Too many rape victims?

[gazzalovesu]

But if a guy does get raped we will not see it we dont even see guys kiss on this show

But maybe they will take a risk?

[richleamington]

You don't necessarily have to see anything for it to happen. I can remember when Dani Sutherland was a victim you didn't see anything happen hardly (for obvious reasons), I don't think Kane even kissed her. In fact I didn't even know she had been raped until a fews days later as they just said she had been 'attacked'.

[Oipoodle]

Have you noticed though, as soon as the women have tried to fight back the rapist suddenly becomes the good guy and the victim is the badie.

I know I hate that, the rapist is a good guy who went through a rough time and the victim has to just get over it, how is that at all based on reality or a good thing to show on tv? I'm just hoping that they don't do the same thing with Charlie or I'll stop watching. I also never understood Kirsty/Kane or Henk/Cassie I thought it was revolting. I agree that a male rape could be powerful, or maybe somebody innocent getting accused of rape and the whole town turning agaisnt them.

[jodlebirger]

Have you noticed though, as soon as the women have tried to fight back the rapist suddenly becomes the good guy and the victim is the badie.

I know I hate that, the rapist is a good guy who went through a rough time and the victim has to just get over it, how is that at all based on reality or a good thing to show on tv? I'm just hoping that they don't do the same thing with Charlie or I'll stop watching. I also never understood Kirsty/Kane or Henk/Cassie I thought it was revolting. I agree that a male rape could be powerful, or maybe somebody innocent getting accused of rape and the whole town turning agaisnt them.

I don't think that blaming somebody innocent for rape is the way to go. Think about what real-life cases when the girl blames somebody innocent and then finally the truth gets out. The next rape victim will not be trusted when she accuse/blame somebody for raping her!!! To blame somebody innocent in a TV show is just going to result in more girls who never is going to be believed when they accuse somebody for rape, and girls who don't want to tell others about being raped because they are afraid that people are thinking they're lying.

And I don't think that HAA writers excuses the rapist on the show!!! When Kane came back first time, everybody hated him for a very long time, even Kirsty at first!! And all the others was very upset that Kirsty and Kane was together. Actually Kane saved Kirsty, and her mother from dying in that boat accident. He saved Danis life a couple of times from Sarah Lewis and Felix. He saved Rhys, Jade and Kirsty when they were trapped in the mine shaft. Yes he yelled at a hurt Rhys afterwards, but he got desperate when he refused to forgive him... It is understable that Mr. Sutherland never forgave Kane what he did to Dani, but actually Kane did a lot to become a better person.

I think that the characters and the viewers sometimes never forgive the characters for the wrong thing they have done, and that is really wrong too. Yes, to get together with your rape victims sister is to go too far, but Kane really did deserve a second chance in life. He had a terrible childhood (actually his history was far worse than Adens!) but that isn't an excuse for behaving badly. But it happens very often that victims of child abuse become an abuser him/herself or at least have som very big troubles with the law/live on the edge. But when it happens and they're doing everything to become better, do a lot good for their neigbours, their comminuty and so on, they deserve a new chance. I feel that when Kirsty and Kane aka Kristy and Sam wanted to leave the show, the writers found out they had to make justice to the storyline about Dani, and let Kane be blamed for something he didn't do.... And that is wrong too. As I said - people sometimes deserve a second chance in life. He should have been punished for the rape after it happend, and then after he had done some time in jail, he could have come back to Summerbay and try to change and do a lot of good things in life...

We have seen this happened other times too. Nathan, Irenes son, had been a criminal and when he came back to the Bay after some years in jail, he tried to build himself a life and but was never accepted not even after rescuing people/student after a terrible bus accident!!

The writers need to "punish" their characters for their crimes just right after they have done it, and not after a loong time when the character actually has changed. Then it seems that they're trying too proove that nobody can change their ways. Of course, if someone tries to rape somebody time after time then it is an another case/thing....

