Nonspecific TV Show Commentary (trigger warning for rape)

[donutsweeper]

In a recent episode of a current TV show our group of valiant heroes came up against a woman with the power to control people (men in particular). They were warned that it was impossible to resist and the BIGBAD would force them to do her bidding.

So, of course, HEROGUY falls under her spell. He is forced to turn on his teammates and do as she commands (they've made it clear that people under her control are aware of their actions but unable to resist) and they spend the night together. We see them kissing and then later the team (including HEROGUY's current no-strings-attached lover) sees a bed that has obvious been used.

There has been no mention anywhere I've seen that THIS IS RAPE. He wasn't capable of consent, he could not say no. The show not only didn't deal with that aspect of it, but they actually had him apologizing to the lover character only to be punched HARD IN THE FACE.

In fact, the only comments and posts I've seen are in favor of the lover character's actions and cheering her for hitting him, if not suggesting she should have done more. (Well, that and a shipwar that's apparently blowup as a result of a random comment made by the BIGBAD character, but that's neither here nor there.)

I am just so disappointed and annoyed by that reaction. Is it because the non-consenting party in this case was male? Does that make him any less violated?

Bah.

The show was Agents of SHIELD, ep 1x15 btw, if you want to make sure you skip it

Comments

[kinkthatwinked.livejournal.com]

Fucked up, isn't it?

This reminds me of an episode of Law & Order: SVU, where a male stripper was raped by his customers at a bachelorette party. There was a scene where it had to be explained to someone (and the viewing audience) that a man's penis can become erect without him being horny. In other words, the women should have listened to his struggling and yelling "NO!" instead of watching his dick get hard under their hands and assuming that meant "yes."

It is scary how the vast majority of people so thoroughly misunderstand the concept of rape.

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

It's *awful*. These kinds of shows and situations can be used as a lesson, but instead they're laughed at or ignored or dismissed. Ugh, rape culture is so prevalent, it makes me sad.

I don't watch L&O:SVU but it sounds like it attempted to teach people there, good for them!

[awanderingbard.livejournal.com]

I haven't watched S.H.I.E.LD since about episode five or six, I think. I lost interest. So I haven't seen this episode, either, but it reminds me of a character on Once Upon a Time who was in a relationship with the Evil Queen character, because she had his heart (literally) and was therefore able to control him.

I have to confess that it never registered as rape to me (it registered as 'not cool to be doing anything against one's will', but the rape aspect did not occur to me as a specific part of it). Also we only find out that he's not working under his own will just before he's very unexpectedly killed off, so the reaction was more 'holy shit, that just happened'. It wasn't until much later when I was reading something and it was mentioned that I realized how much it was just not dealt with at all. In fact, when questioned, the writers have mostly brushed it off. Now, I'm more aware of this...'trope' for lack of better word for it. I think sometimes I get lost in the plot and don't pick up on as much as I should.

I also think that 'dubious consent' doesn't get the same level of treatment as 'non-consent'. There seems to be some idea that 'unable to give consent' is not the same as 'actively not giving consent', which is totally is.

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

Oh, I actually watched that episode of OUAT- I only saw two episode, that one and the one before but that bit made me turn it off and decide to never watch it again. You're right though, it wasn't really played as rape and I only sort of registered it as such. (My understanding is that the "evil" character has been redeemed now? Somewhat? I don't think I'd ever be able to think of her without thinking about what she did to that guy)

There seems to be some idea that 'unable to give consent' is not the same as 'actively not giving consent', which is totally is.
Yes, THIS. I'm of the mind that rape is rape. If one party did not say 'yes' then the other needs to stop until they do.

In this case in SHIELD, wherein it was made clear he was under mindcontrol and forced to do what she wished, it was obviously rape. It saddens me that so much of fandom, let alone society, doesn't see that.

[awanderingbard.livejournal.com]

(My understanding is that the "evil" character has been redeemed now? Somewhat? I don't think I'd ever be able to think of her without thinking about what she did to that guy)

Redeemed is too strong a term, I think. 'Working with the good people and trying to be better' would be a more appropriate way to put it.

