Hollyoaks: Dismissive treatment of Rape

[JoBardsley]

On 18 July Hollyoaks showed the attempted rape of a woman. She was rescued and her rescuer asked if she wanted to go to the police. She replied that it was her fault and the incident was not discussed further. I complained to Channel 4 about the dismissive treatment of rape and the bad example shown. This is the response I got..

?We appreciate your concerns regarding the inclusion of the attempted rape scenes.

HOLLYOAKS is a youth programme that deals with issues young people encounter on a day-to-day basis. Research has shown that these subject matters are very real issues for the HOLLYOAKS audience and has also identified that the depiction of such storylines can help individuals to cope with their own situation, by realising that other people go through similar experiences.

I would like to assure you that every effort is made to ensure that HOLLYOAKS gives an accurate depiction of these youth issues, in a responsible way. Accordingly, the HOLLYOAKS production team heavily research all storylines before they are portrayed on screen.?

If young people to cope with attempted rape in the same way they have seen in Hollyoaks, they will blame themselves for attempted rape and refuse to report it to the police. This will place them at risk both physically and mentally.

If you are as disgusted about this as I am, please lodge a complaint on the Channel 4 website. The date was 18 July.

[BertieBotts]

Hollyoaks have appalling history with rape storylines. They did one where the viewers acted as a jury to determine whether a character should get convicted, or not.

[JoBardsley]

Wow, I had not heard that. I was only watching because my partner is addicted. Now I am not so surprised by the brush off they gave me. How is this ok with OFCOM?

[carernotasaint]

I saw this too (i started watching HO again over the last month mainly cos theyve revived the Silas storyline) what worried me is that the character who was the victim of the attempted rape didnt want to report it because (in the characters words) it was "her" fault for going to the party and going off with him on her own. The sunliminal messages given out by this is that it is the females fault. I sat there open mouthed at the scene and what was said. Chilling.

[MissPricklePants]

I saw it and was utterly disgusted, will email c4 now and complain!

[carernotasaint]

Subliminal i meant. Sorry.

[allthegoodnamesweretaken]

Just emailed offcom and OH pointed out that it would be more effective to email offcom, so emailing them too.

[allthegoodnamesweretaken]

ofcom

[mamadiva]

I didn't see it but can't comment.

Fwiw I know the viewer jury was set up to show how 'facts' can be given in court but are not necessarily what happened. The viewers didn't see the rape and the characters spoke about it in order for each person to make up their mind.

The 'rapist' Gilly was found not guilty by the jury and the victim Jackie was later found to have lied to some extent i.e she did consent but withdrew consent during sex which Gilly seemed unaware of.

Although recently on a Scottish soap 'rive city' a.gay man was ambushed by 2 men who lured him into the woods leaving him badly beaten, he was convinced to report the crime which he didn't want to do only for it to go to trial where he was made out to be a whore for coming onto these men and using dating websites and the men fir if with it anyway... What is that showing the public?

[mamadiva]

Got away with not fir if.

[HmmThinkingAboutIt]

I saw the episode.

My feeling is that it is part of an on going story line about Maddie's life falling apart and her not being in control and that everything is her fault and is trying to cover up everything thats going on to her friends as much as possible. She blames her parents break up on herself too. She made it very clear to the guy that having accepted drinks did not mean she owed him anything - something that in the past I think might have been handled differently. She was then rescued by Esther who she has long had an issue with as she is still at school and so she looks down her nose at. Esther hasn't told anyone else what happened and has continued to be bullied.

So whilst, I think it wasn't handled well, I do think its part of a bigger story and that it needs to be seen in this context too. I do feel that the incident will come back into the storyline as an important one - I'm not totally convinced its all done and dusted completely yet.

As for the Gilly incident. The jury decision was one thing, but how the story later evolved was interesting and shouldn't be ignored. Credit should be given to Hollyoaks for how they resolved it. Trouble is, this wasn't given the same publicity as the trial was.

There was an episode where Gilly and Jackie confront each other about it and discuss it, and eventually Gilly admits what he did crossed the line and that Jackie did not say No but equally she did not say Yes either. He left Hollyoaks afterwards. Jackie didn't get her justice, but she was shown that she was right and he was wrong and that the justice system isn't supporting women like Jackie and that men need to think more about 'Yes' meaning 'Yes'.

Perhaps its not the message you want out there, as it could put women off reporting rape, but I'm not sure you can criticise Hollyoaks too heavily for it given it was a good reflection of reality and that Gilly is eventually shown to be the bad guy and is forced to admit that despite the fact he initially felt he was innocent that he wasn't.

I wouldn't want something like Hollyoaks to always be about giving the morally right story. Its power is in showing the bad side of things in a natural way, warts and all rather than always doing the right thing. I think its a tricky balancing act and that it depends on what angle of the story is the main plot line.

In this case, the plot line is about Maddie's struggle with her parents divorce, and how she isn't coping with all these other things that are being thrown at her in the process of her life falling apart. She is being dismissive of how much everything is affecting her, not just that incident. It would be out of character given what she's going through to act differently.

It might be giving out the wrong message, but does Hollyoaks have to have this social responsibility in every single story it runs? You wouldn't be able to show a realistic spiral of decline which is the way the story is heading, and you wouldn't be able to get to deeper issues as a result.

Looking at the incident in isolation, I DO think Hollyoaks could have handled it better. It should have been thought about with more consideration. But in the wider context of the storyline, I don't think Ofcom will do anything and I think the defence that Hollyoaks will always have is pretty much the above and in the context of Maddie's other issues and honestly, I think its probably fairly reflective of what would happen in reality.

[JoBardsley]

I agree that the attempted rape was clearly a plot device to bring the two women together; it prompted their relationship to move on. However, it is the fact that it was just a plot device that made it so irresponsible. I think that where sensitive issues such as rape are shown they should be framed carefully. This wasn't. It was a throwaway moment, the real point being the relationship.

I disagree that the refusal to report the rape was shown as a part of a string of poor choices. I think that the way she placed herself at risk was one of the poor choices, but again, this places the blame for rape on the victim rather than the man who thought he was entitled to sex, consenual or otherwise. If the refusal to report was the poor choice, there would have been more discussion about it.

I also think that both the treatment of the rape and the dismissive response from Channel 4 are symptoms of the same problem; a refusal to take rape seriously.