Media Screening

The first film I analyzed was the documentary After Tiller, produced in 2013 by Martha Shane. This movie was based on the lives of a group of abortion doctors and their troubled patients. The abortion doctors were apprentices of Dr. George Tiller and are the only doctors in the country who provide third-trimester abortions, or when the child has been living in the mother’s womb for 25 weeks. The second film I watched was the documentary The Invisible War, produced in 2012 by Kirby Dick. This film was based on the lives of sexual assault victims in the military and their struggle to find peace within themselves and to find justice for their attackers. Both films brought light to the issues involving gender expectations and lack of respect for women.

In After Tiller, the film follows the difficulties the mothers and doctors of the abortion clinic. At their practice, the doctors meet with potential patients in order to hear their story. During these encounters the viewers are able to hear the stories of these women, many of which tell the struggles of the mothers financially or emotionally. In many of the cases, these women choose to abort their child after finding out he/she will be born with disabilities or extreme physical disorders. The mothers in this film are ridiculed by those outside the clinic based on their expected gender roles. As a pregnant woman, the expectations for them are to carry out their pregnancy and take care for their child regardless of its health or well-being. There were several scenes in the film where they showed the protestors outside the clinic or in the towns, trashing the mothers with signs and harsh words often deeming them murderers. Those that are pro-life generally blame the woman for their own pregnancy and scold the mothers for their choice in the abortion. Very few instances do you see the father being the subject of abuse, regardless of the situation. The well-being and situations of the mothers are never of any concern to those that are pro-life, only the child inside them. In one case, a woman explains that she did not tell her parents of her decision to abort because “they would call her a murderer”. Those who speak against abortion never know the individual story of the women who seek the procedure; they judge every woman the same based on the expectations of motherhood and show complete lack of respect.

In The Invisible War, countless stories are heard from military women and even some men who were sexually assaulted during their service in the military. Most of these rapes and assaults were committed by commanders and those of higher rank, and the criminal cases were never pursued or charged on the victims instead. Based on their experiences, the lack of respect for women in the military is appalling. Several men in the military clearly see their female colleagues as their property and something to be claimed. These men are reassuring gender expectations and see these women as inferior and something to assert dominance over.  In one case, the attacker of a victim put his hand on her body during his assault and said “I own all of this”. In another case, a female marine explained how one of her senior officers said “Female marines here are nothing but objects for the male marines to fuck”. By women attempting to speak out against their attackers, they are met with harsh punishments and accusations of lying by all military personnel and legal teams.

The themes of gender expectations and lack of respect for women are clear in both After Tiller and The Invisible War. Pregnant women are judged based on motherhood expectations and are criticized when defying them. Women in the military are viewed as inferior and weak by male colleagues, and are assaulted in order for these men to prove masculinity. In both of these issues, women are disrespected greatly and are the common victims of crude judgement.