I have always felt that the amount of violence and exaggerated portrayals of gender on TV actually has a negative effect on the way trans people are treated.

I have friends as well as family who seem to find it entertaining to watch murder mystery after murder mystery. I'm not knocking their choice or TV as a whole but I have sat through enough of these shows over the years to make me believe that something is seriously sick about our culture.

For some reason, it is considered "entertainment" to sit and watch violent murder after murder in graphic detail. Most disturbing is how TV consistently has women as the victims and often young beautiful women and has men as primarily the killers. It is not uncommon that simply walking by a TV set or being in a room close enough to hear one will reveal a prolonged sound of a woman screaming and begging for her life. Consistently women are portrayed as being stupid, slutty, helpless, and "asking for it." The men who are the killers are often of high social status or act macho or otherwise tough and are often portrayed in a positive light. Rarely do these shows feature a woman just quickly being shot. Instead, you get to finish your entire popcorn bowl watching a woman smothered to death under a pillow, struggling to death while being held under the bath water, endlessly being stabbed with blood everywhere, choked, burned, and sometimes mutilated. The women are often attractively dressed and frequently are tied up, gagged, and otherwise bound while they are being murdered. When you factor in the accompanying music and the way it gets faster and faster until her mortal finality, you can basically conclude that Hollywood and television has sexualized murder.

I have noticed how some of these CSI and related shows even feature transgendered people as if that is somehow a good thing. Now we get to see transwomen tied up and brutally killed on prime time. After all, it is just "entertainment."

I understand that we have the freedom to change the channel or simply turn off the set. The problem is that even though I won't sit through this garbage, tens of millions of Americans and others around the world are daily injecting this material directly into their brains. The Transgender Day of Remembrance was last weekend. Statistically most of the hate crime murders at least in the U.S. have been against transwomen and the killers have been men. I believe that it is completely ludicrous to believe that such a mass of misogynistic images and violence delivered as family fun to the millions would have no effect on people.

There is a cultural trend that is being set here that is deeply disturbing. I talked about some trans issues with a female (non-trans) co-worker at work today. She said she knew a pre-op transwoman who left a bar with a man on a date and didn't tell him about her male genetalia until it was too late. The man literally tried to murder her and did a lot of property damage to her belongings. I asked her if the roles were reversed where a transman picked up a cis-girl at a bar and the same event occured, would the girl try to kill the transman? She said "Absolutely not." Statistics prove this trend. There has to be a reason why I can walk down Main Street at 12 am presenting as male and have literally nobody notice me whereas when I walk down Main Street at 12 am presenting as female I am honked at, yelled at, whistled to, stalked, threatened, and propositioned.

These issues are not mere coincidences. With Americans watching an average of 4 hours of TV a day and with the programming filled with violent macho men and slutty battered women, there must be a consequential effect. How we fix this I'm not sure but it scares me to think about where and why all of this misogyny is out there and what will become of it.

Any thoughts?

Your TV not only has an 'off' button, it has an 'on' button too.  If you don't use the 'on' button, then it don't matter.

So, here is the real deal.  Do you think Barrack Obama watches 4 hours of TV every night?  Nah.  Sara Palin (I'm exempting her watching coverage of herself, she's an attention whore and can't stay away from that) is watching CSI every night on TNT?  Doubtful.  Is the head of the Stock Exchange watching that much TV?  The Supreme Court Justices?  I doubt it.

Matter of fact I can easily divide the houses I've been in that fall into two categories, one that has a TV as the centerpiece of the living room, and those that don't.  Care to guess which house has more square feet?

So, its not important what the plebs think, they do what they are told.  It only matters what the people who make decisions think.  And they don't base that on TV.

I'm of the opinion that watching violence and pornography has a desensitising effect on people. I worry that this can tip someone over the edge. I'm alarmed by the casual violence you can see at night around many clubs. It is almost a rite of passage to assault someone.

I was reading that there appears a link in poor driving behaviour and the excessive use of computer car games. There seems to be a feeling that I can crash and walk away. Just reboot and I'm fine again.

Cindy

I was reading that there appears a link in poor driving behaviour and the excessive use of computer car games. There seems to be a feeling that I can crash and walk away. Just reboot and I'm fine again.

And people think Darwin was wrong.

Thanks Tekla

Sadly I reckon the real idiots breed quicker so overcompensate.

BTW I worked for a while in a brain injury rehab ward. Sadly it was mainly full of young 'men' who had destroyed their lives in car crashes. The competition to show pictures of their car crash was incredible. Typical conversation. I did this tree and had to be cut out I reckon I must have been doing 100mph. Isn't that something ?
The two sentences may take half an hour to be spoken.

Cindy

The two sentences may take half an hour to be spoken.

