Dazzling beauty and world-famous Oscar winning Australian actress Nicole Kidman has pointed to Hollywood movies as fueling violence against women and testified before the US Congress in the efforts to pass legislation for tackling violence against women across the world. As a UN ambassador to a House foreign affairs subcommittee, Kidman appeared before and addressed the US Congress on Wednesday, October 21st, 2009, saying that Hollywood movies portrayed woman as a sex object and thus encouraged violence against women.
Answering a question by Republican representative Dana Rohrabacher, Kidman said that she could not be responsible for the bad role played by the Hollywood in denigrating women but she herself did not take roles that presented women as weak and sex objects. This may sound to run counter to her role in Dogville in which she played the daughter of a gang’s godfather, who, after disobeying her father, finds herself tortured, raped, and imprisoned in a small community. However, the movie’s end allows a radical twist to the plot’s flow as the victimized girl seeks revenge in a most unexpected manner. The movie, however, does not show the girl as vindictive and apparently approves of the giving nature of women.
Nicole Kidman’s effort to put an end to violence targeting women is part of the International Violence Against Women Act that is being considered by the US Congress for the past two years but has not got approval. If approved, the legislation is likely to lead US into active involvement in preventing violence against women in foreign countries.
