Analysis Of The Documentary ' Audrie & Daisy ' Essay

Last week, the White House released a short, celebrity packed, 60-second public service announcement (PSA) on the topic of sexual assault. 1 is 2 Many addressed those who are in control of preventing sexual assault as its intended audience was those who can put a stop to sexual violence: the perpetrators or would-be offenders. Although this one minute announcement completed the task of bringing sexual assault to the forefront of discussion, it failed to encompass the central issues concerning the culture of sexual assault: societal misperceptions, the victims, and the justice system. Sexual assault is a phenomenon that has been around for centuries; the culture of sexual assault is rooted in both legal practices and societal perceptions.

In the riveting documentary Audrie & Daisy, husband and wife director team Bonnie Cohen and Jon Shenk retrace the events leading up to the harrowing sexual assaults of three teenage girls; Audrie Pott, Daisy Coleman, and Paige Parkhurst, and expose the agonizing after effects and exploitation of the assaults. Subsequent interviews with family members, friends and law enforcement officials give important details about the aftermath of the events, and introduce viewers to possibly the biggest villain of all, Sherriff Darren White of Maryville, Missouri. Throughout the documentary White appears smug when he states that “as County Sheriff, “the buck stops here” (Darren White), and when asked about the crimes committed by Maryville’s football star, he rebuts with “was there a crime?” (Darren White). As the film moves through the twists and turns of the cases, the settings, conflicts, and tragedies are enhanced by the use of montage, long and subjective shots, close-ups and personal sketches that submerge the audience into the victim’s point of view. At the conclusion of the film, the viewer is left to decide what constitutes sexual assault and rape, and if society and law enforcement are to blame for today’s ‘rape culture’ acceptance and the continued victimization of young girls. It also reveals how much can be hidden from parents, and how disconnected they can become from their children in a social media world.

University of Tennessee Knoxville was recently involved in a lawsuit for enabling athletes to sexually assault women by silencing the victims and failing to provide disciplinary actions or even investigation onto the accused. While this is a recent case, this is not the first time this sort of behavior involving a school has been brought into light. One in four women will be sexually assaulted by the end of their undergraduate career (Posluszny). Sexual assault happens throughout society no matter what the gender or age, seeming to be in increasing epidemic over the last few years. While the idea of sexual assault is largely met with public hostility in theory, actions often contradict this. This contradiction lies heavily in a culture that is unwelcoming to the victims and often leads to the perpetrators being tolerated. The existence of rape culture in western society occurs due to the preservation of violent media, patriarchal standards, and the state of the criminal justice system. This culture cannot be improved until we confront each of these problems to their roots.

This non-profit agency services to victims of rape and any type of sexual assault and provides trained advocates to offer hospital and/or legal accompaniments. The agency also provides specialized crisis counseling for victims and their families (contactburlco.org). My work at Contact was focused on a grant called Media Literacy, which offered preventative education within school systems and the community. Media literacy helped students and individuals learn the importance of becoming critical consumers of the media in order to develop their own opinions, as well as understand how media messages shape our culture and society (medialiteracyproject.org). Advocating for media justice is important when discussing the Violence Against Women Act in terms of thinking about how the media portrays women and the issues of violence. Today, we see countless media in which women are being objectified and also how the media desensitizes viewers to violence. While working at Contact of Burlington County I was able to teach youth to be proactive media consumers and media upstanders by choosing to make a positive stand on behalf of themselves and others. The Violence Against Women Act also provides programs to combat these views on domestic

During the years 2008 through 2012, The University of Montana, and the town of Missoula Montana, had the justice department investigating hundreds of sexual assault cases that were springing from the University. Journalist, and distinguished author, Jon Krakauer researches the abundance of campus rapes that occurred over a four-year period. Krakauer saw this college town to be a perfect place to further educate himself, and others, as to why many women do not seek help from authorities after being sexually assaulted. In the book written by Jon Krakauer, Missoula, Rape and the Justice system in a College Town, is a typical college town who’s prized football team inspires their loving fan base, received national attention when authorities

The Steubenville and Glen Ridge rape cases are two very similar cases. The perpetrators were football student athletes with promising futures and the victims were teenage girls whose capability of consenting to the acts done to them were questioned. One of the victims was seventeen-years old and had an intelligence quotient of 64 and the reading comprehension of a second grader. The second victim was sixteen-years old and was publicly assaulted while she was completely intoxicated. This paper will discuss each victim and their perpetrators, as well as the trial sentencing and prosecution. It will explore the different reactions from the community and the debate over the victim’s responsibility leading towards the incident. In both rape

Glory Glory is a movie from 1989, that was directed by Edward Zwick. It starts out with the main character Robert Shaw fighting in the battle of Antietam, where he suffers an injury that causes him to be sent home to Boston on medical leave. There his is introduced to Fredrick Douglas by the Governor, who offers him command of the first all African American military unit in the Union Army called the Fifty Fourth regiment of Massachusetts. Robert talks to his childhood friend Cabot Forbes and asks him to join as the rank of Major.

