I can only speak for myself, so I will. Being raped is no fun. I've had experience with that. I always have hated when people want to mask the problem of rape & sexual abuse. For a long time I felt like "I was the only one who knew how it felt". That whole "you were asking for it" argument.. As I got older and submersed myself into darker art forms that showcase all sides of the human psyche & human behaviors, I came to an understanding. It's a very real, human experience not to be portrayed like a "Lifetime special". There has been some comfort in seeing rape portrayed as real as possible, because it allows people who have never been through that situation to gain some understanding and compassion towards people who have gone through it. I've read autobiographies of people describing how they were raped or abused, I've spoken to people who went through it. Bonding with others helped heal my pain. I became unashamed. I wasn't at fault. By being ashamed about sharing my past, I felt that put me at fault. I wasn't making myself available to other people who need to know they are not alone/at fault. Sharing an experience doesn't glorify that experience, it humanizes it for others to relate to it. Relating to a rape scene shouldn't be a shameful thing. It's staring a problem in the face and saying something about it. I commend actors who want to portray rape scenes properly. Any artist who makes something ugly instead of making something perfect & beautiful. The ones who tell the scary stories w/o endings. It should make you feel something. Pain, confusion, anger, fear, etc. but not towards the actors & people involved in creating the art. Just towards the action itself. I once had a teacher in cultural anthropology who refused to believe that our predecessors could have also been rapists. She claimed that rape was a new fangled action, that came along more recently in the history of humans. That kind of thinking insulted me a bit, because I feel like rape is very common, but also so frowned upon, it is silenced throughout history. If you silence an artist from conveying something that has influenced them, you are diluting the truth. Rape is real, and it shouldn't be something we want to close our eyes, ears, and hearts from because it is wrong. That is the wrong attitude to have. We should be discussing it. We should be able to look at a video like this one and be able to learn from it. Realize that someone needs to talk about it, or at least have an outlet to express their thoughts on it.
