Gabriela solon: Ban films on violence vs. women, not K-dramas

House Assistant Minority Leader Arlene Brosas of Gabriela party-list said Wednesday that the government should ban films which glorify violence against women such as physical abuse and rape.

Brosas issued the statement a day after Senator Jinggoy Estrada said he was considering seeking a ban on South Korean dramas as a means to help shore up the local film industry.

"Instead of discouraging Filipinos to watch South Korean dramas and foreign shows, we must focus on improving our local entertainment industry by banning violent and sexually explicit films which feature scenes that romanticize and fetishize violence against women, particularly physical abuse and rape," Brosas said.

Brosas said that there has been a proliferation of violent and sexy films with themes bordering to softcore pornography on popular streaming platforms Netflix and Vivamax.

"It has become a major concern for Gabriela Women's Party as these films cast young actresses being portrayed as sexual objects. This kind of media content portraying women as sexual objects reinforces a culture of misogyny and sexism in the country, and might lead to yet another spike in cases of violence against women and children," the lawmaker pointed out.

"Worse, these films are unregulated and are readily available to minors who use these online streaming applications," she added.

Further, Brosas said such kind of content is reminiscent of how "bomba films" were used to distract the Filipinos from the crisis during the Martial Law era of late President Ferdinand Marcos.

"Gabriela Women's Party is planning to file a bill that penalizes indecent representation of women in movies, television series, advertisements, and others," she said.

"It is high time that we create a safe space for women, especially in our local entertainment industry," she added.

GMA News Online is trying to get comments from both Netflix and Vivamax. Their reactions will be published as soon as they become available.—LDF, GMA News