Law and Order: Special Victims Unit
Law and Order: Special Victims Unit is a television show that is about detectives protecting victims of sexually based offenses in New York City, detectives are asked to step out of their comfort zone and social norm to protect citizens. The two main characters are Detectives Olivia Benson and Elliot Stabler. Olivia Benson and Elliot Stabler work together as each other’s partners. Both Olivia Benson and Elliot Stabler’s characters display masculine characteristics because they are constantly confronted with violent crimes that require them to be aggressive and in control.
Elliot Stabler, the male character, does fit the stereotypical detective in that he is strong, intelligent, stubborn, confident, and reliable.
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Olivia Benson, the female character, deviates the traditional standards of being a socially correct woman. A traditional woman is gracious, kind, slow to speak, patient listener, and humble. Olivia Benson is a strong woman who tends to take matters into her own hands. Both characters will do anything to protect the safety of the New York citizens. Throughout all the seasons, Olivia Benson breaks the rules of being a traditional woman.
She is sexually assaulted in an episode and continues to carry herself and her family by reassuring them that she is independent and will be fine. Olivia becomes pregnant and decides to raise the child as a single mother. Being a single mother most definitely goes against the norms of a traditional woman.
There is no indication that Olivia Benson has any religious convictions that she affiliates herself with. She does, however, have a history of being involved with sexually assaults. Olivia is the result of a rape. Olivia’s dark history bases her to become involved in helping individuals in trouble.
Detective Elliot Stabler’s religious affiliation would be Roman Catholic. Elliot is a loving husband and a father of four children. He is seen to have many family problems; Elliot’s aggressive behavior might be to blame for that. His relationship with his parents was strained due to physical and mental abuse so viewers don’t see much of them. Elliot Stabler takes his job tremendously seriously, but tend to make cases personal which leads to
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complications. The episode Pure is about a young girl who is kidnapped and killed. A man who claims he is a psychic, Sebastian, finds himself at the police station giving pieces of information to authority. He continues forcibly bringing himself to the police station saying that he can help. Sebastian gives clues to the detectives not knowing how he knows those things. They test him several different ways, and soon come to learn that he is able to read facial expressions and determine exactly what a person is thinking. Sebastian continues giving them clues that lead them to the girl’s body. A psychologist who works closely with the police department becomes suspicious with Sebastian and instructs the detective to keep an eye on Sebastian. In the end, Sebastian in convicted of many kidnappings and killings, but why would a man practically turn himself in? This is a prime example of why the television show can be addicting. Crimes being acted out tend to be made personal or relatable, so the viewers keep coming back so they can root for the detectives to win. The Depiction of Elliot Stabler and Olivia Benson has a few pros and cons. Pros would be the protective, strong, and determined characteristics of both Elliot Stabler and Olivia Benson encourage young men and women to have courage and care for people. This show proves to viewers that crime is real and happens to people of all colors, religious backgrounds, and wealth status. Men are encouraged by Elliot Stabler to stand up and take charge (being the head of the household) and also be protecting and caring for those who are in need of it. Olivia Benson encourages women that they could also be dominant, strong, and caring. People are encouraged to protect individuals and groups, punish those who break the law and protect rights. In the sense that the Show Law and Order: Special Victims Unit gives people a sense of patriotism could be a positive idea. However, showing or creating the idea of crimes on television has many negative effects as well.
Some might look at the crime as a way to solve problems, people become immune to violence, and some individuals might also us the crimes to help with creativity. The television shows that revolve around a crime taking place, evidence being collected, and the criminal being punished tends to only take a few hours or days.
In reality, crimes are going to take much longer than that to investigate. As far as gender analysis is imposed on viewers in a negative way, Elliot Stabler deals with problems of aggression and makes each crime personal making bias decisions. Olivia Benson has a hard time talking to people with person issues and closed most people out. Olivia Benson also doesn’t ever take a break from her work and that causes a lot of stress and depression.