In Devin Faraci’s article “Child Molestor Victor Salva Directing Third Jeepers Creepers Movie” in his opinion, Faraci provides a detailed news report on child molestor Victor Salva being hired as the director for the new “Jeepers Creepers” movie. Appalled by the news, Faraci gives a brief history of Victor Salva’s crimes and reinstates that even though contrary to the public belief that Victor Salva, accused and having served time for his rape of 12 year old child actor Nathan Forrest Winters, star of Salvas’ film “Clownhouse” and owning child pornography, Salva, after serving his sentence continued to shoot films with child actors regardless of his sexual predator nature.

This essay will look at how various forms of media examine female and child offenders, and how these same criminals can also be viewed as being victims. The media is able to shape the way the public perceive a certain criminal through aspects such as personal information, history of violence and appearance (Fries, 1820). Therefore, creating the opportunity to generate a media story in which the ideal criminal is involved. Included within the essay will be how the medias fixation with gendered and social norms can cause a female or child offender to be considered as being depraved. Also, this essay will demonstrate how today’s media supports the now discredited theory of criminologist, Cesare Lombroso, that asserted physical attributes

Initially when I was emailing you about what I was going to formally analyze, we had discussed me writing about Chris Brown’s embodiment of double standards that allows famous men to be violent, specifically in regards to his attack of Rihanna in 2009. Although a serious issue that warrants attention and discussion, it appears Brown’s affinity for violence has taken yet another turn for the worse in the form of date rape. Although domestic violence is still a relevant topic in regards to Brown I found in his visual art he tends to celebrate rape culture more so than domestic violence. Because many of Brown’s recent music videos embody and make light of date rape I thought I would have more to write about for this particular assignment because

During the Steubenville rape case, the media’s sympathies went out to the boys because the whole incident was a misunderstanding and Mays and Richmond were just “boys being boys”. Gorgias blames Helen for the misfortune that happened to their country, just like the media blamed the 16 year old girl for what she made these two star football players and good students give

For most, knowledge on crime comes mostly through media outlets such as televised news, newspapers, radio and social media. Consequently, much of our understanding of crime is a direct representation of what is observed from the news. This can be reflected and reinforced through our norms and assumptions about crime, the perpetrators and victims. It is therefore important to discuss and understand how victims of sexual violence are portrayed in the news. According to the 2013 UK statistics on sexual violence, 474,000 adults have been victims of sexual assault with 404,000, a substantial 85% of these victims, identified as female (Home Office, 2013). Therefore, this discussion will focus on the representation of adult, female victims of sexual

The recent long-awaited outcry against rape culture in the United States regarding heinous sexual assault crimes committed by famous white male celebrities has documented further dialogue. One of the biggest issues regarding this topic is the normalization of rape culture, and the inherent normalization of violence that takes place. The dominance of the male in a patriarchal society has reconstructed the violence of rape into a normalized way of viewing women in the media and in society. Advertisements portraying this male dominance over women is anywhere and everywhere, implementing the violence as part of American values and rituals. The normalization of rape culture has naturalized male dominance over women especially through constantly

The Kesha and Dr. Luke case study is useful in analyzing how rape is talked about in Western Society. We have seen how the case is heavily debated on social media as people take sides on who they believe is telling the truth. Arguably, disputes that involve sexual assault, such as in this case study, often attract widespread media attention. This is most likely due to several reasons:

A narrative reading of Amélie (2001) directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, is a quirky portrayal of modern-day Parisian life, set in Montmartre. It tells the story of a shy waitress, played by Audrey Tautou, who decides to change the lives of those around her for the better, while struggling with her own isolation. We see the progression of Amelie’s character from childhood to adulthood. The opening sequence of the film gives an insight of Amelie’s childhood and establishes the main characters and their traits.