It's sad, because otherwise it's a very good show, and it has a lot of really strong, capable, complex female characters. It needs more POC representation, and there's only been one LGBT character, which was really only hinted at, but the plotlines are clever, and the themes of love and family and hope are really nice. It's a shame it went wrong there.

Yes, THIS. I'm of the mind that rape is rape. If one party did not say 'yes' then the other needs to stop until they do.

I remember reading a really great post on tumblr about this, where she wrote three different versions of a scene, one with consent, one with dubious consent, and one with non-consent. She wanted people to be able to warn for triggers more appropriately, because she felt that dubcon was not being tagged as well as it should be. Basically any time someone is mentally impaired, for whatever reason, it is a situation where consent is dubious, even if it is given.

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

I couldn't get into OUAT, but I'm glad it's fairly good overall, but yeah, too bad about it having yet not dealing with the Graham situation.

Oh, that sounds like a good post!

Things should definitely be tagged better. Heck, things should be *taught* better as well *sighs*

[awanderingbard.livejournal.com]

I couldn't get into OUAT, but I'm glad it's fairly good overall, but yeah, too bad about it having yet not dealing with the Graham situation.

Yeah, to each his own. It's cool that you couldn't get into it. I like it because it's a very positive show, and I need a bit of lightness in my week, where there's hope and love conquers everything.


Things should definitely be tagged better. Heck, things should be *taught* better as well *sighs

I learn a lot following you on tumblr, actually. You always have posts that point out things that I didn't notice before.

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

Oh, I am so glad to hear that. Tumblr is a great medium in a lot of ways when used properly, and I reblog a lot of things I find interesting, but it's good to know other folks find some of it interesting too!

[awanderingbard.livejournal.com]

I was lucky to grow up in a house where I was never taught any prejudice of any sort, and I think I'm not as aware of its existence as I should be. So, I don't like learning about it, necessary, because I wish it didn't exist, but I think it's good that I'm aware of it as a member of the human race.

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

There's a lot I hadn't really seen either. Being made aware is a GOOD thing.

I did like the article thinkprogress.org did about last night's SHIELD episode and consent, which I found after I posted this, but oh MY the comments on it. Sometimes society not only disappoints, but scares, me.

[awanderingbard.livejournal.com]

I saw and read that article, and it was really good, but totally agreed about the comments. Holy crap. I do think some of it is people being asses for the sake of it. And I absolutely understand the desire to defend something you love when it does something wrong, and some of them might be coming from that point of view. But an LJ friend of mine have discussed how you can be a fan of something and love something, but not love all parts of it, and that doesn't change that you're a fan or that you love it.

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

Yeah, definitely a few folks were trolling (I hope, anyway).

...you can be a fan of something and love something, but not love all parts of it, and that doesn't change that you're a fan or that you love it.

That's very true. There are a lot of shows that fit that category for me.

[moriann.livejournal.com]

I honestly didn't notice that scene at first. When something like that happens on the screen I tend to immediately dissociate, and so if it's short and someone doesn't bring my attention to it, I just don't realise how fucked up the narrative is becoming.

But this episode was so terrible on so many levels: not just the non-con, but also the fridged girlfriend, not acknowledging the fucked-upness of the Asgardian legal system (in fact, playing it off like something good), the shadyness of SHIELD once again shown but swept under the rug.

Tbh, all of Lorelei's actions felt like an attempt at the Asgardian equivalent of suicide by cop.

At this point, I no longer have much faith in this show, because it's clear this version of SHIELD has become a dystopian nightmare a long time ago -- they just have great propaganda, and the narrators are unreliable enough that some people still haven't realised it. All I hope for is that in Cap 2 all this gets acknowledged rather than ignored, because I honestly can't imagine Steve Rogers would keep working for this kind of outfit.

