Discussion of violence
Honest question:
Why are works of #fiction (books, comic, animation, film) depicting #rape or #pedophilia more offensive to more people and cause more calls to boycott or censorship than fiction depicting extreme #violence or #murder, when killing someone is universally regarded as worse than raping someone (morally worse) and criminal systems everywhere punish murderers more harshly than rapists (legally worse)?
Discussion of violence
@tripu To a degree, the victim matters. Murder of a child *is* typically depicted as being just as heinous as pedophilia.
But depicting the murder of a soldier or a criminal is more acceptable, because that's the job they signed up for.
I think the other issue is that while most people would view depictions of rape or pedophilia with an appropriate reaction (horror), there are those who might seek it out for arousal purposes, and nobody wants to create porn for those people. You don't really have that issue with a gun battle in an action movie.
Discussion of violence
@tripu I think part of the problem is that, in our society, we consider murder to be a crime that can be committed against anyone... But rape is a crime committed only against the vulnerable (not in reality, but in perception). And it's that element of taking advantage of the vulnerable that makes it especially heinous.
Discussion of violence
> I think the other issue is that while most people would view depictions of rape or pedophilia with an appropriate reaction (horror), there are those who might seek it out for arousal purposes
But depictions of violence work the same way, don't they? To most people they are disgusting, but to some people they may be exciting and trigger behaviour.
Also: you mention soldiers, criminals and gun battles. It might be that violence in those scenarios is understood to be “expected”. But what about pedestrians being killed in Grand Theft Auto, random people being tortured in Saw and similar horror movies, the gangster who kills a shopkeeper during a robbery on a TV series, and all that “normal” people beating and killing other “normal” people in so many works of fiction, like, _all the time_?
Discussion of violence
@tripu I don't think most wannabe serial killers are jerking off to Rambo, no.
As for the second bit... most of those examples you described, especially GTA, are cartoonish. Cartoonish violence is especially given a pass because it's roughly equated to child's play. And maybe that's part of the answer to your core question... because we allow children to play with violence (i.e. wrestling, dodgeball, etc).
Discussion of violence
@LouisIngenthron
OK, so
> murder of a child > rape of a child
and
> murder of a child > murder of an adult
I get that. But then, why do we behave as if
> rape of a child > murder of an adult
and as if
> rape of an adult > murder of an adult
?
Abominable as rape is, isn't murder always worse?