Rape on TV.

This is something I've been meaning to post even before the Harvey Weinstein scandal broke but always found myself distracted. Although it might seem irrelevant at this point I feel I must finally get it out of my system.

Back in August 2017 the UK government funded Channel 4 network broadcast a drama mini-series about the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) entitled; "The State."

As I briefly mentioned at the time Channel 4 is a network that absolutely craves controversy and attention. Therefore I decided it was best to ignore it rather than rise to their bait.

It must be said though that I was absolutely appalled by the way this program covered the Yezidi Genocide. Particularly the way that ISIL kidnapped Yezidi women and girls in order to rape them and use them as sexual slaves.

This was portrayed by the character "Jalal." This British ISIL fighter was shown buying a Yezidi woman and her pubescent daughter at a slave auction. He then brought the pair back to his mansion but rather than raping them he gave the both a nice room, cooked and cared for them both.

Eventually in response to Jalal's kindness the Yezidi woman decided to give herself sexually to him in scenes that seemed almost romantic.

I would say that you could imagine the outrage if rape had been portrayed on UK TV in this way in any other context.

The fact is though that we don't need to imagine. In September the ITV network broadcast a drama mini-series; "Liar." This provided a clear example of the only context rape is normally allowed to be portrayed on UK TV.

The premise of the show was that a couple go on a date. The following morning the woman accuses the man of raping her. However the events are not shown. The intention being that suspense would build over the episodes as the viewer tried to work out whether the man or the woman was the liar.

That suspense never materialised though because the whole thing was a massive rip-off of the 1997 BBC drama film; "In Your Dreams." This was one of the things that really helped launch the career of British actress Thandie Newton.

They did though jazz it up for the modern era by having the woman use social media to publicly accuse the man of rape. That led to the police warning her she was jeopardising her case and her being sued for libel.

What really ruined the suspense though is that you always knew deep down that there is no way that a network would dare run a show in which a woman making a rape allegation is shown to be a liar. The social media backlash would be enormous.

In fact the fear of the backlash from the virtue signallers was so great that the show revealed the man was the liar in about episode three of six. Having given up on its core premise the show then just descended into absolute nonsense.

For example at one point the woman drugged the man and kidnapped as a way of filing a false rape report. However the man escaped only to be stopped by a policewoman who was happy to conspire with the woman to falsely imprison him for rape.

Obviously what Ioan Gruffudd's character would have done at that point is go to hospital, have himself tested for drugs and accused the woman and the policewoman of assault, kidnap and perverting the course of justice. That would have led to both women being sent to prison.

An ultimate victory for a character that is portrayed as a woman hating control freak. Also a storyline that would have been much more dramatic if you didn't know who the liar was.

Unfortunately the guardians of virtue on social media wouldn't allow for this sort of emotionally and intellectually challenging storyline. So instead we got six hours of politically correct speeches including dialogue such as;

"Isn't is appalling. Only 5% of rape allegations result in conviction."

That particular slogan is actually completely factually incorrect. On average in the UK 30% of rape allegations result in conviction;

5% where the accused is convicted. 25% where the accuser is convicted after the accusation is found beyond all reasonable doubt to be both false and malicious.

Back in August 2017 one of those 25% of case made headlines. Jemma Beale was jailed for 10 years after making false rape allegations against 9 men.

In commenting on the case a woman on one of those news/newspaper review shows said; "It's only making news because it's so rare."

The only response to that is; "No it's not rare. It fact rape accusations being found to be false is the norm. Rape allegations being found to be true is the exception."

So in summary attitudes to rape in the UK at least have got to the point where you cannot state facts about rape in a political discussion about rape.

Unless of course the rapist is a Muslim. In which case apparently it's romantic.

And on that slightly incoherent point I feel I should remind you; It's Tuesday and I've been to the pub. 

23:25 on 31/10/17 (UK date).