Two interesting articles follow. The first reports on encouraging international efforts to promote equality between men and women, with an emphasis on combating violence against women. Please make particular note of Geena Davis' comments about how women are portrayed in the media.
The second article describes the very type of media that Davis' is against -- a film by Michael Winterbottom with depictions of violence against women so horrifying and graphic that audiences are walking out and booing (good for them!). Unsurprisingly one of the victims of the violence is a woman in prostitution. Winterbottom claims that the violence isn't supposed to be entertaining. He is as naive as a new born babe if he thinks the film won't be entertaining to men who already perpetrate violence or will encourage men on the brink of doing so.
Abolition!
Lisa
Actress and Muslim philanthropist promote women
By EDITH M. LEDERER Posted: Monday, February 22, 2010 7:42 pm
What do actress Geena Davis, Britain's Duchess of York, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the head of the World Congress of Muslim Philanthropists have in common?
They're all committed to empowering women.
At a U.N. event Monday promoting gender equality, they were joined by heads of foundations, corporate leaders, academics, diplomats, representatives of voluntary organizations and several other celebrities, including Miss USA Kristen Dalton and Sweden's Princess Madeleine.
The U.N. Economic and Social Council chose International Corporate Philanthropy Day to focus on women's rights and generate support for one of the U.N.'s Millennium Development goals _ promoting equality between women and men.
Ban told several hundred participants that "full empowerment requires more progress in two key areas: expanding economic opportunity and ending violence against women."
"Our goal must be clear," the U.N. chief said. "No tolerance of the use of rape as a weapon of war. No excuses for domestic violence. No looking the other way when it comes to sex trafficking, so-called `honor killings' or female genital mutilation."
The secretary-general also urged the private sector to promote women at all levels of corporate responsibility and the philanthropic community to "make sure that female beneficiaries are treated equally."
Davis, who won a best supporting actress Oscar for "The Accidental Tourist" in 1989 and starred in "Thelma & Louise" and the ABC television series "Commander in Chief" where she played the first female U.S. president, called for a radical change in the way women and girls are portrayed in the media.
"At the dawn of a new millennium _ in a world that is over 50 percent female _ the message the media sends is that women and girls have far less value than men and boys," she said.
Davis said research shows that there are three male characters for every female character across all film ratings and that the vast majority of female characters "are stereotyped and hyper-sexualized."
"What message are we sending both boys and girls about women's role in society?," she asked.
Davis said that's why she founded the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media and its programming arm, See Jane.
Duchess of York Sarah Ferguson, who is divorced from Britain's Prince Andrew, said the key to equality is "good mothering" because mothers promote education.
She announced a new initiative called "the Mother's Army" to "harness the collective power of mothers" to enable women and girls to "dare to dream."
Mary Quinn, senior manager of the Avon Foundation for Women which has already given $1 million to the U.N. Trust Fund to combat violence against women, announced an additional $250,000 pledge to the fund for a project to tackle gender-based violence in Mexican communities.
Maria Borelius, CEO of the nonprofit organization Hand in Hand International, pledged to create 10 million additional jobs among the world's poorest women. Francine LeFrak of Fair Sky, a company that promotes women artisans in Rwanda, announced that she would start a similar program for women in Haiti.
And Tariq Cheema, founder and chair of the World Congress of Muslim Philanthropists, announced the launch of a global initiative called "Empowerment Through Enlightenment."
"This initiative will raise awareness among the male population as well as offering skill-building opportunities to females to enhance their competitiveness in the society," he said to loud applause.
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Director Michael Winterbottom defends film's extreme violence
Walk-outs and boos as The Killer Inside Me is shown at Berlin film festival
Kate Connolly in Berlin
guardian.co.uk, Friday 19 February 2010 19.15 GMT
The British filmmaker Michael Winterbottom today defended scenes that portray extreme violence against women in his latest film, saying that he felt the need to stay true to the pulp fiction novel on which it is based.
The Killer Inside Me, an adaptation of the 1952 novel by Jim Thompson that Stanley Kubrick famously described as "probably the most chilling and believable first-person story of a criminally warped mind I've ever encountered", depicts brutal scenes of rough sex and murder.
One scene sees the main character, deputy sheriff Lou Ford – played by Casey Affleck – bludgeon his prostitute girlfriend (Jessica Alba) almost to death until her face is unrecognisable, while later another woman (Kate Hudson) is punched repeatedly. She chokes to death as her killer and lover slips on her urine.
The attacks, accompanied by the music of Gustav Mahler and the opera Norma by Vincenzo Bellini as well as jaunty swing tunes, are captured in close-up camera shots. Those and the sound of gurgling blood and cracking bones leave little to the imagination.
Speaking today a press screening of the film at the Berlin film festival, which saw people walking out and booing, Winterbottom said he had deliberately intended for the film to shock.
"It was intentionally shocking. The whole point of the story is, here is someone who is supposed to be in love with two women who he beats to death, and of course the violence should be shocking. If you make a film where the violence is entertaining, I think that's very questionable."
He defended the film from the mounting charges that it is misogynistic because the violence is directed at women by saying that the character who carries it out is weak and not a hero to be looked up to.
"To say it's misogynistic is tricky. Anyone who says that is watching it in a very perverse way. Clearly there is violence against men and women in society, in films and books, and in this case I think it's important that the violence is ugly. No one can watch it and believe that Lou Ford is a role model or a glamorous guy you'd want to be like, or that beating up women is a good thing."
The Killer Inside Me tells the story of a respected Texan deputy chief of police who has a secret liking of sadomasochistic sex and who, because of a troubled childhood, demonstrates a destructive streak to those he loves and towards himself.
Winterbottom, a favourite of the festival who has won prizes before for The Road to Guantánamo and In This World, appeared to be mildly irritated by the criticism, which observers in Berlin say may lead to scenes being cut before it can be made available to a wider audience.
Winterbottom said: "Loads of films promote violence as entertainment, but I don't think this one does and neither would I want to do something that's going to encourage violence."
He said he had been inspired to make his first foray into the film noir genre by the novel, which "stayed with me for a long time and made me think about the way we behave. It's very Shakespearean, very shocking and pushes everything to the extreme and I wanted to make a film that was a very literal version of the book".
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