I’ve been watching
a few television shows in the last few weeks that all have a plot (sub or
major) revolving around rape. So to be upfront: Trigger Warning and Spoilers.
I’m over the rape
as a plot device to motivate men characters to become heroes or explain why
women are hard and cold. It trivializes the lived experience. I don’t watch Scandal or Downton Abbey, but my understanding is the rape plots on these
shows are falling into the trope. I intend to watch both shows at some point,
but I don’t have the time to dedicate, plus over it.
Which is why I was
shocked when in season two of House of
Cards, we heard Claire tell her husband and protagonist Frank, “You’ll still feel the hate in the
morning. You’ll use that, but not on him [her rapist].” Preach. Frank had a meltdown about having to
engage Claire’s rapist because that’s what the job meant. It was a brilliant
moment because that is reality for so many women to have to see and deal with
your rapist and pretend that nothing has happened or that you’re over it. Frank
couldn’t he broke things and wanted to take action. Claire excused herself and
pulled her shit together in the bathroom like a boss. Remember the situation
for the characters here, they have to put on the show, and Claire she has to
live with this forever. Frank like many powerful men never had to learn that
sometimes nothing you do will matter; there will be no justice; you can only
save yourself a little mental stability. I also loved that before the rape is discussed
we get to know Claire as a sexual, powerful, and corrupt person because we don’t
have to like all rape survivors. We also see that as a couple, Claire and Frank
have discussed her rape in the past, no secrets in this marriage. Then of
course, there is episode four where Claire lies about an unwanted pregnancy
stemming from her rape. She gets a revenge fantasy (we’re coming back to this).
The moment she said it on the screen my friend and I stopped the show, went
back, and watched again. Claire gets to ruin her rapist long after legal
recourse is no longer possible. Not Frank. Claire. Love it, hate it, have moral issues with it,
Claire got to close the book on her rapist.
So now let’s talk
about Robin Griffin on Top of the Lake.
Robin is a detective and ends up on the case of a twelve year old girl who was
raped and is pregnant. The girl, Tui, is a badass in her own right. But it is
through Robin we get to see how a rape can impact the life of a person forever.
Robin was gang raped by four men when she was fifteen in this place. One of her
rapists is still hanging out at the local bar. Her date that night, Johnno is
still around. Now, let’s talk about the rapes (yes there are many) that drive
the plot. Rape, sexual violence, etc. are the tools of the patriarchy in the
series. None of these thing exist without the patriarchy. Robin, like Claire,
is a complex and developed character. This narrative spends a lot of time
showing the fallout of rape on other people including Johnno who feels so responsible
for doing nothing when he witnessed the assaults, “I should have helped you and
I didn’t. I was a coward.” Robin replied with, “No. There was nothing you could
have done. It was four against one.” He doesn’t believe her. First Robin acknowledges that there is little one person can do in that situation against the patriarchy, and that is the major villain in the show. See, Robin got to
process things in a way Johnno never did because he was never able to get past
his guilt. Robin sees her rape as a crime against herself, but also facilitated
not only by her rapist and witnesses, but by the society in which they resided.
Robin also isn’t perfect, and she loses her shit in an epic fashion. The show
is hard to watch, with the flashback scenes leading up to and during the rape. The
rape jokes made by the men in the bars and the officers on the police force. It
is constant, but when Sarge, one of Robin’s rapists, hits on her in a bar
because he can’t remember that he raped her, she breaks a beer bottle and repeatedly
stabs him screaming, “Remember me now?” It was jarring, but it felt good to watch, too. It was a revenge
fantasy.
For me it is Johnno
and Sarge that make these scenes, though Elizabeth Moss is wonderful in the show. They have to process their actions and
inactions. Johnno pulls Robin from the bar, takes her home, and then goes to
see Sarge. Johnno beats Sarge telling him to leave and never come back saying, “You
raped my friend. Fucking sweetheart. Fifteen. She was fifteen.” Sarge says, “I
don’t remember. I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Notably before Johnno
enters the scene, Sarge is cleaning his wound; his expression is difficult to
read, but I like to think he had no idea what had just happened. That his
confusion isn’t to deny guilt, but that he actually had no idea because it wasn’t
a big deal to him. His part in the rape didn’t change his life. Robin’s life,
but not his. That way, after Sarge runs away, he can consider his role those
events. Friends and I have discussed this a lot, if the victim doesn’t say rape,
did a rape occur? Yes, of course, the victim was raped, but if the perpetrator
never knows then what?
Robin acknowledges
that her rape resulted in a pregnancy she was forced to keep, and that her daughter
writes her asking questions about her parents’ interests. Robin rejects the
notion she should tell the girl the truth because if Robin had been the product
of a rape (spoilery) she would kill herself. So “Fuck truth” the daughter has
no right to it. To expand on that, no one has any right to Robin’s body, her
narrative, or her truth.
All of this said
these are the rape narratives I want on television. Narratives showing the
complexities of the fallout of sexual assault. See, we do this terrible thing
with rape on television where it happens and then after that episode we don’t
really ever hear about it again. There are exceptions like Laura and Liz
Spencer on General Hospital where the
rapes have long lasting consequences that actually unexpectedly return over generations. Because that is what it is like, there in the back of your mind waiting to be triggered, and often it isn't. But we also have Spike’s attempted rape of Buffy, which I still don’t
understand the purpose of that one and Kelly Taylor’s rape on 90210. They
happen, fallout, over and never to be mentioned again or as cautionary tales. That isn’t actually how
this works because victims get triggered years later over something seemingly innocuous.
I’m also not saying
or implying that survivors of sexual assaults are unable to recover. That is the
beauty of Claire and Robin. They’ve dealt the best they can; they are
triggered; they recover again; they live “normal” lives. Fingers crossed we get
complex narratives and development women characters. And while, I don't want to make the lived experience of women about the menfolk, but I want more narratives with the gents working through this stuff too, what happens to the rapists, the boyfriends, the families? Rape is an crime against an individual and society, which is obvious when we considered the use of rape as an act of war.
