- Domestic violence is the single major cause of injury to American women, exceeding muggings, gang violence, murders, and accidents (New York: 1993. The Commonwealth Fund)

- One woman is raped every two minutes in the United States (The Commonwealth Fund, July 1998)

- Every nine seconds in America a woman is physically abused (Commonwealth Fund 1998 Survey)

There is no simple explanation for the frequency of violent crimes against women, but it has been suggested that one contributing factor may be the way women are portrayed in the media. Women are often depicted as victims of violence or as sexual objects, and researchers have found that these media portrayals may influence how women are viewed and treated in society. Film, television, music, music videos and computer games have all been criticized for content considered demeaning to women, such as sexual objectification, depictions of violence against women, and the frequent association of violence with sexuality. (Linz, Donnerstein. and Penrod 55)

Some video games also perpetuate negative stereotypes about women and encourage players to participate in violence against them. In Duke Nukem, 3D players earn points by killing prostitutes. In addition to presenting women as sex objects, the game awards players for harassing women by throwing cash at them. The game presents women as powerless and shows them tied to columns pleading, "Kill me," "Kill me." (Jenkins, R).

On television, a disproportionate amount of violence is directed toward female victims. For every 10 male characters on primetime network TV who commit violence, 11 other male characters fall to violence, but for every 10 women who inflict violence, 16 women become victims (Gerbner, G). Viewers who strongly associate with the victims (i.e., women) feel more susceptible to violence in the real world. More often than not, these viewers become the "real life" victims.

At what point will violence against women in the media stop?

One icon in computer games is the animated fantasy girl Lara Croft, who stars in Playstation's Tomb Raider. She is a 38-24-34 female referred to as a "sex symbol with attitude"(Jenkins, R). Games such as Tomb Raider encourage sexism and condition adolescents to view the world as they do the computer screen: with female sex symbols, female kidnapping, and female rescue and submission. In one study, up to one-third of parents were concerned about possible anti-social behavior (i.e., violence) influenced by these games (Stalking). Consider some more statistics.

Some topics in this essay:
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