Music that glorifies violence against women should be banned

Any material which explicitly devalues the intrinsic worth of another human or expresses a message of malefaction or malice without justification needs careful examination. We must consider the impact of the content in music and the content in music videos on the general public; including all of the stakeholders who are affected by being exposed to such negative portrayals of VAW. Men are not as heavily represented in lyrical content, nor have they been suffering from abuse & violence as severely as women over history. As such we find the portrayal of women in music & music videos to be a major problem that must be actioned immediately in order to stop the continuing cycle of abuse against women across the globe.

If music explicitly expresses a message of debasement, hatred, or violence without just cause, then what is the real benefit to society- and in particular women- of producing & distributing such content? There is a clear moral imperative to not accept the current status quo, as women shouldn’t be forced to tolerate or condone music which debases their character or dignity.

Team Australia proposes a model system in which current government censorship bodies in any given nation would simply censor or ban any music which contain lyrics any reasonable person would deem to recount/encourage violence against women. This would be based the consideration of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. Through education & explicit action each country would be expected to consider this protocol seriously & act; therefore not behaving as the ‘Nanny’ of the country but as a powerful implementer of policy that truly is effective in the long term, reducing the market and appeal of such music and the video spin-offs that potentially cement these poor depictions of behaviour towards women; behaviour that without change will continue to be the norm. http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/protocol/index.

Ever since the sexual revolution era of modern developed nations, we have tried to make progress in the status and role of women in society. However, music that glorifies violence against women is preventing us from succeeding. Such music is demoralising to women and reinforces the idea that domination by males is natural and acceptable.

This is not the case and therefore a ban is necessary. Banning this music would send a clear message that such attitudes are not acceptable in our society. Like any society, we have to enforce the values we wish to uphold. Music is an influential aspect of culture that DOES carry with it certain ideas, this is inevitable and therefore music that profits from its message of violence against women does glorify that violence and encourages it to continue. Remember that popular music is going to be far more influential than anything taught in schools or by the government. Popular artists are much more the role-models in society than the educators. In fact, many studies have linked media violence to aggressive real-world behavior [[http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/issues/violence/effects_media_violence.cfm]], finding that listening to violent songs causes an increase in aggression [[http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/05/030505084039.htm]]. As popular music has such a strong impact, the only way the spread of such a backwards message can be curtailed is by banning the music that is glorifying that message.

Violence against women is still, in most places, a huge problem. South Africa, for example, where more than a quarter of all men admitted to having raped a woman [[http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jun/17/south-africa-rape-survey]]. Music which encourages violence allows society to become complacent to the idea of such atrocities happening and is hindering the fight to change attitudes. It represents a perspective that is unacceptable and it offends the integrity of the world’s arduous journey to fix these problems.

Music that glorifies violence against women has permeated throughout our society, thanks to the radio and the tv. Its consequences can be devastating, particularly to those who are forming their perceptions regarding gender roles. As such, these powerful agents for socialisation must be responsibly managed to ensure that children and teenagers are not corrupted by violent misogynistic music, who are becoming more and more influenced in our technologically savvy world.

This matter has been extensively studies by sociologists, who created the Cultivation Theory. The Cultivation Theory outlines that mass media such as TV and radio shape the norms, values and beliefs of a society. This is clearly a pressing issue, as “This cultivation can have an impact even on light viewers of TV, because the impact on heavy viewers has an impact on our entire culture.” Gerbner and Gross (1976).

When this theory is applied to songs such as The Misfits’s Die, Die My Darling, where they say “Die, die, die my darling Don’t utter a single word/ Die, die, die my darling/ Just shut your pretty eyes/ I’ll be seeing you in hell”. This incredibly violent song is just one of the many outrageously misogynstic songs that are played around the world. Songs that glorify violence against women have no social merit, and simply subvert the morals of our society by shaping the minds of the viewer.

