Why I Won’t Watch True Blood Tonight: Violence Against Women

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True Blood is an HBO television drama series based on The Southern Vampire Mysteries series of novels by Charlaine Harris. The show is about vampires “coming out” to human society because of a synthetic blood like drink. The story follows Sookie Stackhouse and her vampire partner Bill Compton in Louisiana. The show is very violent but Pema Levy from Women’s Rights points out that the show is taking a dangerous turn and the violence has become increasingly sexual.

“It’s not violence per se that is unacceptable, but rather the context in which it is portrayed: showing violence against women without simultaneously condemning that violence. The writers believe that they can justify this by using a theme: vampires are inherently violent, like blood, like violent sex. In doing so, True Blood buys into the same myths about violence and rape that do real harm to women today: that men have more sexual drive, that rape is an act of passion rather than domination, that women mean yes when they say no, that violence against women is part of the natural order.”

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