Too many rape victims?

[jodlebirger]

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.

well, I think that Adens breakdown wasn't a suprise at all. In real life sometimes it takes a lot less to get a breakdown. And I don't mean the abuse alone, but his fathers drinking, the neglect and also his family falling apart. He actually had lost two brohters because what was happening, one of them in jail (and he was actually very controlling and manipulating too, if you have seen the 2005 episodes which Aden and his brother were in) But the writers did two big mistakes in this story. First one, the sex thing with Belle happened to fast, from him telling her in episode 4690 and sleeping with her 5 episodes later... But that mistake could have been forgiven. I think that Adens trial was the worst, because I had a feeling that the most important was two show Aden/Todd cry a little, just to make the young girls melt. And the storyline about Belle/Angelo actually came in the way for doing a good work with Adens breakdown. But it actually was good at some levels, Roman supporting Aden so he could finish school.

It is a soap and sometimes they have to move on, but I wish they could have done it better after the breakdown, because it is such a touchy and sensitive subject. I remember reading on the official site last year, comments made by people/males who had suffered from abuse themselves (it was straight after Aden had revealed to Belle his secret but before the breakdown) that they were very satisfied with the storyline, but that they were worried how the writers would end it. And unfortunately I don't think the "treatment" of this storyline by its end did any justice to real life victims from abuse and to those who gets mentally problems because of it.

But, last year we had also Melody who had mentally problems two, and the writing of her problems was far much worse than the writing of Adens storyline. She went from one symptom/illness one day to have a quite an another the next which made the storyline very unrealistic and unbelievable. And she was misunderstood by her parents, who wanted to raise her into someone they wanted her (her mother) to be, without listening to the girls wishes and personality. I think that the excorsism did destroy that storyline, because it was not in character for christine Jones, it was just to strange. And she was a very worried mother, and worried was her father too, I remember they discussed a lot in the diner about what they should do. Sometimes I have found it very irritating that nobody has complained on that. It was OK for Melody to go totally insane one day, to the next day (when she was with Miles) to just be an another rebelled teen (urgh, that was terrible English, as usual, but I do hope you understand). where did here bulimia go??? Bulimia isn't exactly like having a cold, sick one day and healthy a few days later!!

And her reaction to the insault done by Axle was just hillarious, and a lot worse were the others reaction to what Axle did. Yes, it was very wrong, but he actually wasn't that violent toward Melody - she didn't had a lot of problems of fighting him off. And he admitted that it was wrong, was sorry for what he did, got his punishment, but nobody seemed to forgive him. Remember the episode at the camp when he talked about this to Jai.

But then, sometimes I think it is OK for them/the writers and the producers to try to describe a problem that you can find in the society today, but they have to think about how to finish a storyline and not only to describe the problem itself.

Because think if we didn't have storylines like Cassies HIV, Adens abuse, Melody, Rachels PND, grief and so on what would we have left??? Just a mess with stalkers and crimes.

[Red Ranger 1]

And her reaction to the insault done by Axle was just hillarious, and a lot worse were the others reaction to what Axle did. Yes, it was very wrong, but he actually wasn't that violent toward Melody - she didn't had a lot of problems of fighting him off. And he admitted that it was wrong, was sorry for what he did, got his punishment, but nobody seemed to forgive him. Remember the episode at the camp when he talked about this to Jai.

I didn't actually have a problem with Melody's reaction.You could argue that Axel didn't hurt her physically but Kane wasn't violent towards Dani.If Melody had frozen like she did and hadn't found the courage to fight back, she'd have been raped.She was fifteen if not younger and hadn't had much experience of boys so having someone force himself on her in that manner, and potentially do more, would understandably leave her traumatised and frightened of him.Her hallucinations of him in the clinic were very telling:She saw him as an evil person who wanted to hurt her, not because that's what he was like(he wasn't)but because that's how she saw him.

But I do have a very big problem with the way other people reacted, especially the older ones.(Geoff and Annie, with similarly young and inexperienced eyes, understandably had a black and white take on it.)No-one really cared about what Aden did to him and they all seemed to decide what he'd done was unforgiveable, even though as you said he took responsibility for his actions(which is more than most people in the town do)and showed genuine remorse.They forgave people for a lot worse than Axel did, including actual rape.Maybe they would have forgiven him if he'd been around longer, we perhaps saw hints of it immediately before and after his death:Miles, Geoff and Annie seemed genuinely saddened by his death and regretful of the way they treated him, Jai and to a lesser extent Ruby saw that he deserved a second chance, even Belle seemed slightly upset when she told Aden of his death. Unfortunately when Melody came back the focus seemed to shift back to what he did to her instead of the fact he was in a hole in the ground.

[lilaccat]

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.

Perhaps taking this a step further they could acutally have a long term abusive relationship between a couple that have already been established. I know they had Marthas brother being abusive but Im meaning a couple like Rachel or Tony etc. And it being something that lasts for a while not just one talk with Alf and you're all healed.