Specifically, teenage girls.

I'm posting this scene, because I can't find the one I want. The one I want has no violence, and yet, I find it far more disturbing than this scene, in which two kids get brutally beaten and executed. But you can watch that, just for context.

The scene I wanted you to see actually follows this one. After killing the kids, Cy takes Joanie up on the balcony of the whorehouse over the street, and explains to her the way of the world. Basically completely crushes any remaining illusions she might have had.

See, there's a common theme in a lot of media targeted at girls, the "I can fix him" plot. Or what tvtropes.org calls All Girls Want Bad Boys.

The "bad boy" targets the strongest womanly instincts: the stoic, silent guy is a mystery waiting to be solved; the Troubled But Cute youth with a tragic past is a woobie needing comfort; he's tough enough to be a girl's protector, but vulnerable enough to need her to redeem him as well. Add to that the fact that Evil Is Cool and Good Is Dumb, and the Anti-Hero ranks as Bachelor of the Month - even more often than he ranks Ensemble Darkhorse.

All this, of course, glosses over the fact that bad boys are bad, meaning dangerous, not good as friends, probably not too mentally stable, potentially abusive/physically violent, and/or more interested in the physical (read:sexual) aspect of a relationship than anything else. He's also probably not going to be that concerned with fidelity, either. So what if he can't be trusted? It's an honor for girls in media to be chosen by him, to walk into prom night with him on her arm, to ride on the back of his motorcycle with her arms around his waist, to stick her tongue out at the Alpha Bitch from the passenger's seat of his stolen convertible. Depending on the nature of the Bad Boy and whether he's redeemed (or even redeemable) or not, use of this trope may give cause for the viewer to question the character's sense or intelligence, particularly if it's immediately obvious to everyone from the outset of the relationship that the man is a thoroughly nasty piece of work. Don't count on Reformed Rakes.

Which is closely related to I Can Change My Beloved

Alice, a Love Martyr, has a Love Interest who is destructive, or merely "wrong" in some way subjective to the character. Nope, Bob certainly isn't the perfect match, but never fear! Her love will send him through a metamorphosis that will remake him into her perfect man. Or so she thinks. Of course, it rarely works out.

It is no coincidence that Buffy has the single largest section in the "Live TV" section of the former. It even goes on to say, "Buffy is pretty much an extreme case of this trope."

Interestingly, the younger the women, the more prevalent this trope will be. More mature, wiser women (meaning 35 and older) seem to be much more Genre Savvy, thus much less receptive to "bad boy" vibes (or, at the very least, have learnt their lesson through painful experience), although there are always exceptions.

Painful experience, indeed. Because this is not just a fictional device. This belief, adopted as a model by real young women, is possibly the single most destructive force at work among the American female population. By the time they unlearn it, many have been abused and abandoned. Often placed in dire financial straits as a single mother with a couple of kids. (Being or having a single parent is the best predictor of poverty.) And that's if they're lucky. If a woman's going to be the victim of a murder... it was usually their partner that killed them. The bad boy they undoubtedly thought they were going to reform.

This is why I would rather show an impressionable kid Cy Tolliver in all his uncensored, HBO brutality than an age-appropriate network show like Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Because in the real world, the bad guys are like that. Not like the Angels and Spikes on TV who can be redeemed by the love of a good woman.

And the sooner they learn this, the better. If it traumatizes them, good. I'd rather have them learn this truth from a flickering screen than from the fists of a real live man.