Downton Rape Rant

Hello my sauciest of chicken wings,
Today my post shall be about Downton Abbey, and not just how amazing it is and how much I wish I lived it (until I remember the oppression, the fact that women couldn't inherit or make decisions or elevate their status of their own accord - MY we have come a long way!).

SPOILER ALERT THIS IS ABOUT SEASON FOUR.

So the last episode..it had rape. A definite fan favorite, Anna (the sweet, innocent, Bates-loving maid with the heart of gold) is attacked by a visiting fellow's butler. He beats her, drags her into a side room by her hair and rapes her while the rest of the household is watching a concert. No one hears her screams. Later, when Mrs. Hughes finds her and tries to get help or call the doctor, Anna begs her not to. She's worried her husband would kill the man and she'd lose him forever (jail, hanging, etc). She has Mrs. Hughes promise not to tell another soul. It is an absolutely heart-wrenching scene. She's disheveled, her clothes are torn, her face is bruised and bleeding and her perfectly coiffed hair has been pulled out. But the thing that makes it really sad is how broken Anna seems. It's the look on her face, not the bruises, that break your heart. It's the sobs rocking her body, and not the torn clothes on it, that make you want to reach into the screen and literally murder her attacker (no joke, Julian Fellowes - he's got to die).

In terms of the season, this will obviously be a pivotal moment and we'll be spending every episode from here on out waiting for that main to be killed/castrated. But what really surprised me is the amount of uproar over the rape from fans. People have likened it to a murder happening on the Teletubbies. They've said they don't tune in to the show to watch this kind of stuff. That Downton Abbey is more wholesome and viewers shouldn't have to see rape. They've said that for the writers to portray violence against women is morally reprehensible. Fans are threatening to boycott the show.

At this stage of the post, I'd like to do a little recap. This "family show" has portrayed: famine, adultery, war, disease, death from childbirth, death from car accidents, homophobia and moving dead bodies around in the middle of the night. I'm pretty sure that racism is going to come into play in the next episode too, considering they're adding their very first black cast member. But now that the rape card is being played, all of the sudden the writers have gone too far? It's a period drama. Are fans insinuating that rape didn't happen in that century? Do they think that maids weren't abused? Do they think maids aren't still abused? Do they think women haven't been dealing with sexual assault for the entirety of our existence? Is sexual assault so taboo in their heads that they can watch a woman seize herself to death in the arms of her family, but Anna being sexually assaulted is morally wrong to show?

Why are people trying to ignore rape? Is it easier to pretend it's not happening? Do you think that makes it go away? Do you think that means it won't happen to you or to the people you love? Get real. If you're so disgusted and horrified to see this on tv, then start fighting against sexual assault in the real world. Don't just turn your head and ignore what's happening every single day.

Downton Abbey also did a great job of showing how traumatizing sexual assault is. I have a feeling that Anna isn't just going to move on with her life. We're going to see her struggle with intimacy, anger, guilt, and pain. People need to see this. People need to understand how devastating rape is for a woman (or a man). Even George R.R. Martin (Game of Thrones) doesn't have his main female characters brutally raped (yet?), despite the fact that several side characters and faceless women in his novels are raped, murdered and considered the spoils of war. Don't get me wrong, that scene killed me to watch. I wish it hadn't happened to our favorite little Anna. But I'm glad that they're showing sexual assault for what it is. Anna was in a home she felt safe in, which is where most sexual assaults occur. Her aggressor was a man that she was already acquainted with, which is also the majority of cases.  She tried to hide the assault after the fact, worried about the fallout. None of this has changed over the years since Downton Abbey takes place.

If watching what happened to Anna was so hard, start fighting for the girls who go through that every day. After all, Anna is played by an actress. She goes home at the end of the day wearing jeans. She washes off the bruise makeup and is applauded for her acting abilities during that scene. The hundreds of thousands of women who have been and will be sexually assaulted do not have that option.