I don't think that the writers have never tried too Justify a rape or making it a small crime! I remember last year when AXle tried to rape Melody and Aden hit him for that, after that he was killed (accidently) by Adens dad. A lot of members of this forum was so angry because they thought that Melody was overreacting after that incident (and yes maybe she was, but when she had her breakdown/went phsycic it was more about her mother, actually) Melody wasn't raped because she was able to fight him off, but it was very close. So where do you draw the line when somebody shouldn't get punished for what they're doing and when they actually should life the rest of their life in hell??

Cassie got togheter with Henk, Rachels rapist from years back (when he was very drunk at a party), and nobody in the Bay thought that was OK when they learned the truth. But Cassie really got punished for that, didn't she...?? She got HIV from Henk.

Last year we had a boy who was abused as a child, (and there was a lot more about the situation which made it worse - his fathers alcholism, the neglect) and they developed the storyline well until the breakdown, he was in a psyciatric insitution for 2 weeks, and then he was expected to be fine... Hm... I have always felt that some people think this storyline was less important because it was about a male.... Hm...

--- sorry about my very long post----

But, I have to conclude it with that it has been too many rape victims over the last two years. Because when it happens that often, it feels less and less terrible, important and "interesting". And then the writers try to make it interesting, look terrible by taking the storyline further and further and then it comes out of control and end up in a mess (like I think the Charlie/Ruby/Grant storyline did).

[Red Ranger 1]

^I agree with some of your points, Jodie, but I had a number of thoughts of my own and am hoping this won't sound like too much of a ramble.

With the Dani/Kane storyline, I think they actually wrapped it up perfectly the first time round.He should have gone to jail but what did happen was just as effective:Even though the court decided against her, Dani was vindicated because the entire town knew what happened, was on her side and made it impossible for Kane to stay there while he took a long hard look at himself and realised what he'd become, apologised to Dani and resolved to be a better person.Unfortunately they kept bringing him back and, worse, both times they ran into each other again he and Dani seemed to forget all about their previous talks and how they'd made peace and just go back to how they were right after it happened, with the extremes of his 2003 return being the worst offender.As for his eventual "punishment", I suspect if Sam and Christie hadn't decided to leave in the middle of the storyline they would have had Kane clear his name back then.Given that Kane did a number of things he probably should have gone to jail for, not just the rape, there was a certain moral irony about him being found guilty of the one crime he was innocent of and in retrospect it might have been better to have him jailed, with Kirsty leaving to be close to him, rather than the awkward halfway house of an on the run exit.In the end, they just had him commit yet another crime and serve a ridiculously short amount of time in jail.

While Cassie's relationship with Henk left her with HIV, it's hard to see it as the writers punishing her. Anyone who dared to suggest she got HIV because she was a slag who slept around with the dregs of society was presented as either a bully like Aden or ignorant like Geoff and Annie.The rest of the town was all horribly politically correct and understanding about it, even Rachel who seemed surprisingly unfazed by the fact her rapist was HIV positive, and it was undermined by a doctor pretty much telling her "You've got HIV but you won't notice any difference."As for her friends' reaction to her and Henk, they seemed to have 90% accepted it with the likes of Matilda, Lucas and Martha chatting away to her like it was a normal relationship and Sally making the incredible decision to let him move in within spitting distance of their house and effectively give them carte blanche.

Axel...God, I could go on for ages about how bad that was.(Although not nearly as bad as the Callan storyline of a few years earlier...)It annoys me that there are still people who insist Melody was a hysterical girl who overreacted to a harmless pass and sparked off a witch hunt, even after someone actually said that on the show and Melody faced her down.But conversely Axel did not deserve to be demonised the way he was:People have done exactly the same in the past and not even been charged.(I do wonder if they changed their minds about what he did given that the revelation that it was "only" attempted rape came rather late in the day.)Both Aden and Kane did things just as bad if not worse last year but, possibly because their crimes weren't sexual in nature, no-one cared and just carried on as if nothing had happened.He committed a crime and fair play to him, he held up his hands to it and took his punishment.But as for Aden "hitting" him:If he had just hit him once or twice, I probably wouldn't have minded, but he beat him senseless and acted as though it made him a hero.I've never really got past the impression that left me with of Aden, the way he sat there dogmatically insisting "He deserved it" while characters that I normally or used to respect just shrugged their shoulders and muttered "You probably shouldn't have done that..." I'm not sure if killing him was meant to be a third level of punishment or not:More likely they realised they had this character hanging around who they'd made into the town outcast and didn't know what to do with so decided to use him as a plot device to get Aden to try and murder Larry.As with Aden's solution, it didn't help Melody, it just denied her closure and left her even more messed up.It might have been better to have sent him to jail or young offender's, at least for a short while, instead of handing out one of their token sentences.As it is, he's a candidate for the most mistreated character in the show's history.

