What 'Anatomy Of A Scandal' Can Teach Us About Rape Culture (FDS PODCAST EP. 72)

I had previously watched the show, it made some great points about power imbalances, the victim’s experience managing lifelong trauma, the family’s experience when a loved one is charged with a serious crime, etc. However, I found the rape scenes gratuitous and unnecessary. We get it, we don’t need to watch women being raped on camera, they could have cut the actual rape scenes out and just leave the story that lead to that point, it would have been easy to understand. But as we all know how it is with tv and movies, women’s abuse is considered entertainment. It’s trauma porn for the desensitised viewer that needs to watch a woman being brutalised to be able to develop one iota of empathy for her.

Thanks for this podcast episode. I feel so validated and seen. It is so true that most people (men and pick-mes) don't ever recognize rape unless it's a forceful rape. With this definition most of us either have been raped (mostly women) or are rapists themselves (mostly men). That's a grim reality. But denying it is what makes rape culture further perpetuate toxicity in all aspects of society.

Very good point about mainstream media never depicting "grey rape"...because most male writers probably aren't even aware that it exists.

Does anyone here watched the show? I’ve watched the first episode but it didn’t catch my attention. Is it worth watching?

The podcast asked for an example of marital rape in media. In the series Transparent, Season 4, Episode 5, starting at 3:25, there is a flashback, Mort/Maura up Shelly for sex. She explicitly says she does not want to have sex but Mort/Maura persists until Shelly just lets Mort/Maura have sex with her while she is lying facedown, completely passive, letting them do it just so she can get back to sleep.