We're all used to it now, I imagine. Or maybe, we don't even think about it. Regardless, ever since the 1975 release of Steven Spielberg's "Jaws," the movie market has been saturated with horror movies where sharks play the unabashed, horrific villain to the innocent human victim.
If there was any ever debate about how representation in media affects culture, "Jaws" can be pointed to as the epitome of how Hollywood affects the "real" world. After the theatrical release of "Jaws," shark hunting began to rise as a past time and the population of sharks in their natural habitats began to steadily decline.
Among other conservationists and scientists, the author of the original novel, Peter Benchley was rightfully horrified when he witnessed the horrific brutality of human attacks on sharks. During an interview in 2006, Benchley mentioned that he would have never written the novel had he known the truth about sharks as a creature.
While what Peter Benchley witnessed was not a direct result of his work, but as a result of the desire for shark fin soup and other delicacies, it changed his life. Along with the remarks that he would have never written the novel had he known better, he also dedicated the rest of his life to advocating for sharks, alongside his wife, Wendy Benchley, who is still involved in those efforts.
Of course, he would be horrified to know (and perhaps, is rolling in his grave right now) that Hollywood continues to pump out these movies every summer. To be fair, Spielberg's "Jaws" was the beginning of the summer blockbuster tradition and perhaps it is only fair to continue the tradition.
Perhaps being the keyword.
In the past few years, Hollywood has seen the release of movies such as "47 Meters Down," "The Shallows," and that's not even beginning to mention the hundreds of movies released prior to that and the hundreds that will be released after.
While "Jaws" is an incredibly important movie in the history of film, it also began the worrying trend of what can only be described as anti-shark propaganda, in a world where all marine life is beginning to plummet. These movies carry the stigma that waters can be "shark-infested" even though those waters are the home of these amazing creatures, and they make it seem as if every beachgoer is subject to getting gnawed on when they enter the water. Which is simply not true, based on statistics found by National Geographic, in the long-term scale of things, shark attacks are actually rather rare.
As mentioned in the Nat Geo article, more people die from starvation every year in the world than people die of shark attacks.
I understand that shark movies can be fun. The ocean is a certain type of horror not granted to us by many other things, and the fear of the ocean is a rather widespread one. I only wish to remind Hollywood of Peter Benchley's efforts, and that sharks have just as much of a right to swim through these waters as we do.
