To feel shocked about this on a comedy programme?

[girlfriend44]

Regarding Butterflies the comedy series written by Carla Lane in the late 70s.

It's on I player at the moment. I watched an episode and she was talking to herself loudly about being bored, and feeling taken for granted in her marriage
She expressed quite loudly that she wanted to be raped.

Should a woman ever write that into a script or was it more acceptable to say that back then?
I cannot imagine it in a script today.

I was raped in the 70s.
Not funny then, not funny now.
Rape isn’t comedy.

It was the 70,s lots of comedies deemed appropriate then wouldn't be shown now and rightly so
Little Britain in the early 00,s is highly inappropriate now and I can see why but it took thr piss out of everyone I have a very dark sense of humour and I'm the parent of a disabled child and used to be a mental health nurse and found it funny
But agree it wouldn't be appropriate to dhow now.

There's a scene in Peep Show where Mark is ill in bed with flu and Jeremy stands at the door looking at him and thinks 'Should I rape him'?

Yes agree, this was my point. It's never been funny.

Was the point that she was so miserable and fed up she actually thought rape might be 'a nice change?'

We know better now for sure but it was years ago, a different time altogether.

Oh dear lord. I never said it was.

I’m sorry for what you went through. I didn’t write the script! I was merely saying 40 years ago, some bright spark thought it was ok. We’ve learnt a lot in society since then.

Watching it now there's nothing comedic about Butterflies, it's desperately sad imo.

Modern family had a few bad jokes like that

I haven't seen it but I know my Mum used to watch it. She would also joke about "trying her luck" when people said about not walking home in the dark on her own when I was younger. But then I've also told her off in the last 5 years or so for saying my niece was "asking for it going out dressed like that". I genuinely have no idea where she got her attitude from as her parents weren't like it and we all pull her up on it

I think some of the younger posters on here have no idea about the objectification of women which continued well into the future past Bread and into the new millennium. It's only in the last 15 years or so that what used to be everyday stuff has become taboo.

@WLGYLMLAAG

Interesting, recently working with an African woman victim of DV, explained marital rape was illegal in the UK. She laughed out loud and said you English have funny laws.

I just look at comedies from the 70's and am thankful we're not here anymore.

Some of the stuff that comes up in shows that look back at the 70s are pretty eye opening.

It was shocking at the time and criticised.

Lots of things aren't funny eg rape, incest, child abuse, cancer, domestic violence, murder etc etc but it doesn't stop someone somewhere making a bad taste joke about it.

I watched Butterflies as a teenager in the 90's. I don't remember this scene but I was definitely affected by the programme. A pp mentioned gilded cage. Yes. It made me determined to always work and never be totally reliant on a man.

It is very melancholic. Plenty of sitcoms have copied the formula though. I always saw ‘My Family’ as a more lighthearted ‘Butterflies’; grumpy dentist dad (both called Ben), lazy kids, teenage single parent, mum who was terrible at cooking.

I agree, I always saw Rhea as a very sad unhappy character (who also moaned alot 😂).
I watched it with my mum because the oldest son was hot.

Follow up on the Daily Mail article from the end of June?

It was a drama written in a light hearted manner about a desperately unhappy middle class housewife. It is how many middle class housewife's felt, which is why it was so popular.

Hasn't rape always meant rape though?

As a pp said, rape carried on being a 'joke' far more recently than you think. I went to Uni in the late 2000s and lots of the 'lads' I knew would say things like 'oh I'd rape her' to mean 'I'd like to have sex with her but she wouldn't want to have sex with me'. It used to make so angry because I knew that one of their friends had actually been raped.

I bet they're all horrified now they used to speak like that. It was all the Russell Brand type culture.

I'm mortified that we all used to call things 'gay' in the 90s to mean lame or rubbish. I'm glad times have changed.

I've never seen the show, and from what you've said I agree it wouldn't be made now. Obviously rape isn't funny and shouldn't be a punchline.

This story, though, sounds like a poorly expressed wish to be overpowered by a handsome stranger and have actual satisfying sex for once, without having to take responsibility for cheating on her husband or having bad morals. This kind of rape fantasy thing isn't really about actual rape, is it

Well it was written during a time when well educated and intelligent women were expected to give up on any ambition, stay at home and raise a family. There was a lot of valium and gin addiction.

Isn’t it alluding to the fact that as a respectable married woman she can’t say she wants to be ravished by a man who’s not her husband? Rape would be less of a scandal than being promiscuous 🤷🏻‍♀️. I’m not saying I agree with that but maybe that’s what was behind the writing.

alternatively rape fantasy is a thing and supposedly some women take it seriously and go rape baiting and get raped.

YANBU OP but that was the 70’s 🤦‍♀️