GH: May Discussion Thread

[Juliajms]

Your confusion confuses me. It's sarcasm. I'm saying Guza has a habit of giving people what they want in the most twisted manner possible.

ETA: Not only does a prison rape story not belong on GH, but soaps have proven time and again that they cannot handle the issue of male rape in a serious or responsible manner.

[bellcurve]

Sorry love. I've just seen assorted clips here and there and thought it to be boring.

And that main title opener with the wax flowers? Zzzzzzzzzzz.

[Mr. Vixen]

[quartermainefan]

I don't think GH could pull this off. I did not see Love of Life, but there fade to black and pan away scene wouldn't cut it in 2010. I really have a hard time believing GH is taking on such content.

[Eric83]

[Juliajms]

If done wrong? Please. Let's not forget that Jax was raped and it was treated like a joke. Even if they want to claim that was more of a black mail/coercion situation, they cetainly didn't treat that with the appropriate gravity. Let's not give them another chance to show us how lightly they take sexual violation. I have no idea if this should be in spoiler tags because there are no reliable spoilers saying it's going to happen, are there? I really don't believe they'll do it.

[Mr. Vixen]

Yeah, Jax's rape was handled horribly. But I think if this were to be done, it could be much better...I doubt it would be at all good, because of the way Guza writes, but I think it has the POTENTIAL to be a groundbreakign story.

[AllMyDaysatGH]

I bet that friend Michael made in Prison on Friday's ep has something to do with it that guy was a little bit creepy.

ETA:

I agree that it has potential, definitely.

[R Sinclair]

On this, we absolutely, 100%, wholeheartedly agree.

[Vee]

No, American daytime cannot possibly handle male rape sensitively. I don't believe it ever has, beyond perhaps the Royce Keller story on ATWT and that was more about DID - I can't recall if he was molested or not. So maybe it shouldn't be done. Guza certainly wouldn't do it properly.

OTOH, Eurosoaps would not hesitate. It would be considered a harsh kind of karmic balance - Michael is the spoiled scion of a violent mob boss, whose dysfunctional lifestyle and skewed moral compass has wreaked havoc on his son's sense of right and wrong. Following in his father's footsteps, Michael kills his father's wife to save his mother's life. Accordingly, he goes to jail, and in the ultimate denigration of Sonny's lifestyle, is violated in prison. It's very simple, very old, very black and white; choices have consequences. It would be done on cable, as well, which GH aspires to be. The problem is that neither ABC nor GH have the balls that those other programs or soaps do - they always want an out for Sonny and Jason and their mob world, always having an escape hatch handy to prove they're "not so bad." They have a pathological need to prove to the audience that these people are heroes and don't really deserve harsh punishment. And do I really want Michael raped - no, I don't. But it would go a long way to demonstrating the realistic end result of Sonny's choices. You could cut out the middle man and have Sonny or Jason raped instead, but Michael is a much harsher selection, as the relative 'innocent.'

[R Sinclair]

LMAO! Not about you, personally, but just the general idea of arbitrarily handing out ass rapes to the male characters on this show makes me laugh.

But, seriously, I do have to say that Jax's rape was different. Somehow, it's okay for a male to be taken advantage of sexually by a woman. Have him be at fault and have critics (Logan and Hinsey) say that he wasn't taken against his will because his penis had a sexual response. But it's not okay for a male OR female to be taken advantage of by a male. We're still in that wonderful crux of society where the only harmful sexual aggression is male sexual aggression. So if this rumor is to play out, then it would be treated differently. That character would NOT be mocked or chastised because he was a victim of an aggressive sexual predator.

[Juliajms]

That much is probably true, but that doesn't mean the writers of GH are up to telling this story. The last female rape story they did (Emily) wasn't done well at all and the template was out there. I don't think breaking new ground is something they should be attempting.

[DRW50]

I'm not sure GH is all that interested in having sympathy for female rape victims. Guza made Laura's rape all about Luke's pain and Lucky's pain. Liz's rape was all about Lucky's pain. Emily's rape was all about Nik's pain.

If a man was raped by another man that would probably be a more sympathetic story but that's because the writing would tell us that the rape victim has lost his masculinity, which, to someone like Guza, is all you can ever be.

[Vee]

That's how it seems sometimes on the British soaps, at least - someone does something wrong, and there is an equal and at times arbitrarily violent response. I've laughed myself at how over the top it seems sometimes. Still, it's a more balanced moral scale than GH's.

[R Sinclair]

I also agree. Emily's rape wasn't done well. Not only because it was purely done for the sensational effect of having Nikolas' look alike rape her (not to mention, the sick "let's have Tyler pretend to rape his girlfriend Natalia" angle), but also because Emily didn't have a direct connection to The Trio. Yes, she was Jason's sister, but Emily's rape didn't affect Carly and Sonny. THIS rape, however, would affect all three of them -- which is why it would probably be dealt with, not well, but more seriously than Jax's.

Which is my point.