i don’t see Eastenders very often, but over Christmas it is hard to miss. Perhaps the big gaps between seeing the programme makes me notice it more but I find the way the programme portrays women to be quite disturbing.
Yesterday I watched the Christmas day episode. The Character unsecured loans Zainab was being effectively held captive by Yusef her husband. He was drugging her with sleeping tablets and she was unable to leave the house without aggressive questioning and threats of violence, and she is also being controlled by the fact that Yusef has her child at a location unknown to her and is planning to take him out of the country.
Domestic violence happens, and it is important for it to be highlighted so that people understand that it is wrong and so that people act on it. But Eastenders seems to thrive on serious domestic violence. Women rarely seem to act and get help.
The last time I had watched Eastenders was in March this year, where Whitney who was being held captive, the victim of human trafficking. I was pleased to see this at the time as I think it is something that needs more awareness. The time before that was July 2010 when I saw an episode where the Character Denise bad credit loans was held captive in a cellar where she eventually escaped. I am starting to wonder now if the normalising of dominance over and abuse of women in general on the programme is more harmful that the possible good that can come from highlighting domestic violence as an issue.
The low level subservience of women is a thread which runs through every episode. Little touches like Phil giving Shirley a few notes and telling her to go and get herself something nice. A common occurance in Eastenders.
The way access to children is used to control women was a theme used twice in the Christmas special. In a scene with characters I don’t know the names of involves a mother wanting to give her child a gift but not being able to as the father says she cannot as they are busy. He treats her cruelly yet later on she is talking to the child through the wind and the father comes to see and says nothing , it seems to have been a bit of a game to not allow her to see the child.
The same family have a very male dominant little argument about who will sit a the head of the table/ who is head of the household.
There are some strong women in Eastenders, but they tend to be strong against other women, re-enforcing their sub servant role. Rather than standing up to the men. When Denise throws a brick through the windscreen of Phils car, his other half Shirley repeatedly tells Patrick to “take her home” . It’s like he is telling him that one of his women is of control.
Women seem to seek out the men who will abuse them, and repeatedly forgive them as they are ‘in love’. The men live lives which are much more based outside the family unit, making money through deals with other men. When women do cross men, any bad behaviour is stored as ammunition for the future, an excuse for future cruelty, and a reason for women to put up with future abuse.
With Eastenders being the most popular TV programme watched 9.9 million people on Christmas day, the programme is very influential, directly and on a subconscious level. what worries me is that it normalises this sort of behaviour and influences the ways that men and women treat each other. Surely there are ways to write story lines without all the Male aggression and female subserviency and oppression?
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