Viewers might not struggle with the gender stereotypes of the detectives because they would understand that people who get themselves involved in the police force are going to have to be both physically and mentally stable. Viewers are given many opportunities to see how stressful working as an authority can be hard and exhausting. The TV show does a excessive job encouraging people to thank those in authority and those put in place of protecting citizens because they put their lives on the line to protect
others. The relationship between television shows being compared to gender stereotypes does not differ much. Law and Order: Special Victims Unit works hard to imitate the work of real detectives and goes to extensive lengths to make them look like they do a lot for the protection and safety of other citizens. In most cases, police officers think about the victims or those in danger over themselves. “Female power, when let loose in the public sphere, is often disruptive to male authority, but sometimes it also bolsters that authority.” This quote comes from Susan J. Douglas, professor of Communication Studies at the University of Michigan. Douglas is basically saying that women are capable of having more power than men, this is considered negative to a man, but in certain cases, men’s authority could be strengthened by a women’s influence. Feminists have a difficult time watching the show, being most victims are women and the feminists feel insulted. Although feminist does like thinking a woman has been attacked, the underlying message is that the police and detectives are doing all they can to ensure justice. Law and Order: Special Victims Unit depicts the situation of both a man and a woman having the same authority. The two are dependent upon each other and don’t battle to be in authority of each other. The two characters are defying the norms of reality in the sense that someone always needs to be in authority. Joy Parks, another decorated writer, asks the question, “What will it take to change how advertisers often portray women?” Parks bring up a respectable concept because women are usually described as helpless, low self-esteem, and dependent on men. Those analogies are proved wrong in the TV show and most episodes of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit. Law and Order: Special Victims Unit does not only affect people while watching, the actor often have roles in ads or campaigns to bring awareness to sexual assault and violence. They encourage victims or people who know victims how to get emotional help. The show wants women to feel empowered to speak up and get justice. “Some people refuse to believe that reality has become indistinguishable from fabrication,” Was a quote that Thomas de Zengotita felt described how America’s functioned in culture. People think that if they are blunt, they are just honest people helping those in need, drug addicts are free-spirited, and cheaters think that the only way they can succeed is to deceive people. The idea that people have of themselves is blameless and innocent, that idea leads to many problems. In tying this concept into the show, the criminals try to justify their actions. A person can’t justify the crimes they commit. Law and Order: Special Victims Unit “Pure” demonstrates the social norms being broken when smart men get convicted of a crime, women take a stand, and a strong man is humbled. This episode has gender stereotypes but when it comes to breaking the gender stereotypes, the reason is explained or understandable. Not many viewers would have a problem with how the detectives act to ensure safety for the most amounts of people.
Not knowing her past one would think she seemed rebellious to certain victims after being a product of rape. Benson appears on set every day with an open mind and clear head of dead weight and focuses on fighting crime and keeping bad people off the streets. Her victims believe in her more as a person. Benson is not honored just because she a detective. Having life experiences can mean a lot to a rape victim who is afraid of her attacker. Or an alcoholic father that never really cared about nothing but drinking. All of these victims are supportive of detective Olivia because she understands and provides them with a security blanket of trust and satisfaction that Benson will always try her best to keep criminals off the
Gender roles are being conformed for television viewing, for example, In episode 2, Raymond stated “I get my exercise and babysit at the same time” when he lifted his twin boys in his arms like a gym equipment’s in front of his friend smiling. Why does a man has to be the one to do something idiotic like that when there would never be a television universe, where a mother would ever do something like that, it just wasn’t a “female” thing to do. Why was Debra the one who had to ask her husband to say, “I love you”? When in reality either one of them could have ask something like that without stereotyping the female. In episode 1, Ray boasted, “Look, I cleaned the house” and Debra was very happy to see that actually happened. Again, why does it had to be a surprise when this was something both males and females do in everyday life without being “surprised” by it or making such an accomplishment out of getting the house cleaned. Television is too much of a stereotype ground field when it comes to gender role and has been for a
Specifically, crime shows have given us, the TV audience as a whole, scripts or an expectation of what will/should happen in a variety of situations. It leads people to think about what is appropriate and what isn’t in terms of how the results of these situations play out. For example, in the CSI franchise, as the plot unfolds in each episode, it takes forensic evidence, such as DNA or fingerprints, to convict the villain. Before the technological breakthroughs made in the fields of biology and forensics, juries relied more on circumstantial evidence, and eyewitness accounts to prove someone was guilty. This is just one example of how crime shows have changed the general representations of what is the “correct” way to solve a crime.
These crime shows reinforced the notions that women are victims and men are perpetrators. In the one episode where a man was the deceased, he was not a victim of a crime but rather an unfortunate accident. Both Law and Order episodes reinforced the stereotype of male aggression and that women are victims of sex crimes. Both episodes did show the strength of female victims of sex crimes but still overly sexualized them as objects due to the types of books they published and because they were impoverished or considered low class. In terms of power-positions, men and women were represented relatively evenly in both shows.
...r is much more difficult and requires extensive analysis. Female characters in American detective novels, stereotypically, exude the same blatant sexuality, helplessness and naivete and are therefore forced to exploit the only strengths they have in order to not be overwhelmed by the more forceful male characters. As can be seen in The Maltese Falcon the three female characters strive to maintain their power by any means necessary. Ironically, the character that exhibits the most masculine qualities and is the least sexual is the most successful. This proves that masculinity is equivalent to power and therefore women are powerless on many levels. The role of women is fairly constant in hard-boiled novels, and the struggle for power and control is an ever present theme.