This is especially troublesome when the bulk of music is consumed by the youth in society, with when in 2005 on any given day in America, 85% of 8- to 18-year-olds spend at least a few minutes listening to one of the audio media, and 44% spend in excess of an hour [[http://www.kff.org/entmedia/upload/Executive-Summary-Generation-M-Media-in-the-Lives-of-8-18-Year-olds.pdf]]. The progress we have made in giving women equal status becomes retrograde when the youth of the world listen to sexist music. We simply must not allow the resocialisation of our world’s children to occur- we must ban this abhorrent music

Today’s society boasts of if equality towards both genders, though the lyrics and contexts of modern music state otherwise. By merely watching and hearing lyrics of the most popular songs from adolescent culture, it is inevitable to notice the sheer absence of respect for women, even through Eminem’s “Love the Way You Lie” which features Rihanna. The lyrics, “If she ever tries to f***ing leave again, I’mma tie her to the bed and set the house on fire” directly shows the violence and the music video not only collaborates this violence but also portrays females’ as sex objects. Rihanna’s own experience with violence through her boyfriend, Chris Brown, and her part in the song “but that’s OK, because I like the way it hurts” subliminally sends a message to many teens that even females find violent behaviour and abuse OK.

A study done during 2003 in Washington, proved that violent lyrics directly affected, and caused violent thoughts. It is then unsurprising that statistics in the US of VAW show that every 18 minutes a female is beaten, and a female is raped every 6 minutes [[http://www.un.org/rights/dpi1772e.htm]]. It is also shown that in France, 95% of victims of violence are females, 51% of these crimes are committed by their husbands [[http://www.ideaconnection.com/solutions/7216-Violence-against-women.html]] – the link between violence and song lyrics that heavily glorifies violence is clear.

It is preposterous for society to merely put on a facade that there is equality between the sexes, and yet, when statistics and studies prove and explain evidence contradict this do nothing about it. UN conventions, such as the UN Convention on Discrimination against Women have been put into place for the sole purpose of protecting women from inhumanity and yet the incidences are not declining significantly enough. Proving that these restrictions are not working and shows why further restrictions on music content are necessary.

For the opposition to state that the subjugation of females around the world is too hard to stop, and trivialise it to a minor matter that does not need to be addressed is disgusting. The fact is that women are treated as inferior to men, and live a life of lower standards and often suffer from much abuse.

Across the world, the rape of women has reached epidemic proportions, as though it is a societal norm. In Australia, 1% of the population were raped in the previous year, which is not taking into account those that women do not report to the police.[[http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cri_rap_vic-crime-rape-victims]] A report released said that “Estimates from research suggest that between 75 & 95 per cent of rape crimes are never reported to the police.” [[http://www.hmic.gov.uk/sitecollectiondocuments/thematics/thm_20070101_2.pdf]] The epidemic amounts of rapes we seen now is only the tip of the iceberg. In South Africa, a woman is more likely to be raped than to learn how to read. [[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/1909220.stm]] To simply be dismissive of such disturbing statistics is indifferent to the plight of women everywhere. Isn’t the link between the crime of rape and the views of women apparent? The opposition says that there is only a minority of bigots, and yet violent crimes against women continue to be one of the most pressing issues in every society. Clearly we must ban misogynistic music from being a part of the threads of our society, to show that songs that glorify vicious crimes against women should not be acceptable as the “harmless entertainment” that the opposition suggests it could be. By linking songs about rape, murder and violence against women with “harmless entertainment”, does Team Botswana not see the effect that this music can have on what society deems as the norm?
Furthermore, given that vilification laws are present against other minorities, such as race and sexual orientation, why would we choose to exclude women?

One of the opposition’s main assertions is that free speech should be prioritised over society’s need to prevent hateful speech. They also mentioned the ‘shouting fire in a crowded theatre’ paradigm – and stated that music inciting violence against women does not pose a direct physical threat to anybody. This is untrue. Firstly, let’s consider the extent of the right to free speech. The aforementioned paradigm is an example of harmful speech for three reasons; it poses a threat to human safety, it is untruthful, and it has no useful purpose. Similarly, consider what would happen if two people were involved in some sort of dispute. It would most certainly be illegal if a someone came into it and encouraged one of them to fight the other. More than that, it would be considered illegal to threaten to kill somebody, even if it was a lie. We can apply this to the music situation. The music that is the subject of this debate encourages and promotes violence. It serves no reasonable purpose, certainly none that outweighs the negative effects of violent music that have been documented by science. Now let’s consider how free speech is already limited by law. In Australia, one can be charged with vilification if speech that incites hatred is done in a public venue[[http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/SydLRev/2005/10.html]]. However, in private one IS free to speak one’s mind as this speech does not necessarily expose its influence to a wide audience. This demonstrates that limiting free speech does not mean that we should have anything to fear. Regulation is done here because the benefit of preventing harmful speech far outweighs whatever reasons we as a society have to allow hate speech. By definition every right has a corresponding responsibility. We all have the right to free speech – however we also have a responsibility to ensure that this free speech does not infringe on the rights of others. And that includes the right to be free from vilification.