Gee, that's like 28 minutes longer than I have to listen to two sentences, so I guess I'll I hear is "IIIIIIIII IIIIIII IIIIIIIIII tree."

And the tears, you can never forget the tears.

Tears of the tree or of the drunk idiot.  Really. I feel for the tree.

I feel for the tears of the people who cut them out. Time away from their family, caring for people who acted as if they are too stupid to be cared for. Common complaint here is that it's the road's fault. The State hasn't used it's road funds correctly, so I crashed my car driving badly.

Always blame some one else. Never accept responsibilty for your own actions. Sue if some one trys to help you.

Love em

Cindy

Always blame some one else. Never accept responsibilty for your own actions.

And here I thought that was the unofficial motto of this site.

We have crossed comments.

Responsibilty is in the hands of the responsible.

JMO

I think someone's been reading too many statistics....

Tbh, the murder mystery trends have lead to new practices by killers more than desensatising people to violence, the so called 'csi effect' as dubbed by some criminologists.

Personally theres hardly that much violence, and when there is, i belive it not only highlights problems with society, but is something humanity (id hope) is above being brainwashed by...

Watching the box set of csi wont make you go on a homicidal rampage.... I think theres a too heavy reliance on 'statistics' that have little or no real founding in 'practical' life. Aside from the fact that most csi stories are quite complex in thier message, not all are 'slutty battered women' and 'macho evil killers' Half are women!

Anyway, trans in these shows helps to make people REALLISE why we are murdered... it makes them think. a good thing.


Oh and that idea that video games make people crash thier cars thinking they can just restart? Best laugh ive had all week.


Next you'll say that violent video games ate your hamster?

With my first computer with a net connection my hamster died from me trying to teach it to dance.

I used to put that up on my computer and then leave for class.  If people are not going to like you, you might as well give them a good reason.

Would the cis-woman try to kill the trans-man?
No; absolutely not!
...
Probably because, mostly, she's afraid.
She'll think he's a freak, though. Might threaten with calling the cops.
(This is still assuming a no-tell bar-pickup.)
Every now and then, you get lucky, and end up talking most of the night...

Violence on TV: The victim is nearly always a woman. (Society's perspective of weakness.) The killer is usually a wealthy, outstanding, strong, intelligent and succesful male. (Society's perspective on the kind of person everybody secretly hates.)
Television caters to what people want to see. And what people want to see is a bad person getting punished, and then an emotional ending. Something that comes close enough to a happy ending.
In this wish, there has to be a victim, because there hás to be a bad guy. The bad guy is all the worse if the victim looks innocent and weak. So.. A size 32 blond eighteen year old girl would probably fill that description. Killing her would make the killer éxtra bad. It's a bit like kicking a puppy.
Trans-women are also 'weak,' in the eyes of many people. A lot of people would think of trans-women as 'male, but not strong enough to live the part, poor creatures.' Or as just another heavily discriminated against minority. So having a trans-woman as a victim would also make the killer more evil.
So that, when the killer is caught and dealt with, the one who does the capturing is even more of a hero.
Happy ending.

It's not really sick television, and it has nothing to do with trans people. It has more of an effect on cis-women, really, since they're álways discriminated against, in this way. Women are álways portrayed as weak.
It also has an effect on cis-men, because all of the evil people are men. Men are always depicted as evil.

Ever seen a TV-show where the criminal was a female pedophile? Bet you you didn't. Most people don't even believe in female pedophiles! Because all pedos on TV are men! (And usually gay men, for some strange reason.)

sorry, but so many shows have female killers, and male victims, theres man on man murder, woman on woman etc... this 'man vs woman' perception is stupd.... and there ARE plenty of female paedophile!

The only tv programs worth worrying about at all are the non-fictional ones.

Fictional programs "can" affect the public opinion, but it doesn't create murderers or abusers or prejudicial a-holes.

News, documentaries, and so on, that take a clearly biased stance, can cause people, who lack the critical thinking to question the content, to think they're "right".

And turning off "my" TV won't stop those people from watching those programs and go "omg! ->-bleeped-<-s are trying to make my children into amoral godless heathens!" or something to that effect.

I don't watch TV that much. Didn't as a kid either. I'd rather read a good book.

Gennee 

Helpful response


Fiction is fiction miniar, the best part of it, is it makes people THINK about said situation, not copy it.
Anyway, if people are taking this literally, don't they always catch the bad guy in nearly every show?

Crime doesnt pay is the message.

I read a statistic somewhere saying that by the time the average U.S. child reaches 18, he or she will have witnessed over 10,000 murders on TV. Chances are that the child won't turn into a homicidal maniac, but if tens of millions of children are being exposed to this, there is bound to be an effect as a whole. Unstable people in unstable households could mean that these images of murder are the last straw to push them over the edge.

