HAA's Rape Storylines

[Anaya]

Shouldn't i use the word "attacked" or "forced upon"... how dare anyone say the word rape on HAA!

For a show that has shown a rape storyline so many times how stupid is it that they dont actually use the word ever! I think it actually trivialises the whole rape issue and to think that the show could actually use the storyline as a platform to highlight the rape issue... they could actually give a good insight to viewers about this whole issue. But by not even using the word they make the storyline less effective and also cause a whole lot of misunderstandings!

Victims of rape actually suffer in silence for years, some can be so embarassed, scared or just want to put the whole experience out of mind... and highlighting this issue properly on HAA could help these real life victims get the courage to speak up against their perpetrators or even just deal with the issue out in the open!

HAA has done this storyline so many times... with Carly, Chloe, Dani and recently with Rachel yet everytime they have not done full justice to the issue of Rape! Also what i find really annoying is that they nearly always show the rapist as remorseful... which i find nothing wrong with... but they always have to be people that have done something bad once and they really didn't mean to... it was just a bad phase in their lives!

Also Nearly always the rapist is shown to be misunderstood and nearly always it is a friend/relative of the rape victim that realises that the rapist is actually a good person... when they get trapped/lost with them during some sort of natural disaster... and during these couple of hours/days they suddenly realise what a great person the rapist is and fall in love with their friend/relatives "attacker"!

I just dont get what HAA is trying to show... i know it is a soap and therefore the storylines have to be highly dramatised to keep the viewer hooked... but wouldn't a viewer be interested to see how a rape victim deals with whats happened to them... like many who feel violated, shame, embarassment, discontentment with life or even to show them get justice for the crime by fighting a case against the actual rapist.

Instead they nearly always show more about the rapist's remorse, and even that is not handled correctly... firstly not all rapist's are remorseful and they will do it again and secondly if they are to be shown as remorseful... they are entitled to another chance but does it have to be right under the nose of the victim?! Can Henk/Kane/Jonah not have stayed away and started a new life without falling in love with someone so close to the person they raped?!

Also everytime they end up showing the rape victim as becoming obssessed with the rapist or unhinged or acting oddly... for which there is a reason... but you always end up becoming annoyed with the rape victim and after a while you just dont care about the whole damn thing!

Is it so hard for HAA to do justice to a rape storyline... like they have with other issues such as bullimia, OCD etc. where you felt for the character going through their issues and you actually were interested in their journey and how they overcame everything. Also at the same time they gave a great insight to these very real and sensitive issues.

Sorry about the rant... maybe i've got the issues... lol!

[Lilone]

I have only ever heard the word used once and that is when Peter said "date rape"

[Anaya]

Whoa they actually used the word! I remember him using it too when he talks about the date rape drug!

[Cal]

Moved to General Discussion

[Daisyap]

I actually mentioned this in the early years thread. I completely agree. It really annoys me when they don't use the word rape on tv, as if it's a bad word. It shouldn't be taboo in this day and age, its' disgusting actually.

I know it's a family show but like you said, women feel afraid to speak up about it and part of that is society making them feel like it's a dirty, taboo that shoulnd't be spoken about. Ugh, I'm so glad you made this thread, I agree 100%.

[Zetti]

I think HAA are shying away from the real issues that should be dealt with beacuse they are afraid of the critics 'views'. It is not their view that counts

[chatter box]

They wimp out on a lot of story lines. I was very disappointed with the way that Matilda's eating disorder has disappeared, even though they seemed to start off well. A few counselling sessions and she was cured. Miraculous! Rape is a complex issue, as is sexual abuse, they have baulked at doing these justice and this is such a shame.

I think sometimes it is because the young cast are not up to doing it, but it in the case of the eating disorder I think Indian could have pulled it off. Sharni could certainly have done justice to a more realistic story line about sexual abuse. Dani was never a convincing rape victim, Chloe was, and Carly was but to a lesser extent. For it to have impact, and to be done properly it needs to be given to someone who can run the gamut of emotions and wring every bit of pain and trauma out of it. It would not be comfortable viewing and thats what they seem to shy away from. The sham fantasy story lines like stalkers, chopper crashes and the like which owe their origin to the big US shows, are one step removed from reality so are less close to home. To do a story about rape, male rape, or sexual abuse, and to do it properly and to do it justice would be to take Home and Away well out of its current comfort zone and they seem afraid to do that. If they did summon up the courage to do it the only current cast who could pull it off and do it justice are Belle, Irene, Leah, Ric, Tony or Sally.

