CCASA ‘s mission states that they are “a membership organization promoting safety, justice, and healing for survivors while working toward the elimination of sexual violence.” If you’ve watched television recently, picked up a magazine, listened to popular music, viewed a film or paid attention to any of the average 3,000 advertisements a person is exposed to each day, it may not be difficult to see how media plays into the perpetuation and glorification of sexual violence. Media saturation is a certainty in American culture and Denver is no exception. Advertisements are flush with images of women in submissive positions and of men and women alike being objectified. Television crime shows normalize sexual violence to the point that rape, incest and molestation are frequently viewed images and a common part of the story. What isn’t being talked about in popular media is that sexual violence is not normal, not acceptable and that real people are victimized daily, even hourly.
Normalizing sexual violence lends to a quiet, passive acceptance by our society; organizations like CCASA work to improve legislation, support victims and promote education so that sexual violence is not acceptable or overlooked. Acts of sexual violence on any person is an atrocious violation of human rights and should not be fodder for storylines, movie plots and lyrics. Media saturation is pervasive and when sexually violent images and words are portrayed as the standard, it perpetuates sexual violence. People surge into an uproar over political advertisements, celebrity mishaps and catastrophes in other countries – I find it unsettling that no one is outraged by primetime television shows, songs that glorify violence against women or the occurrences of sexual assault in our own city. Because of media saturation, perceptions of what is normal and what is acceptable get distorted. CCASA’s survivor’s handbook addresses common myths about sexual assault in effort to abate the erroneous popular view of sexual violence in our culture.
Agenda setting, as described by our professor, means that the media doesn’t tell us what to think, they tell us what to think about. Agenda setting is present in all forms of media and is highly influential. Local news stories rarely report on a group of students participating in experiential learning through volunteerism at local non-profit organizations; instead, they show bombings, murders, the earthquake in Japan, Charlie Sheen’s escapades, financial crisis and what to expect from the weather. What does that say about what is important to people living in Denver? What do we talk about with our coworkers, friends and families? Being an informed consumer and socially conscious individual is a lot of work, however fast-paced lifestyles and egocentrism that are common to our culture seem to be in opposition to becoming either.
So how do we get there? How do we as individuals combat agenda setting in the midst of media saturation? Dr. McCarver says through media literacy, through learning to be critical consumers and media fluency. CCASA works through education and local activism to dispel myths, support victims, help providers of services do a better job and provide us with other things to think about. I personally work on being aware of where my information is coming from, checking in to see how I feel about what I am seeing, hearing and being told and most importantly, not supporting ideas that I’m not comfortable with. I refuse to watch programs or read articles that come from a couple of national news sources because they have an agenda that does not support the things that are important to me. I believe in equal rights, equal marriage rights and taking care of our citizens. I don’t support violence against anyone, cruelty in any form or glorification of violence. I don’t purchase songs by artists who sing about murdering their ex-wives or watch horror movies that show women as victims and glamorize violence. I do, however, discuss what I am learning, both through CCASA and my other classes, with my family, my friends and my classmates.
I ask a lot of questions, seek to get others involved, and most importantly speak up when I feel the ease of complicity creeping up on me. It’s not always easy to be the voice of dissent or come off as judgmental when standing up for what I believe. For me, there are many actions I can take on a daily basis to combat the perpetuation and normalization of sexual violence and stand up for the issues I am concerned with. The saying “if you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything” comes to mind – in a media-saturated, agenda-laden and blind-consumerism world, I’m happy to join the ranks of those who stand up and speak out.
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