CSI and related shows are not educational television. They may provide some insight into society about things that really do happen but the shows are designed to be entertainment. A documentary would be more valuable to discuss an issue. If a trans person is on one of these shows as a victim, that may give us some exposure but it isn't the healthiest exposure. Healthy TV shows portray positive images. How about trans people acting as normal as anyone else? How about a love story involving a trans person? That is a lot more positive than showing trans people being killed.

Additionally, the images of violence go far beyond what is necessary to convey a point. The bodies even are sprawled out in a way making it look like artwork. The excessively graphic images of blood spurting from a slit throat or a woman fighting while being smothered to death under a pillow by her boyfriend are not necessary images to tell the viewer that she has been murdered. Even 10 years ago, this level of violence was never on prime time.

I believe there is a desensitizing effect at work as well. If a family with children are sitting in front of their TV watching a music video and Janet Jackson's breast accidentally becomes shown, the station will be fined a million dollars, the parents will have to have "a talk" with the kids, and the station will have to formally apologize. This is all due to a natural part of a woman's body actually being shown which is absolutely harmless to everyone. Apparently, women's female anatomies are considered harmful according to the FCC in the U.S. and cannot be shown. However, if the family with children changes the channel to a murder mystery show where a scantily-clad woman is killed in an excessively sick and violent manner, there is nothing to be discussed and the popcorn continues to be passed.

Everyone is free to have the views they have, but this trend on TV clearly tells me what values and morals (or lackthereof) our society holds. The power is in the hands of the people. People can choose to replace the four hours they spend watching mostly crap instead on reading books, interacting with their friends and family in intelligent conversations, exercising, going out together to an actual show, concert, or other event, or playing a board game. These are the things that families actually used to do for thousands of years.

I read a statistic somewhere that 78% of people mis quote and misunderstand statistics on the internet. 

Ok, Time to get back to the crux of the matter... 'Sick Tv' affects  trans people.... Now aside from the word being confused and misused....

Affect, Change... or influence... Correct me if I'm wrong, but the intention of this is not to highlight the increase in tv inspired transgender murderers? no..... Effect, to cause something to happen to x or y... This is suggesting, that bruitality and exposure to that, increases the chance of said murder happening to trans people.

First off, I wholeheartedly disagree. Its been mentioned several times, but the overal point remains.... Without these shows, just how many 'regular joes and janes' would actually know that trans people were murdered for being themselves? really? Don't start spouting well known names inside the trans community, thats not what I'm asking... How many people that DONT know, would the message reach otherwise?

The idea that its a dominance submission thing in general, with a hunky male murdering a submissive squealing female is utter badger testies... The number of man on man, woman on woman, woman on man murders that compliment these 'man on woman' killings you all seem so fond of over analysing is quite large. So large, as to infact equal them.

These shows may not be as overtly educational as say, a documentary... but which is more likely to recive more viewers? the thriller? or the documentary... It's a common fact of learning, that the subconsious mind is more capable of absorbing meaning and translating it than the consious... and that overtly trying to force knowlage or understanding down someone's throat is impossible.... Lets take trans rights activism for an example.... the brute force aproach is flawed.
Fiction, in this case, media exposure, is like the old addage.... no publicity is bad publicity.
People are seeing trans people killed for no reason, and whether they aknowlage it or not, its exposing them to the plight. If anything, the justice the killers always recive is an example...

Point out to me, one tv detective show, where the murder isnt caught. It's rather hard isn't it? Invariably Mr or Ms badperson (oh how pc of me) gets popped in cuffs and gets ride of thier lifetime... to the jailhouse.

These shows not only expose us, but provide a much needed reality shot. If we didn't have such exposure,  are you suggesting such things would never happen? There are roughly five main motivations for murder....

Alcohol and Drugs - under the influence, to get the influence, or any other reason you can think of.
Revenge - classic this one...
Personal Gain - Money, power, the usuals.
Passion - heat of the monent, for love, out of love...
Psychosis - cookoo... nuff said.

Just how many of these would truely be effected? (See? use of the right word  ) Do you really think exposure to such reasons and situations would inspire murder for the sake of it? if so, you devalue humanity beyond cynicism.

My point is simple, Humanity will do as it pleases, further inspiration or not, and the effect of such violence on tv, is like the effect of exposing the images of war during vietnam for the first time to the public... outcry... the only way we can stop things, and change them, is by seeing them. Ignorance doesnt pay, and blissfull ignorance of murder will only make things worse.

Perhaps, violence on tv is a bad thing, perhaps its not.... all i know is it's hard to have a good fight and keep my ballence... its one of those thin plasma ones... barely enough room for two people if you ask me...