DAYS: You were raped? Eh, who cares?

[ANDREA LOATHES REILLY]

Who's to say Sam didn't rape Ric? Not possible because both were consenting adults as was Sami and EJ...

Again, can't re-define a crime punishable by law to accomodate our favorite characters...

ANDREA

[Ilovemydays]

Oh dear, it looks like this will never end.

EJ needed a brady/Dimera child for the stem cells.

As for being afraid of the gun, why would Sami lure EJ to the cabin where Lucas was pinned under a beam if she was afraid of getting shot?

Lucas was vulnerable and the cabin was secluded.

If she were afraid of EJ why wouldn't she think that once at the cabin EJ would shoot her and Lucas?

If he truly raped her it would have made more sense for EJ to just kill Sami after the rape, she was afterall the only one that could testify that he was there the night John was shot.

[ClayZebra]

Again, don't have to redefine it. The law is a fluid, adaptable thing, open to many interpretations at the simplest of times.

The show chose to call EJ's actions against Sami that night rape. The show interpreted the law in a way with which some may not agree, but which is nonetheless a possible interpretation.

And I said that the show's handling of the aftermath of what it deemed rape was bad. That's what I hoped to discuss in this topic, regardless of fanbase affiliation, but since no one is interested in talking about THAT at this point, I'll just bow out of the thread now.

[Keith]

Sami was desperate. I definitely saw fear in her that, once at the cabin, EJ wouldn't help, or worse, would make the situation ten times worse, as his way of revenge, even after the rape. I would not have made sense for EJ to kill her, because he didn't tihnk of it as rape. That doesn't negate what it is. That's a psychological argument that's completely removed from this whole debate. Like others have said, he needed a Brady/DiMera child for Stefano, and he chose Samantha. He wasn't about to choose someone else just because. A character flaw in of itself, but outside this issue entirely.

[Ponz]

How do you know she wasn't afraid of getting shot? Sami knew Lucas would freeze to death if she didn't get help ASAP. Elvis was the only able-bodied man available. In her mind, she had no choice but to take the risk.

Look, we can keep going back & forth on this for hours but it's OFF-TOPIC. Whether you or me or Andrea interpret it as rape, that is how the show have chosen to portray it. When the writers/characters/actors repeatedly use the term, it creates an expectation that they address the issue and give the fall-out at least some credibility & realism. I believe that was ClayZebra's point.

[Ilovemydays]

Well we can agree about one thing.

With so many people saying it is rape it's surprising that none of the characters are acting like it was.

[a2sassy]

I see what happened with Sami and EJ as rape. Sami didn't have to sleep with EJ, but the only way EJ would help save Lucas' life was if Sami had sex with him. IMO, that's how EJ "forced" himself on Sami. And EJ has as much admitted that he RAPED Sami. Anytime for force yourself onto someone, that's rape.

[Kylie]

Hmmm, okay, well, see I've been logged in a debate like this with my own couple for 6 years, and I'll tell you what the differences are:

1) The actors opinions 2) The characters opinions, 3) The characters reactions and actions.

THe story goes like this: They'd been broken up for a couple of months, but still sleeping together and "feeling things". He drugged her on accident, knew he drugged her. She didn't know she was drugged. He took her up to his room, note that he was going to give her a ride home before she drank the drug laced soda, with the intention of keeping her with him until she started to come down off the drug. Since the drug trigged inhibits, and made you lose them, she literally jumped him in the doorway of his hotel. Serveal times during their making out and the lead up to sex she said NO. She said stop, she couldn't do this. And he did. He backed away. He moved off of her. He didn't push the issue at all. She didn't have to sleep with him, and she knew it. He even at one point, was no longer touching her and telling her they didnt have to. It was her who advanced things, and it was her, drugged up or not who told him that if he didn't make love to her right then and there, she was going to scream.

The actors invovled, did an interview before the scenes played out where they joked about the whole thing, thought it added another dimenison to their characters relationship. She called his character a "stud" and her character was his "nymphette". LOL They thought it was a slippery slope, BUT, that was all and they hoped that came across in how they played it.

It took a few months for her to find out that she was drugged that night, but upon finding out, she called it making love. She wan't ever mad about the sex, she was mad about him drugging her and jeporadizing her soberity. She tired to get him out of jail. She went to bat for him in court, for no reason other then that she still cared about him. They were very honest and very real about the whole thing, and neither believed it to have been anything more then a mistake (the drugging), not the sex.

(Both actors were asked about this frequently throughout the years and either understood where the debate was coming from. They thought it was pretty clear what the characters felt happened.)

