Too many rape victims?

[alreetlike]

You know what would be a leap off faith, well maybe. Having a male raped on the show... like I know Aden has been abused as a child, but actually show that their are some people (woman even) who rape men, and show that some men are sensitive then we think and woman can be very domaint and controlling when it comes to relationships and sex.

See now this would be something more original. Now get it submitted to the writers!

[missiegold]

Lilly-G makes a very good point. Would make some very emotionally charged storylines (and have the media talking H&A loves publicity )

one thing that annoys me is how quickly victims forget/get over their abuse/rape. its almost forgotten about after a few weeks. in contrast Eastenders had a child abuse storyline months ago and we still see how she often misinterprets characters' intentions and can be easily manipulated by a seemingly kindly individual. There is a whole cause/effect thing where audience can understand why she believed her stepfather loved her and we can see that how although the storyline has passesd she is still affected by it. Unlike summer bay where victims memories are very short.

The Joey/Rape/Charlie storyline happened far too fast. Should have been played out over many weeks, even months - I cant imagine a rape victim falling for anybody that quickly. They could have played it as Joey being infatuated by Charlie (who would have a caring/ protective role) but have them both fall in love almost immediately and have her Joey then written out straight away made me loose all belief in what could have been one of the best plots ever. Feels like that plot is unfinished.

Also Aden seems to have made a full "recovery" from his abuse storyline. from being incapable of making love to his girlfriend whom he trusted implicitly to having sex with Nicole and

some random girl after Bell's death

issues like that surely dont just vanish. Granted Adens' understanding towards Joey was well played initially but once she hooked up with Charlie the scenes with them pretty much ended.

Basically i think that thare have not been too many rape storylines as they have been over 20 years but I think they shouldn't be forgotten about. The character's reactions months later is a big area that H&A need to work on. i am glad they use the word Rape now though as teh term "attack" made it more ambiguous and IMO desensitised viewers to the reality of what had happened.

[darkangel20]

The show has been on forever so its not surprising there has been a number of rape stories and it is sadly a common occurance nowadays. Although its supposed to be a small town but many of the characters come from elsewhere and brought their pasts with them so its not like many people in the same area being raped in the Bay. Although for a beautiful little town it seems to have a lot of murder and rapes, one would be afraid to live in it if it were real lol.

Each rape story has been done differently and each time they seem to do better than the last. The latest being Charlie's storyline because they risked using the word rape multiple times and made it clear he was a rapist instead of it being a grey area of a confused individual who was reformed. I am just hoping they continue to explore Charlie getting over this for a while and continue with the struggle to get back to where her and Ruby were before.

I am loving the Charlie/Ruby stuff and I think they are doing great with it but they had Melody almost raped, Joey raped and then choose to reveal Charlie was raped in a short period which tends to lessen the shock of the storylines for some viewers. But again they handled each of them differently and the characters have reacted differently so I am not complaining. If it helps them actually get it right and show the traumatising effect rape has then I am all for them to keep trying.

And they aren't shying away from rape stories unlike some soaps. And it helps make rape less shameful and have victims open up, when its widely talked about and seen on TV.

[Red Ranger 1]

Let's face it, less than two years we've had Rachel revealing she was raped, Aden revealing he was abused, Melody nearly being raped, Larry revealing he was abused, Joey being raped(with a past victim turning up for good measure)and now

Charlie revealing she was raped

.It's in danger of being less "Oh, that's terrible" and more "Oh, you too, huh?"Even the characters don't seem bothered half the time with Cassie, a former abuse victim, shrugging off the fact her new boyfriend was a rapist in a matter of hours being the worst example.

If you're talking near misses, then depending how far you want to stretch it it's hard to find a woman in town who wasn't in danger of being raped at one time or another, Martha and the fat bloke at the club being the most obvious instance.

[adellejefferiesxox]

QUOTE (Lily-G @ Sep 3 2009, 11:33 AM)

You know what would be a leap off faith, well maybe. Having a male raped on the show... like I know Aden has been abused as a child, but actually show that their are some people (woman even) who rape men, and show that some men are sensitive then we think and woman can be very domaint and controlling when it comes to relationships and sex.

See now this would be something more original. Now get it submitted to the writers!

YAY, people liked my idea I would really like to see this happen for real, thoughl. Once I was listening to the radio and guys were ringing up saying how woman can be very domiant and controlling in the relationship. Some of the guys sounded very sensitive and vulnerable guys (not that there's anything wrong with that! I like a man who can cry and don't be afaird to show his emotions). It was just nice to have the radio show talking about these issues because it's so sterotypical thinking only woman get raped/abused. Men rape men, Men rape woman, Woman rape men. It's a fact of life

[vixstar131]

...and Joey. But no. Not at all. These attacks have happened over a twenty-year span and all occurred in different contexts. They all had something different and told different stories.

yeh i agree with this, they happened over a period of time, and these kind of stuff does happen in real life so i guess soaps just try to portray things that may happen in day to day life. So to some extent a positve outcome is achieved because it shows ways to deal with it, and courage can prevail all and people can get through it!

[Georgia]

Let's face it, less than two years we've had Rachel revealing she was raped, Aden revealing he was abused, Melody nearly being raped, Larry revealing he was abused, Joey being raped(with a past victim turning up for good measure)and now

Charlie revealing she was raped

.It's in danger of being less "Oh, that's terrible" and more "Oh, you too, huh?"Even the characters don't seem bothered half the time with Cassie, a former abuse victim, shrugging off the fact her new boyfriend was a rapist in a matter of hours being the worst example.

If you're talking near misses, then depending how far you want to stretch it it's hard to find a woman in town who wasn't in danger of being raped at one time or another, Martha and the fat bloke at the club being the most obvious instance.

I agree with you there. I understand that a lot of people get raped, and it's an aweful issue but I think if soaps (in general, not just targeting H&A) keep rape as a common storyline, and then dropping it really quickly, people aren't going to take it as seriously.

I don't mind the rape storylines, because they are always acted out amazingly, with pure emotion, but I think it would be interesting to see it played out for a longer period of time.

It would be more realistic if the character's who were raped had long lasting effects. One thing I found really strange was that Kane attacked Kirsty's sister, and Kane and Kirsty still got married. If someone hurt my sister, I would never be able to be with them. Did anyone else find that strange ?

[Baja]

Yes, I always found the Kirsty/Kane relationship very strange. I know that Kane had his own problems, but that doesn't excuse what he did to Danni and you would expect Danni's sister to be expecially unforgiving. I can't imagine wanting to marry a man who had raped anyone, let alone my own sister.

Actually Danni recovery from rape did seem to be one of the more realistically protrayed ones, as I seem to remember her still being effected by it for a long time. I remember being particularly angry at Kane when he said that she should be over it by now and someone (was it Flynn?) saying that she would never be over it.

[oscartg]

Far too many rape storyline and they aren't even done particularly well. They have done it so often that I just tune out because you know that the rapists aren't going to be punished, so what's the point.

[richleamington]

As someone has mentioned lots of things happen on H&A more than in real life. Its just perhaps they shouldn't make sexual abuse/rape one of them as it does make it seem less serious.

Someone else mentioned that there are a lot of people in the show who had kids as teens i.e. Amanda Vale, Roman Harris. For me the reason is obvious, more eye candy. Someone of my age (24, and I guess other ages aswell) can fancy both Belle and Amanda. If I was bi I guess I could also fancy Nicole and Roman. Less older characters mean more eye candy of different ages and more viewers.