The idea of globalisation (as brought up by the opp) and the fact that music cannot be limited to singular nations dictates that this discussion be on a whole world scale. Limiting the discussion to the effects on only the affluent and ‘educated’ nations is unfair and does not take into account the insidious nature of VAW, which is an issue that is highly prevalent throughout the entire world [[http://www.feminist.com/antiviolence/facts.html]]

There is inequality in the world’s restrictions in relation to different kinds of artistic mediums. There are legal restrictions put on all kinds of art including, but not limited to, art (eg Bill Henson’s exhibition was shut down by police [[http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/police-shut-down-child-porn-art-exhibition-in-paddington/story-e6freuy9-1111116418937]] ), movies (movies are banned completely from multiple countries such as Australia, Columbia, Finland, France and Thailand for containing excessively abusive content [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motion_picture_rating_system]]), video games have been banned by governments of various states in the world for having excessive violence and cruelty [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_banned_video_games]], and distribution of books which contain explicit sexual content and human rights violations are also restricted from release [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_books_banned_by_governments]]. Why then is it OK for the opp to declare that we have no right to discuss the restriction of the most accessible and influential mediums in the world – music?

VAW is everywhere. It is identified as one of the biggest human rights issues in the world – in the past & now too. We must recognise that music is one of the most transmittable and accessible mediums in the world. People from all classes, all races, and all education levels have ready access all kinds of musical content (even Congo [DRC], the poorest country in the world, has 5% of it’s population able to access music via the web) [[http://www.google.com/publicdata?ds=wb-wdi&met=it_net_user_p2&idim=country:COG&dl=en&hl=en&q=internet+usage+congo]]. We must consider the evidence and research that links viewing violence to increased violent behaviour [[http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/05/030505084039.htm]], heavy metal music and rap are listened to by large segments of the world’s population (especially in the countries the opp wants to focus on) and do present many disturbing images of violence, sex, and misogyny; it is estimated that VAW content in these genres ranges from 25-70%. With VAW statistics so high [[http://www.unicef-irc.org/publications/pdf/digest6e.pdf]], it is clear that due to the influential nature of music, combined with the rising prevalence of extremely violent content in music lyrics, plus the never decreasing statistics of VAW cases indicates that the banning of extremely violent content is NOT an overreaction to the current situation.

We would like to clarify that our topic is banning music that glorifies excessive, unnecessary violence against women not merely “violent music”. The opposition seems to hold the sensationalised belief that everyone has a dangerous obsession with violence & death. They further stated things relating to religion and the fact that everyone is so scared of death that they have become obsessed with violence in their media. The opposition stated that “we need clear demonstration that violent music more than any other form of art, creates violence in society.” However as we previously mentioned, multiple researches have shown, eg in 2003 in Washington, proved that exposure to violent music directly affected the humans in a way that they became more aggressive. They have also stated that the most read newspaper articles are “usually about wars and murders and other acts of violence…” Firstly we would like to point out that these statements technically had nothing to do with violence against women, therefore their points can be deemed irrelevant. Secondly even if the opposition’s statement is valid they are not supported with any proof. Opposition also stated that “we also made monumental progress in terms of equal rights…” We believe that this statement is true, but in terms of some countries across the globe such as Canada and USA, whereas continents such as Africa & other third world countries do not have the benefit of such equal rights. Women of various ethnicities are being degraded to mere sex objects, most prominently Asians & Black women, in which society has responded in outrage. This isn’t enough as the degradation of women continues. It is for the purpose that there is so much glorifying of this violence within music, and it has clearly been shown to have connection with mental thoughts by those that listen to it, that we feel the need and the urgency for this music to be banned. Again, we are purely talking about music that glorifies VAW

