Interesting article on rape on TV shows

[CanadianJohn]

Readers of this forum might be interested in this article by a TV scriptwriter.

www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/television/how-has-rape-become-such-a-common-trope-of-television-drama/article31931181/

Some of the comments are interesting too.

Thanks - a very interesting read indeed.

Thanks - that's fascinating

I couldn't see the comments?

The 'why is this character female / gay / disabled' and not 'normal' is such a bloody typical question (and thought process) isn't it

The 'why is this character female / gay / disabled' and not 'normal' is such a bloody typical question (and thought process) isn't it

Especially considering that women are 50% of the fucking population. (Or actually even more than that in some places) One would think men would've noticed that by now.

There is a link to the comments at the top of the article, and also at the bottom. The exact url is www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/television/how-has-rape-become-such-a-common-trope-of-television-drama/article31931181/comments/

I thought this comment was interesting:

"It would be interesting to compare the incidence of rape on television with the incidence of murder. My guess is that both have gone up in recent years, owing to the need to keep a jaded and easily distracted audience glued to the TV with high stakes.

I've also noted a trend in TV that villains need to be absolutely monstrous, again, to appeal to a jaded audience that wants everything cranked up to 11 - the brutality of the crimes, the evil of villain, etc. Rape is a lazy but effective way to crank up hatred for a villain because of how awful rape is, not because we have a culture of tolerating rape."

I'm sure the incidence of murder has gone up- all those serial killer crime series. Rape, I'm not sure about.

I've never seen Game of Thrones. I'm a bit unsure generally of the ethics and morality of crime as entertainment (other than Agatha Christie/Midsomer Murders type crime, neither of which ever have rape or sexual crimes)

That looks like it will be an interesting read

On the subject of GoT, I'm watching it now and rape is mentioned a lot. However, I'm a few series in and rape is always a terrible thing - it's never justified because of a woman leading anyone on, it's frequently used as a weapon of war, and one character has refused to 'rape' his wife after they had an arranged marriage. I use inverted commas because rape in marriage has only recently been recognised so the idea that a man would respect his wife's bodily autonomy is pretty modern. Men have also been threatened with rape.

Naked women are used decoratively throughout, in a way that men are not. But rape isn't really used as entertainment in my opinion. Happy to have people disagree, though - I'd have to think about it more deeply!

If that comment were true there'd be a lot more rape of men too, though

Re "sexy clothes" one comment did say, "Sounds like real life. Females tend to be dressed far more provocatively than males." And who can deny it?

So, "if we defined boxer-revealing saggy jeans as sexy? Or a bare torso on a summer day?" Well yes, IF, but we don't. Revealing the male body isn't a matter for much comment, unless someone's going to point out that the man is making himself ridiculous. Somehow "sexy attire" is totally reserved for women in our society, on TV as on the street.