What lies beyond the portrayal of victimhood?

In her book The Reenchantment of Art, Suzie Gablic mentioned that art's long history of elevating design over subject matter has resulted in a disconnect and the cultivation of shallow aesthetic emotions. She argued that art should not only address issues but also collaborate directly with the public to discover outlets for meaningful change. 

In an era of mass media coverage on gender-violence, assault, abuse and sexual harassment, often offenders and their victims are portrayed in ways intended to attract excessive attention.

Victims who become caught up in the media process run the risk of losing their autonomy and rights. There is also the case of victim-derogation— where public opinion may include victim blaming, wrongly assuming that they subjected themself to the incident due to their own actions. 

Research based on this topic has also concluded that the derogation of victims increases under higher (vs. lower) emotionally impactful contexts for observers.

Depictions of victims with higher emotional or visual impact, such as graphic videos, significantly increase the likelihood that observers will derogate the victim, perceiving them as less likeable, less moral, or even partially responsible for their suffering.

This can be due to specific psychological mechanisms, such as the belief in a just world, to reassure oneself as less likely of falling into the same misfortune, rationalising the victim's misery to reduce discomfort and gradual desensitisation. 

This finding affirms the potential harm of sensationalised representations, emphasising the need for art and media to prioritise dignity and context over shock value.

Cultural representations have the potential to move beyond sensationalist portrayals of victimhood and take a humane approach, one that shifts from showing weakness and vulnerability to resilience and the complexity of the story behind each person.

Mainstream media is aware that tragedy sells, even more so than the nuanced realities of human life. It latches onto one headline to the next, leaving the victim behind the incident alone with their sorrow, now carrying it without the world witnessing.

Cultural representations have also started to adopt this idea, as engagement metrics decide if something is worth receiving attention.

This perpetuates a cycle of 'pity culture' where tragedy is briefly sympathised with, then swiftly forgotten.

Art and cultural representation, however, have the potential to represent these stories with authenticity, expanding beyond a single screen and ultimately inspire real-world initiatives to help the victims.

The representation of crimes against women frequently relies on predictable themes. Assault survivors shown as broken or silenced, domestic violence victims shown in submissive, bruised or weeping states in intimate spaces are some of the recurring themes used to portray violence.

These incidents are constructed to showcase women as perpetual victims who need to be kept safe alongside children, rather than individuals whose lives are affected due to multiple factors, including the perpetrator's actions.

Despite women's participation in various institutions of society, it seems that their most significant contribution to cultural representation is being a helpless victim.

Pity culture's way of feeding into this cycle has led to desensitisation, and continues to make people immune to the sheer impact this suffering has on an individual. We continue to see this in various ways, most of which often highlight the crime 'being done' to the person, to cultivate sympathy. This narrative of passivity ignores the women's agency, strength and capacity for survival.

Representation both exposes and conceals, humanises and excludes— and if done correctly, it may create a hopeful path, where women are looked at as complex individuals with both agency and an equal claim to survival. 

Aesthetic choices can respect dignity by avoiding shock values and feeding into sensationalism. By including contextualisation and structural factors like environment, power, social stigmas and laws instead of focusing on the victim's weakness, art can portray a wider view of the issue at hand. Supporting responsible media and artistic practices will help challenge cultural norms, while fostering safe environments for victims to use their own voices to tell their stories and advocating for systemic change can break this cycle of perpetual victimhood, influencing the public to be empathetic, understanding and motivated to engage in real-world initiatives.

Ultimately, the narrative surrounding the representation of crime should move beyond a dichotomy of perpetrator versus victim, and focus on the broader social, economic and cultural factors that foster an environment of violence. This may help us distinguish genuine compassion from pity.

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