HJAR Sep/Oct 2024

HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF ARKANSAS I  SEP / OCT 2024 13 without her consent. And it's not even just those older ones I can think of. There's a scene in one of the Descendants [films], and one of the Descendants, I can't remember which one it is, where it's almost an opposite play on Snow White, where there was a man that was lying unconscious, and the woman kisses him. Now, whether that's trying to be a great equalizer or what, I'm not sure what's going on there, it’s another example of, "Oh, it's OK to kiss somebody when they're unconscious." It normalizes it. It romanticizes that kind of behavior. We see this over and over again, whether in Disney or Gonewith theWind or cartoons or the lyrics of music. I often encourage peo- ple to go to a website that will show you the lyrics to the songs that you're enjoying and actually look at the lyrics because we get so caught up in the beat and the music and the sound. It sounds great and energizes us, but we're not really paying attention to what we're singing along to. When you get rid of the beat, the music, the rhythm behind it, and you look at the actual words, sometimes you're absolutely shocked and appalled. And then you're like, "Oh my gosh, my kid's sing- ing this," or, "My neighbor's kids are sing- ing this. I never really realized what they're singing." Nor do most people realize what they're singing along to because, again, we get caught up in all the other stuff that comes with it. Editor Like that Christmas song “Baby, It's Cold Outside.” Wyandt-Hiebert Yes, that is one that is a longtime criticized song. The question is are we seeing a drug-facilitated rape unfolding before our very eyes? Excuse me, sorry. When you look at that and go back to the movie that it was originally tied to, I think there was an underscore, too, where it's supposed to be like a cat and a mouse chasing after each other. There's some stuff written out there about that as well, but when you look at the lyrics of that particular song and see that back and forth between the aggressor and then the victim, in this sexualized tension is building and sur- mounting upon the slasher or the offender, sex offender if you will, just about every hor- ror slasher film will lead up to where they come out from the hiding place and go after the individual. Of course, she either runs away into an isolated forest or cemetery nearby and falls, and then the slashing hap- pens. Again, the romanticizing of the sexual tension and then the slashing and violence that ensue with it, we see this script over and over again where sex is violent, and vio- lence is sexy. Editor But we also see it in our cartoons. Would Pepé Le Pew be considered a sex offender at this point? Wyandt-Hiebert You certainly can see tendencies of Pepé Le Pew exerting his desires despite … is it Petunia, I think? It's been a long time since I've watched that cartoon. As my memory serves me, thinking that far back, he was constantly pursuing … certainly stalking behaviors. He may not have committed an act of sexual assault, but the stalking, the constant harassment and pursuing of the object of his desire certainly creates this idea that that's OK. It normalizes that behavior. When you see that in cartoons, in other forms of media, it takes these behaviors that we have laws against and normalizes them, often in the form of comedy. If you actually did this to a person, harassed and stalked them, there are laws against it. The violence that was in cartoons so often was done under the auspices of comedy relief. Editor Disney's been called out for that recently as well. Wyandt-Hiebert Yeah, Disney's been called out for it many times over — one more example of how we see it in yet another form. In many of Disney's princess-themed movies as well, you see a basic formula where the helpless female needs the man to rescue her, the lack of consent kisses that occur. SnowWhite is sleeping and is kissed my niece. As I was watching, I realized Scarlett was basically raped by Rhett in a scene, but it was portrayed as romantic. Is that what your mean by rape culture? Wyandt-Hiebert Yes. One of the tenets of a rape culture is where we romanticize sexual violence. This isn't something new. This is something that's gone on for decades, and Gone with the Wind is just one of many different movies out there, and movies aren't the only genre. It happens in every genre and form of entertainment, whether it be literature or songs, music videos, et cetera. I know which scene you're talking about. It's the scene, I believe, where Rhett Butler and Scarlett O'Hara are having a really heated conversation in the dining room at her plantation, and she turns away and is kind of like, "Fine, I'm not going to talk with you." She goes toward the grand stairwell, and he chases after her, grabs her by the arm, pulls her up to him and says to her, "Not now, Scarlett. This is one time you will not run away from me," or something along those lines. He picks her up as she's kicking and protesting the entire time she's being carried up the stairway. Then it cuts into the next scene, the next morning, where she wakes up in her nightgown, in her bed by herself. She wakes up, pleased and content, from a really refreshing night's sleep, as if the most romantic interlude that ever happened in her life was that night. So, again, it romanticized sexual violence, and we see that formula of romanticized sexual violence over and over again. You can take it to a whole other level with horror films, for example. Just about every horror film has a basic formula behind it, where you have the scantily-clothed coed sitting on the bed, brushing her long hair in her lacy lingerie and high heels — because that's what everybody does at night, I guess — and of course, it starts off with the peeping Tom, whether looking through a window, the crack in a wall, behind a picture with a little eyeball that is visible … whatever the case may be, there's that sexualizing of it, the building of the sexual tension. As that