Do you think soaps have used rape as a story too often?

[SamandWillowFan]

It seems like all the soaps, including the ones now off the air, have had multiple characters who were rape victims. GH even has a male rape victim(Michael). There was also an arguably worst trend of redeeming rapists and making them leading men.

[dragonflies]

GH has two male rape victims, Michael and Jax

 

and yes I think soaps rely on rape stories way too much

[SoapDope]

1978 and 1979 seemed to be big years for rape storylines on soaps. All the shows featured characters that were raped or attempted to be raped. 

[KMan101]

DAYS seemed to rape almost all of their leading ladies

 

It's way too overdone. DAYS even had a hospital rapist who randomly raped women and framed Mike for them. Maggie was one of the victims, literally a few months after she had just returned to the canvas.

 

Marlena was raped by both Don and Kellam within a short time frame.

 

They seemed to enjoy tormenting a young Hope and having scary men (including a rough around the edges Patch) threaten her with rape.

 

DAYS had a lot of misogyny that seemed to have been overlooked

[OldGHFan]

One thing I have to give kudos to GH for was not having a rape on their show for many years after Luke raped Laura (1979).  The next rape was many years later when Elizabeth got raped (1998).  And then they finally addressed Luke raping Laura. 

 

But since Elizabeth's rape, the show has gone downhill and like everything else, rape is just another ho-hum vehicle to give drama to someone for a day or two.

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[carolineg]

 

Days does seem to rape all of it's leading ladies.  Just off the top of my head

Maggie

Marlena

Liz

Kayla

Jennifer

Sami

Stephanie

Jan

Ciara

Kim, Adrienne, and Billie were sexually abused as children.

That's a good chunk of leading ladies throughout the years.  Much more than GH.

 

BTW, Marlena was only raped by Kellam.  Don never raped her unless I am completely forgetting something.

 

[KMan101]

 

Don forced himself on her. It was marital rape. But it was still a rape. I don't know how exactly they played it off, to be fair. Recappers seem to insist it was rape. They had several leading men either force themselves onto their wives (and it was probably played as the men were "right") or threaten to. It's kind of disturbing, honestly. (I've been reading a lot of DAYS recaps lately and immersing myself into the 80s playlists on youtube lol so it's all fresh in my head)

 

Glad you made a list and also glad you pointed out the women who were sexually abused as children, too. 

 

Soaps used to be so progressive without it feeling forced. I mean, they'd never tackle a thing like Uncle Eric molesting Kimberly as a child and what it did to her and how she hated men and used hooking as a way to control them. Not saying it was actually *that* deep, but still ... 

[DramatistDreamer]

 

I actually blame GH for setting off the second wave of rape storylines and upping the ante:  making it seem as if a character could actually become some type of romantic hero/leading man.  Before this, most rapists were either sent out of town or became the town pariah but Luke changed the dynamic and made showrunners believe that you could somehow have a viable rapist character who is a leading man. 

[KMan101]

 

THIS

 

You can't romanticize a rapist (or a serial killer). But they did. And they still do now. It's so dangerous. Yet stans just eat it up. I know it's not "real life" but most wouldn't be cheering on Ted Bundy "reforming" himself and falling in love with the hot brunette he rescues from a motorcycle accident ... "but he had a BRAIN TUMOR!!!!" ... no

[SoapDope]

Y&R had both sisters Chris Brooks and Peggy Brooks raped in 1973 and 1976. Nikki was almost raped by her father in 1979 and she killed him. So that is 3 rape/attempted rapes in 6 year period. 

[j swift]

Given the statistic from the National Sexual Violence Resource Center that 1 in 5 women will experience a sexual assault,  I  think the proportion of female characters per show that have been victimized seems realistic; unfortunately. 

 

However, I agree that the lengths that certain writers will go to explain or justify sexual violence in order to keep a male character have been extreme and distasteful.  Thus, the message that I don't approve of is that a female soap character is much more likely to marry her attacker than participate in his prosecution. 

[JellicleCat]

 

Don't forget Laura, who was controversially raped by ex-fiance Bill while married to his brother Mickey.

I think Julie has been raped too.

And you could argue that Hope was raped as well when she had sex with Stefano and John while brainwashed into thinking she was Princess Gina.

[carolineg]

 

Yup  Forgot Laura.

I couldn't find any evidence Julie was raped, but Susan Martin said she was until it was revealed she just had sex with a random stranger (her husbands brother lol) in the park.

I would agree Hope was raped by Stefano who knew she was not in her right mind.  By John?  Neither were in there right mind so both were kind of raped.

I feel like all days heroines seem to be constantly menaced by men especially Marlena and Hope in the 90's. 

[teplin]

Julie was raped by Larry Atwood in 1978 and was suspect #1 when he turned up dead.

[SoapDope]

Cricket Christine Blair aka Bug has been raped twice on Y&R, not to mention being stalked and harassed on numerous occasions. I guess Bill Bell wanted the audience to know his daughter Lauralee was all that and a bag of chips with all those assaults.