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

The episode *was* really bad overall. In general the plots have been awful and nonsensical.

I am REALLY curious how things play out in Cap2 and if it is reflected in the show. Although the movie originally had a May release day and it was just changed to April a few months ago so I don't know if the timeline of the show can reflect that.

[haldane.livejournal.com]

I left AoS ages ago, over very similar concerns. You make me even more glad I took that decision, and have been "side-watching" (other people in the family watch it, and I happen to be in the same room) The Originals and re-watching 'Allo 'Allo instead.

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

I've quit and come back to AoS twice. I kind of wound up continuing with that rubbernecking the trainwreck kind of mindset of late, if you know what I mean. I might watch the next episode when it comes back (it's taking a few weeks off) but I don't know. It's just so BAD, you were smart to quit.

[flamebyrd]

Wow, thank you for the warning - I may have to skip that one.

Oh, but how ironic that you have a situation where a woman actually is responsible for a man's interest in her*, but the narrative ignores that and punishes him for it.

* vs rape culture's idea that women shouldn't wear "provocative" clothing because men just can't help their reactions

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

It's disappointing because this episode was being touted as the huge SIF EPISODE OF AWESOMENESS and there was a cameo with someone else and then *this* happened.

It really was ironic in that sense.

Really disappointing too because there could have been an interesting discussion about consent but it was all completely ignored.

I did find an article by thinkprogress.org about this, but the comments on it were *disgusting*, although there were a couple of good points, mentioning that so many people didn't see it as rape or didn't realize it could be thought that way until it was pointed it because of a problem our society as a whole has with consent and what it really means.

[flamebyrd]

Oh no, I'm a few episodes behind but I knew there was a Sif episode coming up and I was looking forward to it. :(

I think on the whole the media (and by extension society?) is very irrational about the "cheating" narrative - consent is irrelevant, monogamy is completely inflexible.

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

Sorry! If you want you could watch the beginning of the episode to see some of the Sif bits, but then skip the awfulness? Or if you choose to skip get a plot summary?

Yeah, society has horrid ideas about acceptable sexual behavior and how it fits into the overly prevalent rape culture.

[ericadawn16.livejournal.com]

May could have been a lot nicer but I think she had own shit mixed in with it.

The others definitely could have been more supportive since while they didn't recognize the rape, Coulson told Skye to be angry that they had given her the alien blood without her consent. He was able to recognize the evil of being violated in one way but not the other.

However...sadly...I kind of felt like they all just accepted that rape happens sometimes?
As much as we try to ignore it, SHIELD is a basically a military institution and the military has some of the highest male rape. More males are raped in the military than females even though females are given more press.

http://www.examiner.com/article/most-rape-victims-the-u-s-military-are-men

(hugs)

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

Considering how many more men than women there are in the military, that makes sense and it's really indicative of the rape culture so commonplace in the world today.

I just wish the show had taken this opportunity to use the incident to bring the issue to light a little instead of ignoring it and not addressing it at all.

[geekslave.livejournal.com]

I stopped watching AOS a while ago, but I never totally gave up on the idea of picking it up again someday, but that really sucks that they did that. It reminds me of a storyline a few years ago on a soap I watch. A male character was forced by this woman to sleep with her in order to save his wife's life. She was kidnapped and would literally killed at any moment if he didn't do it, so he slept with the woman. When the wife found out about it she went ballistic and accused him of cheating (irony being that she had cheated on him before and after this happened.) The word rape is only mentioned a couple of times, once by the husband to defend himself, which the wife finds ridiculous. She even goes so far as to describe the situation to her male best friend and when she mentions that her husband says it was rape, they both laugh.

It is very disturbing how dubious consent stuff gets brushed off, especially when a male has been raped.

Stacey

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

I haven't watched any soap in ages, but sadly that doesn't sound like a ridiculously unusual storyline, I remember a similar one from the 80s along those lines.

I just wish shows took the opportunity to address and inform people instead of just adding to the prevalent rape culture that already exists.