That's the difference here. This was a slippery slope. It could be considered date rape. And it might have been, but, no one around it believed it to be.

That's not the case with Sami and EJ. The actors say it was rape. The characters believe it was rape. The situation involved a gun, duress, and emotional blackmail. Sami obviously didn't want to, and she believed that if she didn't, Lucas would die. That is rape. That is force. Emotional, mental, and since the gun was there, whether usde or not, physical, blackmail, and fear. That was rape.

As far as I'm concernend, I don't see how it could be infered any other way.

[Pest Spray]

We never did actually see Marlena find out that EJ raped Sami. So far, only Lucas, Kate, Celeste, Tony (obviously and... who else?) knows. This show won't give us a reaction to Marlena finding out John was shot or his kidney was stolen, why would they give us a scene where Marlena, a former rape victim herself (possibly more than once) finds out her daughter was raped?

Sami didn't OFFER her body for EJ's services. EJ said basically "Lucas will die if I don't help you save him, and I will only help you if you let me inseminate you." He had a gun for christ's sake!

[titan1978]

To argue the law with the fictional town of Salem is problematic at best. Again, this is a town where a woman possessed by Satan threw a man off her penthouse balcony, and was not punished for it by the law. MarDevil was taken at face value. This is fantasy.

The show called this a rape, and the aftermath has been botched. Sami neither has her claws out, nor is she being written as much of a victim. Her first rape was devastating. It shaped the Sami we see now.

EJ and Sami are hot, and while I like Lucas standing by Sami, I want her to go with her baser instincts.

[JER Soaps Fan]

I dismiss what the show chose to call rape (excellent word choice by the way, Clay -- it suggests the show made a determination not necessarily upheld by U.S. law but by creative direction:)) because the show only called it that for ratings. Obviously, EJ committing prostitution with Sami isn't a headline.

The show was sensational. That's all.

It's not rape.

[dawn9476]

Luke regretted raping Laura from the moment he did it. He even told her to go away because he was in such a bad place. But Laura being the caring person she was couldn't turn her back on Luke when he was in such despair. He didn't rape her to knock her up either. He raped her because he was out of control and full of rage.

EJ raped Sami for the sole purpose of procreating and just pulled the regret out of his butt 5 months too late. EJ raped Sami like it was no big thing. He was totally calm and sane.

That is the difference between L&L and Ejami. The deep regret and haunting that Luke felt for raping Laura from the moment he did is why fans were able to forgive . You don't have that with Ejami. EJ's "regret" and recognition that he raped Sami is coming way, way too late.

[dawn9476]

And as far as Jake and Jack is concerned, you had the same situation. Jack and Jake's lives were spiraling out of control. They were at rock bottom. They were at the darkest part of their lives like Luke while with EJ you have him playing puppet master to the whole town and being totally calm and sane with every evil deed he did including the rape for the sole purpose of procreating.

[Dr. Chip]

Here's a list of victims and offenders ONLY from the current cast, with the exception of Bill & Laura:

1. Bill raped Laura. They eventually married.

2. Maggie was raped by Melissa's boyfriend, Ian Griffith. He was a serial rapist who attacked women at the hospital.

3. Julie was raped by Larry Atwood.

4. Billie was raped by Curtis Reed. Billie also raped Bo.

5. Bo was raped by Billie.

6. Hope was almost raped by a thug once. She was almost raped by Jude St. Clair.

7. Kayla was raped by Jack, who married Jennifer, who had been raped by Lawrence Alamain.

8. John was basically raped by Hope while she was in her Princess Gina persona.

9. Sami was raped by Alan Harris. She was also raped by E.J. But Sami also raped Austin.

10. Marlena was raped by Kellam Chandler and was almost raped by Ian, the hospital rapist (John rescued her).

11. Tony raped Liz when she asked him for a divorce.

12. Stefano has at least EXPLOITED Marlena over the years!

[Dr. Chip]

Has anyone approached this storyline from this angle yet?

If Billie can be called a rapist for having sex with Bo when he thought he was having sex with Hope, doesn't that mean that Stefano was a rapist when he was having sex with Susan, who thought he was Elvis Presley?????

Stefano raped Susan.

Tony raped Liz.

E.J. raped Sami.

Megan may not have raped Bo, but she tried to murder Hope by electrocuting her in a hot tub!

And Renee may not have raped Tony, but she tried to murder Anna in a boating accident!

The DiMeras are nothing but rapists and murderers, but hey . . . it's all Grandpa Shawn's fault, right?