Team Australia has not made loose generalisations suggesting that all people are shallow minded and use music as a giuide to direct social and moral choices. The opposition agrees themselves that music is an influence. We are concerned about the level of this influence. No intervention effectively condones the intimidation of such music on 50% of the population. If the rights for one citizen prevents the rights of another citizen there is a problem and this is the case we are making here. The problem is that for far too long women have been subjected to music that encourages violence against women so that many have adopted a tolerance to such material. When there is no representation to protect women and society in general then there is no where to go for complaints. It is interesting that the opposition uses the idea- suggesting that because this music is far less available- which is not the case but even if it were true- it is not necessary to ban it because it doesn’t do any harm to any one. This is flawed. Firstly there are few places women can go to change or prevent bands or musicians from making this music and producing it. Secondly the wheels of popular culture are so powerful, fed by the consumerist mentalities of the marketers that responsible marketing and making of music has been abandoned at the cost of the dignity of women. This is evident in the absence of industry watchdog bodies that exist.which make even the french advertising industry look more reliable over its concern for the dignity of women in the banning of underwear adds that breached its code of conduct and contributed to systematic sexualisation of women. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/french-knickers-in-in-a-twist

We can not expect ‘all people to be generally reasonable’, as the opposition argues – this is unrealistic. For one, the majority of the audience listening to this contentious music are under 25 years old and as recent research a 2 institutes have shown ‘intellectual maturity’ is not fully developed until the until age 25 [[http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/2005-02-20-juvenile-deathpenalty_x.htm]] It is unreasonable to assert that this kind of content is not affecting the developing values of people, least of all our youth. Music is not legally rated, unlike almost all other visual and aural media, yet it is the most accessible and inexpensive medium and people, all over the world, can access music. Popular radio marketing has chart toppers being repeated over and over again taking on an almost chant-like quality; and as a song rises in popularity we are then subjected to it’s video clip version which in these days often pushes societies boundaries and aims to shock thus increasing the song’s appeal despite its negative content. Is the opp telling us that it is OK to continue to support the connotative message ‘that violence against women is ok'” despite the facts we have already supplied in relation to this matter? The content of such music cannot be equated with art.

The opp states that music cannot be limited bcecause we all interpret it differently. I would like to point out that statements such as “I may have to blow your brains out, baby. Then you won’t bother me no more” (Eric Clapton) or “I used to love her, But I had to kill her, … She’s buried right in my backyard” (Guns and Roses) or “If she ever tries to fucking leave again, I’mma tie her to the bed, And set the house on fire” (Eminem) send a very clear message that is not dependent on the individual’s perception. Not only are these examples not alone, they are among a rising population of excessively violent lyrics which are most often directed at females.

The opposition is introducing other content that does already fall under ratings or censorship therefore irrelevant to their case. egAnimal Farm, Clockwork Orange. even Pornography. Opposition must stay on the topic.

Fictional violence does lead to real violence!!! It is a sad state of affairs when we decide that fictional gratuitous violence is entertainment. It appears the Opposition would rather subject our youth to the glorification of VAW then try blame perpetrators because jail was a deterrent and they should have been ‘reasonable’

Poverty rates go hand in hand with poor literacy but globalisation impacts all regardless of values and situation. So censorship; in this case. the banning of music that glorifies VAW is essential.
We affirm the line that this music that ‘GLORIFIES’. VAW must be banned because it is morally imperative regardless of the number of people who act on the inherent messages within the music because it breaks down the moral fabric of society, hence potentially encouraging singers like Pink who create reactionary songs that glorify acts of violence against men in her song- ‘So what?’; and it places women in a position where they are still fighting against the sexual objectification of women that condones them being subjugated and then condones them having a poor sense of self worth believing that they have to be subject to males, often idealised as ‘pimps’ in this music. It doesn’t matter if the audience is so called ‘reasonable’ the govt bodies have the responsibilty to help maintain the dignity and respect of all genders. There are racial & homosexual vilification laws, but no gender vilification laws that protect women from being subjected to these messages.They have no power then to stop these attitudes permeating society because we give ‘tacit consent’. This is why we need to have govt bodiest that act on our ‘express consent’.[[Loche,Second Treatise of Government, 1690.Hackett Publishing Comp]]