NCJ Number
222517
Journal
Violence Against Women Volume: 14 Issue: 4 Dated: April 2008 Pages: 418-436
Date Published
April 2008
Length
19 pages
Annotation
This article presents a case study of Women Against Violence Against Women's (WAVAW's) 1976-1979 national boycott of Warner Communications, Inc., for its use of images of violence against women in the advertising of its music.
Abstract
After 3 years of national protesting, presenting community slide shows, letter writing, attending shareholders' meetings, and boycotting Warner's products, WAVAW achieved victory. On November 8, 1979, WAVAW and Warner made joint statements at dual news conferences in New York City and Los Angeles, announcing a new Warner policy against "the depiction of violence against women or men on album covers and in related promotional material." The Los Angeles office of WAVAW pressured other music companies to adopt similar policies, but most WAVAW chapters turned to local projects once the national boycott ended. The Warner corporate policy spurred by the boycott remained on the books, but without WAVAW's constant monitoring, the music industry had little incentive to do its own policing of its artists and advertising. Violence against women was evident in industry products by the early 1980s, particularly within the lyrics, videos, and promotional materials associated with heavy-metal and rap artists. Still, the WAVAW's boycott of Warner gained national publicity for the concept that media portrayals of violence against women reinforce and promote such male behavior toward women. In turn, this stimulated an increase in research on the effects of media portrayals of violence on users' attitudes and behaviors toward violence against women. Consequently, many recent social scientific studies confirm the existence of some type of relationship between the consumption of sexualized media violence and a number of variables related to sexual aggression against women, including rape-myth acceptance, increased aggression in laboratory experiments, and disregard and contempt for a woman's right to refuse sexual contact. 4 notes and 57 references