I rarely have those "holy crap" moments hit me like a ton of bricks but one did this week. I was talking with a friend about pop culture and such (mainly TV and movie watching habits) and I mentioned how I just couldn't with Game Of Thrones. He asked why I didn't watch it and as I answered was when the lightning bolt hit me. I don't watch GOT because I am so ooked out by the prevalence of rape and the overall treatment of women across the board. I get that it's accurate for the time portrayed, yadda yadda yadda but it's just not my gig.
The lightning bolt is how abruptly I realized that my viewing habits have changed completely over the past few years. My eldest son loves to tease me about the number of "White People Renovating Houses" shows I watch and I think, deep in my brain, there is a reason for my obsession with home makeover shows. The reason is a simple one, no one gets hurt and everyone is happy at the end and that is what my soul needs these days. Pretty houses, neato furniture and cool ideas that I will never manage to do in my own house are the ultimate happy place. Even if the homeowners are obnoxious at the beginning and give the designer ten kinds of shit throughout the process, everyone loves everything at the end. The biggest problems encountered are inadequate HVAC, outdated wiring or shoddy prior work and all are resolved and made pretty by the end. I need that sort of thing as a soothing balm for my brain.
I ADORED "Criminal Minds", "CSI", "SVU" and the like for years and just kind of tapered off watching them. It wasn't a conscious decision, it just happened. Those shows are all going strong but I simply can't any more. I can't watch rape and torture and death as entertainment anymore. Probably eight out of ten episodes of any of these shows, the victims are women. I get that they are "ripped from the headlines" and all the but when did it become entertainment for us? How is it that we don't get our fill of this kind of awfulness from the daily news that we turn to it for our escape? Our free time is so precious these days and this is what we're spending it on? How did that happen?
It seems like damn near every woman I know has been touched by sexual assault. I am one of four sisters, the aunt of nine nieces and have innumerable female friends and acquaintances, so many of whom have been assaulted in their lifetimes that it makes me wonder why we women haven't burned the world to ashes by now. We fight, we march, we stand up and say we're not gonna take this shit any more but yet, we continue to watch our horror played out as entertainment. What the hell is wrong with us that we accept this? I know, "if you don't like it, don't watch it" and I don't. I'm not calling for all television to consist of the pretty and happy, I just have to wonder how we came it this place.
I'm not sermonizing, just musing today.
