive.

In the end, art is a powerful tool. It can be thought provoking and mind expanding, but it can also be used to reinforce cultural norms, biases and preferences – usually all of which fall under the umbrella of control in one way or another.  It is always wise to look at the cultural messages that the images, characterizations, and situations of women being depicted in video are reinforcing.