The inconsistent, contradictory ramblings of Scarlett the Harlot

When I was in middle school I was obsessed with the original Law & Order. Then Benjamin Bratt left the show and I was stuck with reruns. Until Law & Order: SVU. I loved this show from the pilot episode. But even in high school I considered myself a feminist and I've always felt this is one of my unfeminist guilty pleasures. Generally, I preface saying "I love this show" with "I know I shouldn't, but..." when I talk about it to people. There's the obvious reason, that is, there's so many variations of the L&O brand that it's sortof a joke now. The more subtle reason is this: does a show who's entire premise is reliving and recounting rapes--even if it's to prosecute said rapes--really empower women? 


Recently I read an interesting post on the Community Board of one of my favorite websites, feministing.com. The poster's thought was basically that we need more shows like this because the rapists are always prosecuted, the detectives stop at nothing to bring them to justice, and it educates the public by making sure people know that rape is real and it happens all the time. These are some really valid points and it got me thinking. But one of the comments in particular made a point to say that if real life detectives did half the things the detectives on the show do, rather than sending perpetratators to jail, there would actually be a huge mistrail rate because of the civil liberties they trample.

Which begs the question: is this show a feminist show? 

My gut says no. The most recent episode, titled Smut, was about a serial rapist that drugged his victims so they wouldn't remember the rapes. He taped them. His defense was "porn made me do it." The episode touched on the idea of whether or not porn going mainstream was a good thing because it allows people to fantasize or if it encouraged men to further view women as sex objects. Topics like this are regularly bandied about in the precinct, there are enough characters that you can usually cover most of the arguments and still make it sound believable and not like a PSA. The female cop (Olivia Bensen) completely disdains porn and considers it wholly degrading to women, her partner essentially agrees (Elliot Stabler--ragehead, Catholic father of something like fifty kids, and sexy beast), another detective (played by Ice-T which is just all kinds of ironic) says porn's okay and he enjoys it. Oh, and he calls Olivia a prude for thinking the way she does--incidentally this is the first and only time I've wanted to smack Ice-T's character Finn, he's usually a pragmatic voice of reason.

The regular characters, that is the cops, FBI psychiatrist, and prosecuting attorneys, have had enough time to grow as characters and to grow into their characters. The show's been on for long enough that you know pretty quick who feels what. And even though the show has been on for forever, it's still coming up with new material. This is based in large part because like the other L&O brands, SVU "rips its stories from the headlines", so it's not uncommon to watch the show and see something that you were just reading in the gossip columns. Like the episode where a toy mogul had a serious Peter Pan complex (right down to exotic animals in his house and a life size pirate ship) and was accused of molesting young children--he was aquited because one of his accusers was lying. Sound familiar?

The show is gripping, addictive as hell. And on the one hand, it is pretty cool that the rapists/murderers/child-molesters pretty much always go to jail or get murdered horribly or commit suicide .You see them brought to some kind of justice. But isn't the constant exposure to rape a problem? Doesn't it desensitize those of us who watch the show regularly? 

It's not like they show the rapes because they don't. It's network television and they'd never get away with it. But they will show the events leading up to it and the initial attack. The will show the end result. They'll show the victim reliving the attack. Doesn't this sexualize victims? 

Make no mistake, I don't want to see someone getting raped. The thought literally turns my stomach and there are certain scenes in certain movies (I'm looking at that God-awful Anne Hathaway flick Havoc here) that I've never actually watched because I literally can't handle it.

But by not showing the awful act, and only showing a pretty woman (or man) completely losing her shit in an interrogation room, doesn't that sexualize the victim? 

Also, the detectives actually do consistently cross lines. There have been storylines in which they've gone after the victims, forcing them to confront their attackers, Stabler himself forced his daughter into a mental institution because she refused to persue treatment for bi-polar disorder. As a feminist, actually as a person with a conscience, both of these things are unacceptable to me. But when they're done in the context of this show, I'm willing to overlook and accept it. Because after all, it's just a television show. And it's good drama.

But is that a good excuse? 

Is there any excuse for some of the things on the show? 

Is there any excuse for any show using rape or child molestation as a tool to further the plot? 

On the one hand, I'm a writer myself and I don't believe that censorship is condusive to the creative process, likewise, I think that by not showing it at all is to somehow deny it's existence and it is important to give these kinds of crimes a name. I truly believe that cultures that allow violence against women and children are cultures that have serious problems.

And it's a slippery slope. Once you say that television can't show this, suddenly they can't show that, and it's all downhill until the only thing left on the air is the Wiggles and then that gets banned because it's weird for grown men to sing and dance for teh entertainment of toddlers.

There isn't an easy answer for this argument. On the one hand, L&O:SVU is entertianment and there's a reason the disclaimer at the beginning says 'viewer descretion advised', but on the other, it consistently shows tough content. Unfortunately, showing that tough content may very well do more good than harm. It encourages discussion and it's a weekly format in which people consistently hear people encouraging rape victims to come forward and see those victims finding justice. That's a pretty strong positive reenforcement, no matter what the show's character's methods. Because again, it is fiction.

I guess in the end, it's like a lot of things and it's up to each viewer to draw their own conclusions. I myself now have misgivings about the show. But it's still a show that I enjoy and will continue to watch.

Maybe that's more a reflection of me than of the show.