[Danifan]

The only unconvincing part of Dani's rape storyline was the fact the word 'rape' was never mentioned, apart from that the scenes were really convincing and Tammin played the part brilliantly. She really pulled off a range of emotions and because she was such a fiesty character the viewers could see how much it effected her afterwards. If they hadn't tried so hard to make Kane the victim in everything the storyline would have made a much bigger impact. But all in all i was very moved by Tammin's performance, it was easily one of her best.

Chloe's rape was good but they dragged it out so long before you found out who had done it that after a while it became a bit tedious. They were trying to turn the storyline into something much more sensational.

Tasha's rape was a weird one for me. I never really saw her as a victim of rape because the storyline didn't focus on the drug rape aspect for very long before Tasha had moved on and was happy again with Robbie and having their baby. She just got over it like it was nothing.

If the show featured another rape storyline i think they should stop showing the rapist as some poor unfortunate who just got the wrong idea but deep down is a good person, why can't they just be evil and cruel, why do they always have to have a sob story for an excuse.

Out of the actors on the show at the moment i think Indiana Evans and Ada Nicodemou would be able to pull off this storyline really well as they are probably the two strongest actresses on the show at the moment yet are the most underused in terms of big dramatic storylines where all the focus is on them. They'd be able to do a rape storyline justice.

[ter06]

I think H&A shouldn't do rape storylines as they always mess it up and the viewer feels cheated. It is on at 7pm and has a PG rating so I cant see why they don't just say the word. How many murders has there been on H&A, how many times have we seen guns, knifes etc yet they continue to shield us from that all so terribe word.

I remember when Dani was raped it took me ages to figure out what had actually happened and I have friends to this day who still dont believe she was raped! Chloe's rape was probably the best dealt with as in Kristy was a good actress, we knew it had happened and the fact that it was Brad who raped her made it gripping. He was an out and out baddie! I think I just laughed when Tasha got raped.

[emmasi]

I really have to disagree about Tasha. Even though she put herself in a bad situation by staying with the Believers, she genuinely believed that they were good, honest people and that she could trust them to take care of her. Her only crime was being naive. I don't think she "got over it like it was nothing" at all. She didn't know that she'd been raped until she found out that she was pregnant with a child that couldn't have been Robbie's. The baby WAS the story, and her resulting depression and irratic behavior lingered on for a long time. She even tried to kill Josh for god's sake! I think the effects were more than dealt with there, both by Tasha and Robbie, whose lives were completely changed. Even if they could forgive Jonah for what he did, and the horrific circumstances in which he did it, they'd still be in the difficult situation of raising a child that they didn't plan for, and that isn't biologically related to the father (Robbie). It was a massive story, and that one, along with Cassie's abuse from her uncle, were both handled really well, I thought.

I didn't see Dani's rape storyline, I only saw Kane's return, and I already hated Dani by that stage so I was more willing to side with Kane. Not that he was right to rape her... obviously... but that there would have been unfortunate circumstances, like with Jonah. I sitll don't know the full story there at all - I don't even know if he DID rape her - all I know is that I loved Kane as a character, and hate Dani, so... it's hard to care about Dani one way or the other, and hard not to believe that Kane wasn't the typical misoginist bad guy that might go about attacking women for fun.

I think it's dangerous to assume that people who do bad things are automatically bad people. Some of them are, some can't be reasoned with. They do what they do because they like it and have no intention of changing. But then you get a character like Henk, who WAS like that to a degree, and when he saw where that path lead, he wanted to change and save himself as well as any more potential victims. It's TV. It's there to explore the deeper emotions that people in the real world won't discuss in day to day life, but are there none the less. If they were portraying rapists with no other motive than sexual gratification, how boring would that be? You'd turn your nose up at them and call them cartoon villains. I would anyway... The thing with fictional characters is, you're allowed to feel sorry for them when they do the wrong thing, because there aren't any *real* victims to focus on... it's all hypothetical. I mean, the actors portraying these so called evil and cruel people... they have to find a place in themselves where that person exists, and be able to bring it out convincingly, and for that to happen, these nice normal people have to get in touch with something dark and disturbing that resides in almost everyone. You may not have ever wanted to rape someone, but you've probably been mad enough to want to kill them, or hurt them in some other way... You don't do that, because you have other factors grounding you, but some people don't. They just get caught up in that one emotion of hatred or control or loss of control... and they lose any will to fight off the darkness in them, and that's when good people do bad things. I don't mind that shows like Home and Away are exploring that side of things, because in the real world you only ever hear the story from the victim's perspective, which is of course important and completely valid, but it's not the only perspective, and I think it's good that fiction gives us the opportunity to see it from all concievable angles, and to realise that just because something seems like a good idea at the time, doesn't mean you won't regret doing it later. It'd educational, really, just not in a way that most people like to think about.