Consequently, they must then take on parties, dates, auctions, beach days, and fashion shows, all while concealing their true male identities. While doing this, the movie portrays extreme stereotypes of gender roles and expectations. Although the portrayal of female expectations and characteristics is exaggerated for comedic effect, the underlying points and issues still remain. The way the brothers dress, speak, act, and understand their new social life as females, all contributes to the obvious contrast in gender specific qualities. The consistent sexualization of women and over pompous attitudes of men throughout the film provides exceptional evidence that society has established acceptable norms for both genders. These established roles of femininity and masculinity conflict within the undercover agents as they struggle to act poise, arrogant, non-confrontational, and sexy like their fellow female friends are, yet this is completely out of the norm for them as they are truly males. However, when they slip-up and allow their defensive masculine traits to show through it allows for not only a comedic break, but an exceptional
The media plays a huge role in forming people's perceptions of crime. Without the media we would remain ignorant to occurrences outside our direct social groups. The media and especially news coverage therefore provides us with an important point of contact with the rest of society. In evaluating its effect on popular perceptions of crime it becomes important to consider where most of the information comes from and how representative it is on actual criminality. If it takes "facts" (the truth, the actual event, a real thing) or if it is heightened to a crime myth. With a myth being based upon "exaggeration" or heightening of "ordinary" events in life. Crime myths become a convenient mortar to fill gaps in knowledge and to provide answers to question social science either cannot answer or has failed to address. Myths tend to provide the necessary information for the construction of a "social reality of crime (Quinney, 1970)." As crime related issues are debated and re debated, shaped and reshaped in public forms, they become distorted into myth, as largely seen in the mass media.
When the criminal justice system was established, the main objective was to create neutrality and fairness between the sexes. Even though people might believe that there is no such thing as ‘stereotyping’ in the criminal justice system, it is quite obvious that women are constantly being look down upon because of their sex. In general, women tend to be treated like fragile objects that could break at any moment; the truth is that women can be strong and courageous just like men. Society stereotypes women and the criminal justice system is no different.
Media portrayal of crime and criminal justice has become incredibly widespread in the last decade, with crime often considered both a source of news and entertainment. As a source of entertainment, crime and criminal justice have emerged as central themes across various sources of media. Most individuals do not have any direct experience with the criminal justice system, so their only source of information on this topic is the media. Particularly in television shows, portrayals of crime and criminal justice can be seen in everything from courtroom dramas to nightly news programs. Indeed, the popularity of crime shows has lead to some of television’s most enduring series, such as Law and Order and CSI. Because of this, fictional
There are many stereotypes that women in the law enforcement field have to face. In order to recruit more women into policing, law enforcement agencies should attempt to overcome the idea that policing is a "male-oriented profession". This paper will cover parts of the history of women police officers, some views and stereotypes of the female officer, job related issues, life outside of the workforce and job satisfaction.
The media is our main source of knowledge about crime and other issues about the world. It shows us what is happening in the world which is beyond our direct experience and so it is very important. However the media can present a false view of reality and contain bias that the public needs to be aware of. The way the media represents crime can reinforce fear and create moral panic but as media consumers it is our job to critically analyze the content of the news and ask questions about the crimes that are shown in the media as to not be effected by the media in trying to shape our perceptions about crime.
To conclude, the perception of crime is greatly impacted by how media portrays victims of crime, criminals and law enforcement officials are viewed. Often media organisations over-dramatize crime problems to gain consumer attention. The misperception of crime to society impacts how the community live, and how the media presents an inaccurate view of the real level of crime within society. It is believed that the nature of crime in our society is not accurately presented by the
Steffen’s article, “Gender Stereotypes Stem From the Distribution of Women and Men Into Social Roles”. In this article, they discuss the root of gender stereotypes being derived from the unequal distribution of roles for men and women in society. They believe too many women are left to be “homemakers” while men become professionals. This is evident in Survivors as the show chooses to have Abby take on this maternal role. This unequal distribution of roles then, in turn, leads to men and women being labeled with certain qualities. According to Steffen and Eagly, women are believed to have communal qualities, or “manifested by selflessness, concern with others, and a desire to be at one with others”, and men agentic qualities or, “self-assertion, self-expansion, and the urge to master” (Eagly, Steffen 736). Abby epitomizes this desire to help others and selfness, while the surrounding men are less likely to trust others by questioning the actions of other men in the
However in this essay, I am going to analyse what is the enduring appeal of crime drama for a television audience through a close analysis of crime theory, the narrative as well as the gender of the crime drama genre. I will illustrate my analysis with three detailed examples of Oz (1997-2003), 24 (2001-2010) and The Bill (1983-2010).
We are all affected by crime, whether we are a direct victim, a family member or a friend of a victim. It can interfere with your daily life, your personal sense of safety and your ability to trust others.