As for Aden's abuse...pffff.Better the reaction Joey had, where she was upset for a couple of episodes then get over it, than this.I read an interview near the end of last year when Cameron Welsh talked about how proud they were of that storyline and how they'd taken it further than they would have done in the past, just one more comment that makes me wonder about the people running this show.I suspect the original intention was to just say that he'd been abused and hadn't dealt with it and that's the way he was.Which would have been.But then they decided to give him serious psychological problems which then just vanished after a couple of counselling sessions and apparently thought that was a way of exploring it in depth.

I'm not sure why someone being falsely accused of rape would discourage people from reporting the crime.I think that seeing a genuine rape victim report her attacker and him getting away with it anyway would be far more likely to do that.Although I have to say, in that respect Home and Away is miles better than shows like Hollyoaks or Casualty which have handled rape storylines appallingly.

[adellejefferiesxox]

What I found odd, maybe it was just me... I always wondered why Aden never told Melody or Joey about his abuse when he was comforting them, maybe it wasn't neccessary to bring it up but still... I would have liked Aden to confide in them so Joey/Melody would open up more... have a discussion about their feelings about what happened to them... etc

[Oipoodle]

My problem is that none of the rapists went to jail, at the time Kane was let off I thought it was quite good as many rapists do walk but as RR said repeatedly having him returning made me wonder what the writers were playing at.

I have never thought Cassie should have been punished and I really hope the writers didn't give her HIV for that purpose I would have liked her to realise that she was falling back into the victim role and known that she was better than that and again Henk should have gone to jail.

I'm surprised that so many people thought Melody was making a big deal it just shows how many people think of rape and in particular date rape as not being serious.

I thing they initially handled the Aden story well but having him recover so quickly and having Belle forgive him so easily was daft I think if your going to do heavy storylines then you should follow through or just stick to light ones. They could have easily written him out for a while while he got treatment. I also found the beating Axel to a pulp disturbing it reminded me of a few times in the past where that has happened with other characters and they just get away with it like its no big deal.

As for my suggestion about an an innocent man being accused the reason I suggested it is because it must be horrific for the man and I wouldn't have thought it would discourage any victims.

I do believe in second chances and redemption but surely it would be better to have either Kane on Henk paying for their crime ,sort their life out and then return and apologise to Dani/Rachel and then leave or better still use a mediator so the victim would be given the choice as to whether they wanted to see them again or not. When they both returned it was like they didn't care about the distress they were causing ad it made me disbelieve that the had been redeemed as anyone decent would've respected the victims wishes.

[Slade]

Well regarding the Dani rape storyline I agree you could argue that certain parts were handled badly. After Kane was found not guilty and there was a walkout at Summer Bay High the next day it wasn’t until Fischer delivered the speech about empathy did he actually apologise to Dani before leaving. When he was brought back in 2002 it was actually Flynn who sought him out for the meditation as part of Dani’s counselling and Dani was the one that wanted to do it. Kane didn’t even want to participate at first and Flynn had to convince him it was just as much for his benefit as Dani’s (I think he was right but he was saying that for Dani more than anything but considering what happened afterwards I think it did help Kane). Anyway here’s where there was an inconsistency in his character because he actually seemed quite cocky (or oblivious about what happened) so it was almost if his final scene in 2001 didn’t happen. However after Dani made him realise what he did there was a complete change of attitude and he was actually quite humble and appeared to lose a lot of his confidence which was evident during the stuff with the Mirigini. Even when Dani went to thank him for saving Kirsty and Shelly in hospital he told her that did she didn’t need to thank him and even during the hospital, group counselling session you could tell he was ashamed of himself.

