"When is a Rape Not a Rape" by Carolyn Hinsey

[titan1978]

On DAYS- was Carly Manning raped? I can't remember.

Also, were John and Hope raped by each other when Stefano brainwashed them into having sub sex? I'm only half kidding with this.

[amybrickwallace]

Yup, you are right about Summer being raped twice. Just awful. As for main females who were NOT raped on SB, the only ones I can think of are Minx Lockridge, Augusta Lockridge, Sophia Capwell, Amy Perkins Wallace* (who wasn't actually forced on by a man), Jade Perkins and Laken Lockridge.

* I want to make a note of Amy because she was a victim not only of the godawful New Stailand plot (which I can only chalk up to writers/producers being on acid), but her son Johnny was conceived when she was artificially inseminated with the sperm of a dead prince while she was at the dentist. I am NOT making this up. I only bring this up because she was under sedation and a non-consenting party (she had no idea what they were planning to do) when the procedure took place, and I consider that a MAJOR violation of a woman's privacy - and I also consider it rape. As a woman, I also consider it an insult.

It would have been a much more powerful (and realistic) story had SB continued moving in the direction of having Amy's sleazy, cheating ex-boyfriend Jeff be the father - and he had already denounced Amy and her pregnancy once he found out that she was expecting - and Brick Wallace, who was head over heels for her from the first moment he saw her, would have supported her. Kerry Sherman was pregnant with her own first child IRL and SB wrote her condition into the story, but there had to be a better way to do it. I don't know what her feelings were/are about the absurdity of the plot (which literally had Amy and Brick storming the castle after "Prince John" had been kidnapped), but to this day Richard Eden (Brick Wallace) says it is the stupidest story he has ever had to act out. If it was painful just WATCHING that story, I can't imagine how much more painful it was to ACT it.

[~bl~]

I think it was an NBC thing as Days and Another World also had a lot of rape stories in that time frame, which is somewhat disturbing.

[alphanguy74]

the only time I thought it was TRULY a complete toss-up was with Laura on Knots Landing (The Lie). She went to the guy's apartment, apparently to have sex with him, and she DID struggle with him, but in the end, said "Ok". But did she say ok because she wanted it? Or did she say Ok, because she was afraid he'd hurt her if she didn't? That's what good writing is about, leaving enough gray are to make you wonder.

[amybrickwallace]

Wasn't that guy Laura went to see her boss? Or am I confusing him with someone else? Was she still married to Richard Avery at this point?

[titan1978]

Laura was raped early on in the run, Richard was there and a jerk as always. I don't think Abby was there yet so season one maybe?

[amybrickwallace]

Hmmm...I watched the DVD of Season 1 (I was a mere three months old when KL made its CBS debut and in middle school when it finally ended), and don't remember that. Then again, I watched it in 2008, so it's obviously why I don't remember (I checked it out of the library). LOL

[DRW50]

The man who raped her was a guy she met in a bar.

[robbwolff]

That was a horrible storyline with poor Joel Crothers playing twins Jack and Jerry Lee. What a sad end to a great career.

[amybrickwallace]

You are so right. Joel Crothers deserved a better final role in what would be his swan song to soaps. Though, God bless him, he gave the material his all, no matter how stupid it was (and despite the fact that he was becoming weaker by the day due to his fatal illness).

Also, Carl, thanks for clarifying the KL plot. I wonder what Connie McCashin's feelings were about that story.

[ellabelle]

I assume most soaps have at least one or two scenarios where consent is not exactly clear, or where some people might call it rape, but the characters themselves don't react that way.

On AMC, Corvina had sex with an unconscious Dimitri and got pregnant with Anton. Dimitri didn't even remember being with her. Jonathan Kinder also drugged Erica and then had sex with her when she clearly thought he was Dimitri. Neither of those were played as rape, even though consent was nonexistent with Dimitri and extremely dubious with Erica - she consented to sex with her husband, not with Jonathan, but a few weeks later, still under the influence of drugs, she had sex with Jonathan again, knowing who he was that time. It bothered me that Dimitri/Corvina and Erica/Jonathan weren't explored as being sexually exploitative (although on the heels of the whole Richard Fields storyline, I can see why the writers didn't want to get mired in another rape story with those two).

Still, I see a different between those scenes and, say, David/Gillian or David/Amanda where David offered them a choice - get what you want by having sex with me. In Gillian's case, it was bail money for Ryan, and in Amanda's, it was an attempt to make another child so David would share custody of Trevor and stop interfering in her relationship with Jake. In both of those stories, David was a jerk, and he took advantage of the situation to entice them into bed, but he never forced them. Did they later regret having sex with him? Definitely. Were they thrilled about sleeping with him again? Nope. Did they do it willingly anyway? Yep. A character can be a jerk and can take advantage of a situation or manipulate others to get what he (or she) wants, especially if those other people tend to make exceptionally poor life choices (cough, Amanda, cough), but that doesn't make consensual sex rape, no matter how much some of the fans insist that it does.

[Skin]

This was what I was trying to get at earlier and I agree with your point of view.

[katie_9918]

EJ raped Sami. I don't care how "hot" James Scott, it doesn't change it. EJ RAPED Sami and then terrorized Sami for a goop or five years:

[Cheap21]

That's the same way I saw the EJ/Sami situation. In all cases, the female had a choice. She slept with a guy she didn't want so he could give her something in return. In Gillian's case, its almost prostitution as money was exchanged

[amybrickwallace]

Didn't Blake rape his wife Krystle in the very early days of Dynasty, only for its creators to sweep it under the rug?