14 Oct 2024 Holding video streaming services to account

In 2001, Jack G. Shaheen published Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People. In an analysis of over 900 films with Arab and Muslim characters from 1896 to 2000, he showed how moviemakers represented Arabs as heartless, uncivilized, religious fanatics akin to the worst propaganda. He asked, what is the likely impact on society of repeatedly seeing the denigration and humiliation of a particular group of people?

Shaheen cited the Arab proverb Al tikrar biallem il hmar (“By repetition even the donkey learns”). The way people are depicted in the media – in this case in film – affects the prejudices and attitudes of others. Two decades later, there seem to be few comparable studies of how the portrayal of women in films and on television – especially in the sensationalist and provocative programming of today’s multiple streaming services – are exacerbating misogynistic attitudes or inciting violence in the name of entertainment.

How does this idea fit into the digital world that now surrounds us? Despite lack of accessibility and affordability in many places, despite being co-opted by powerful political and economic forces, digital technologies are everywhere transforming societies for the better. Yet, they have also been used to misinform, to disinform, to censor and control, and to propagate hate speech.

Recently, the United Nations endorsed a new Global Digital Compact. It included the following aim, “We must urgently counter and address all forms of violence, including sexual and gender-based violence, which occurs through or is amplified by the use of technology, all forms of hate speech and discrimination, misinformation and disinformation, cyberbullying and child sexual exploitation and abuse.”

It is undeniable that via the Internet – long recognized as a public good – unregulated social media lie at the heart of campaigns to destabilise the lives of individuals and communities, in many cases contributing directly to misunderstanding, conflict, and war. Social media have also been used to promote gender-based violence.

And yet social media are not the only culprits. Online video streaming services – Netflix in particular, with its 260.28 million subscribers worldwide, but also Amazon Prime Video, and Disney+ – have been increasingly offering films and series that are uncensored (except notionally by parents) and that extol barbarity of all kinds. As a result, images of war, killing, and violence against women and men are being “normalised”.

The Geena Davis Institute in the US has spent two decades championing better representation of women within the entertainment media, challenging norms, bridging gaps, and studying women’s sports and children’s television. But there seems to be far less attention paid to the glorification of aggression, the objectification of women, and the kinds of voyeurism peddled by Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, and others.

Repeated exposure to images and narratives that humiliate individuals and communities, that portray graphic violence, or that are inherently racist or misogynistic, is likely to have a negative effect on people’s attitudes and responses to the world around them. To combat gender-based violence effectively, we need to expose the underlying causes, to educate, and to open eyes. Society’s failure to eradicate violence against women and girls – and men and boys too – will not be overcome by media censorship. But holding content providers to account for the malicious and harmful role they play would be a vital part of addressing that failure.

Photo: Mika Baumeister on Unsplash