whole discussion keeps bringing me back to recent conversations I've had with my 28 yr old niece, who now lives in SF, went to school in Boston, worked for Teach for America (which I really admire) and as much as I love her and admire her passion about things, you can see when having a conversation with her that she is constantly on the lookout for something to get indignant over. Like much of her generation.

This is so exactly that. Jennifer Lawrence is a movie star. She plays a super hero (actually I guess at times her character is a super villain). Super heroes don't really exist of course, but in fantasy land, they get beat up, and then generally whip whoever did the beating. Obviously some focus group, some ad exec, whatever, thought that scene on the side of the road was a good way to drum up interest in the movie. Powerful villian, oh lord, how will the hero ever get out of that pickle?! Often a theme when trying to generate cliffhangers to spur interest. And so that's what they went for, I'm sure never for a moment dreaming that this clearly cartoonish fantasy shot would be construed as displaying real world violence against women.

I mean, do we really need to whitewash our entire landscape to that extent? We can't even show women in trouble in fantasy action stills?

I for one certainly hope not.