Home And A Rape

Long-term readers of this blog will know that I am bit obsessed with Home and Away. I don't blog about it much because I assume that the rest of you have jobs and lives or are Canadian or both, and so aren't familiar with it. I however watch it every day without fail, and let me tell you something. It is really starting to piss me off.

Now, to pick up on the sexual politics of a daytime teen-oriented soap may seem a little hysterical to some, but bear with me, OK? By my count, Home and Away is now on its THIRD misunderstood rapist with a heart of gold. Very, very long-term readers of this blog and its predecessor may remember Kane, the original misunderstood rapist. To summarise, Kane raped Dani, and then married her sister Kirtsy. Dani's objections to this were largely felt to be really quite unnecessarily grudge-holding by the rest of the Summer Bay residents, and eventually she got over it. After all, it was a date rape, so that hardly even counts.

Next up was Henk, or maybe Hank, I am a bit confused by Aussie accents sometimes. Henk / Hank raped Rachel, but quite a long time ago now, so really it's OK when he gets together with Cassie (whose previous boyfriend used to beat her up.) I mean, you can understand why Rachel doesn't approve, but it's love, right? OK, to be fair, Henk / Hank gets AIDS and gives it to Cassie and then she dumps him and takes off travelling with their unborn child, BUT on the whole you are supposed to feel quite sorry for Hank / Henk, whose rape / underage girl habit is portayed as a character flaw on a par with, say, listening to loud music late at night.

And now we have Axel, who tried to rape Melody and failed, and has been shown to feel a bit guilty about it (he confessed to the police), and thus rehabilitated is perfectly ready to start dating new arrival Ruby, who insightfully pointed out that "if I had done something like that, I would feel worse about myself than anybody could feel about me." Anybody, aside from loyal Home and Away viewer Marie Phillips, who is getting sick and tired of date rape being portrayed as som kind of rite of passage for mixed up young kids, like drinking til you puke or spraying graffiti. I hate to come over all Mary Whitehouse about this, but seriously: what kind of message is this sending out to impressionable young viewers?

Next time, if you can stand it: the Whore's Trail of Home and Away's sexually predatory older women, starring Angie, Amanda, and Jazz.

UPDATE: How could I possibly have forgotten Jonah, who raped Martha's best friend, but while (of course) brainwashed, so (of course) it doesn't count, and therefore we shouldn't be at all surprised when he comes back to the Bay (of course) a reformed man, changes his name to Michael and starts (of course) dating Martha.

DOUBLE UPDATE: Turns out I was wrong about Axel. He died. Ah well.