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Crime show fetishisation
I admit I am a crime show buff. Criminal Minds, FBI, Class of ’09, you name it, I have likely watched it. Yet, as I rewatch Criminal Minds one thing jumps out at me is the near fetishization of women being killed. There are no simple body shots, its almost pornographic the way women are constantly portrayed as victims, with brilliant male investigators solving the crimes with the occasional female sidekick. Yes, this does a disservice to shows like NCIS: Hawaii, but the vast majority of male led shows seemingly wallow in treating women as victims. It gets to the point where I actively skip the parts where women are being gratuitously shown a sacrificial lambs to the slaughter.
Crime shows have always interested me, the kind of thing I can put on in the background and work alongside the noise. Most have a similar patter, a minor puzzle you can solve if you care to, alongside slow burning character arcs which are a hodge podge of romance, bromance, and general screwups. The sort of thing that is fairly light weight, and it keeps me interested. To a point. What trips me up are writers who fixate on women’s, usually young women’s, suffering as a form of torture porn.
Yes, women are far more likely to be victims of violent crime, yet the women are rarely treated as more than simply bodies. Some shows attempt to humanise the victims, give them backstories, allow you into their…