2003..and yes this was where the bad story writing really came in, I agree (well regarding Dani’s trauma anyway). During their first couple of encounters Kane was ok with her but when she started interfering in his relationship with Kirsty he seemed to be quite unpleasant, resented her and appeared to lose a lot of sympathy for her. I think it was apparent then that the writers had sacrificed the rape storyline for the forbidden romance thing. If KK hadn’t been so popular in 2002 I’m not sure what they would have done to be honest. I'm not sure if the writers were just trying to boost ratings.

I think the reason why there was lack of sympathy for the three people just mentioned – Dani, Rachel and Melody is because all three characters exhibited traits which made some people find them unlikeable. Dani was extremely self absorbed and seemed to constantly moan and whine which made her quite annoying (even though she was one of my favourite characters). With Rachel again her arrogant condescending nature made some people who disliked her not care too much about the rape, it happened several years ago and she was strong enough to be able to deal with it compared to other characters (Charlie for example). Again regarding Melody I have noted a lot of comments from people that find her self-righteous, judgemental etc. Also I thought quite a few people found Axel more likeable than she was (I certainly did) so perhaps for that reason they decided to side with him rather than her. I actually thought Axel was a bit lucky to get off with only community service TBH.

I don’t think it’s fair to suggest people don’t take rape seriously just because they don’t feel very sympathetic towards a particular character. As I said on another thread I know the writers constantly try and explore real issues but these characters are fictional and some people watch the show for entertainment value as opposed to actually feeling sorry for someone that doesn’t exist in the real world. I don’t know any of the posters personally but I would like to give people the benefit of the doubt and assume that they would empathise with someone in a real life scenario.

There have been a lot of rape storylines but it really doesn’t bother me because there have also been a lot of storylines about people having affairs and cheating on their partners/spouses, storylines about young people going off the rails and storylines involving spoilt, stuck-up, princess type characters who mellow out eventually and storylines about the bad boy with a difficult home life. Soaps will always recycle storylines.

[richleamington]

Last year we had a boy who was abused as a child, (and there was a lot more about the situation which made it worse - his fathers alcholism, the neglect) and they developed the storyline well until the breakdown, he was in a psyciatric insitution for 2 weeks, and then he was expected to be fine... Hm... I have always felt that some people think this storyline was less important because it was about a male.... Hm...

I guess, as with all stories on soaps, there has to be some cut off point. A lot goes on in the residents of Summer Bays lives and having to consider what they would think about one major thing in response to another major thing taking into consideration X, Y and Z too would be a nightmare for the writers. In fact I'd say in reality everyone would be screwed! Lol.

I'd say they portrayed Aden's case well. He hated his father a lot, tied him up, was going to hurt him. Then he couldn't get close to Belle for ages too.

[Red Ranger 1]

I'd say they portrayed Aden's case well. He hated his father a lot, tied him up, was going to hurt him. Then he couldn't get close to Belle for ages too.

I thought both cases were handled appallingly.It depends on what you mean by "get close", he seemed to be able to do anything apart from have sex:kissing, sharing a bed, cuddling up to her, getting half-naked...They had sex only about a month after they got together and within a week of him starting counselling, which doesn't really qualify as "ages" in my book.

As for his murder attempt, the reasons for his breakdown were flimsy at best.It's worrying that he only decided to kill his father when he found out he'd been abused as well.He hated him because he was a useless drunk who let him be abused but...he'd always known he was a useless drunk who'd let him be abused.Despite Aden's insistence that "He knew"...he didn't and as soon as he did he put a stop to it.The moral that Larry wasn't deserving of our sympathy because he turned to drink but Aden was even though his own way of handling things was even more destructive seemed rather iffy in my book. At the end of the day, it came across as an over-the-top reaction that someone thought would make good television.

I agree that the storyline needed an ending but they took Aden's problems too far and resolved them too quickly and easily.As I've said elsewhere, if all you're going to do with an issue is trivialise it, then it's best not to raise it at all.