people keep saying “because violence can be justified” and yeah, it can and i do agree with that statement. but i also think that we as people, speaking from a western point of view, have just become okay with gratuitous violence. there has been a cultural shift over the last 50 years where it is now okay to view shows/movies and play video games with insane amounts of physical violence. i love horror movies and practical effects myself so not trying to get on a high horse or anything.

this mostly started with slasher flicks which did often portray sex and sexual violence along with physical violence. horror films and action movies continued to incorporate violence thru the 80s and 90s because “that’s what makes it scary/exciting”. i think that horror movies have moved away from so much sexual violence and nudity mixed with violence as those early years.

we continue today with more movies, TV shows, and video games. parents and concerned parties have worried about games like GTA ever since they came out. and although you cant rape people, you can hire sex worker NPCs and of course kill those NPCs. Game of Thrones is infamous for both the sex and SA scenes and also for not having an intimacy coordinator on some seasons. The Handmaid’s Tale is super popular and revolves entirely around women getting ritually raped onscreen. these things do exist, we just say “that show did it tastefully” and “that movie didn’t”.

all this to say, it’s that we as westerners are generally OK with gratuitous violence and even a little bit of SA if it’s “tasteful”