Is TV violence against women on the rise?

This article in the Denver Post by TV critic Joanne Ostrow, says "Yes".

An excerpt:

Much of the anti-women violence this season came in network pilots, which are used to sell a series to network executives and advertisers, and to hook viewers on a show.

The shows launched with a burst of violence against women at the hands of aliens, supernatural forces or more common human criminals. The trend was unmistakable. Women were abducted in a car, duct- taped and tortured in a cage ("Criminal Minds" on CBS); yanked from the shower to have a fetus torn from her womb (the now canceled "NightStalker" on ABC); and attacked by spiders unleashed by an assailant who then rapes and kills her ("Killer Instinct" on Fox). One woman spontaneously combusted while pinned to the ceiling of her baby's room by unknown forces ("Supernatural" on the WB).

"Exploiting the damsel in distress as a marketing tool - it's worked since Fay Wray (in 1933's "King Kong")," said Matthew Felling of the Center for Media and Public Affairs in Washington, D.C.

Exploiting women as a marketing tool may be effective, but it is a sad commentary on our society.