Films And TV Shows That Force Us To Rethink What We Know About Sexual Assault

SEXUAL ASSAULT

Sexual assault is an act when someone tries to invade in someone’s space sexually. When an individual deliberately forces some other person in an sexual act without their consent or coerces or physically touches another person against their will. This includes kissing, groping, oral sex, intercourse, etc. The main reason of doing this is to generally imply power on the other person or to show themselves superior.

This films/tv shows has an impact in reality particularly with the case several expert have remarked how society collectively is responsible for all the crimes propagated the sexual assault culture. In most of the cases it is less about sexual pleasure but more about the satisfaction of power over woman’s body.

Sexual assault is been portrayed in various movies setting different parameters. The corner point of these web series or movies is to aware people and let them know that they can approach for help, or to make other aware that how hard it could be for victim to move on, or just to aware people in general. Some of these marvellous eye openers are:

1. Euphoria

It’s a show on HBO that aired in 2019 that puts light on various challenges or activities teens go through like drugs, sexual abuse, mental health crisis, toxic masculinity, etc. One of the key reason that why Nate tries to physically assault Maddie by strangling because he feels a sense of superiority over her, likewise  Cassy another character of the series encounters a somewhat similar situation in which her boyfriend tries to force himself on her just in sake of masculinity. In both cases. The web series got nominated in GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Drama Series, Critics’ Choice Television Award for Best Actress in a Drama Series, British Academy Television Award for Best International Programme, TCA Award for Outstanding Achievement in Drama.

2 Unbelievable

A very small proportion of web series or films talk about the after effect of sexual assault on victim, or even a very rarely focused on this topic without side lining it. Unbelievable is of the stories where they mainly focus on a girls reacting to their physical assault. The noticeable point that the whole drama portrayed is there’s no “perfect victim” or “perfect investigation”.

It also points on how fragile this whole situation is for the victims, just like when the cop ‘Karen Duvall ‘ says; “When we are talking about a violent rapist, a guy who can any minute break into another woman’s house & scar another woman for life because this is not something people get over, this is something they carry with them forever, like a bullet in spine”.

Also Read: Why it’s still legal for Indian men to rape their wives?

At the end of the series when they hunt the Rapist and take a statement out of him, it shows that how the guilty is inclined towards these toxic thoughts and doing. As the Rapist says he was not going to stop unless he gets caught.

POSITIVE POINT/SPOILER: Justice being served and he gets jailed.

3. Sex education

A Netflix drama, comedy is not just a popular hit but also very bizarre. This show has such a new concept of educating teenagers about their sexual orientation and the problems they handle in general. These teenage characters talk about sex a lot, and all the scenes involve explicit, ongoing consent.

The show deals with sexual assault particularly in the second season. When a man ejaculates on Aimee(a character) in a moving bus. She were being indifferent towards the whole stunt at first but later viewers can how traumatized she feels with every subsequent episode.

The powerful twist of storyline involves six girls at odds with each other, ends up being in a ‘Breakfast Club’ type of detention activity where the basic protocol was to find something in common. In the middle of an argument of some other girls, Aimee confronts the whole incidence. This creates a domino effect where each student recounts their own experience with unwanted sexual orientation.

The final episode shows the girls empathy towards Aimee and therefore they join her at the bus stop, to support her and make her feel safe.

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4. Pink

Pink is a women-centric film that shows how these three women fight back against the wrong doing of couple of boys with them. The three female protagonists of ‘Pink’ are your regular young women. As the plot unravels, we got to know the trio was in the company of three young men after a concert. But things start to go downhill after the dinner only. The women escapes and one of the young men ends up needing stitches.

As the story moves, it wasn’t a surprise to get to know the political was supporting injured Rajveer (Angad Bedi) and his friends, Dumpy (Raashul Tandon), Vishwa (Tushar Pandey) and another fellow (Vijay Varma) who was not present at the gimmick but was deliberately trying to persuade one of the victim to take their case back. Mr. Amitabh bachchan is playing role of a solicitor. The biggest highlight of the movie is when Mr. Amitabh says, ”when a girl says NO that just means one and only one thing. No groping, no forcing. She is not a person of loose morals. She is not interested in you and not asking for it.”

At the end, the jury announce the guys guilty.

5. 13Reasons Why

Thirteen reasons why follows the fallout after a student’s suicide and then unravels the web that led her there, is an ambitious and uniquely sympathetic deep dive into the challenges of being in high school. The drama is sensitive, surprising, consistently engaging, and, most important, unblinking.

Clay Jensen, the protagonist when he returns home from school to find a mysterious box with 7 cassette tapes in it, all by Hannah baker (his crush, and classmate) who committed suicide two weeks earlier. Hannah unfolds her horrid, overwhelming, unpleasant experiences which pushed her to do so. The story line is very real and raw and, henceforth teenagers find this series of events very relatable. Through Hannah and Clay’s dual narratives, 13 Reasons Why weaves an intricate and heartrending story of confusion and desperation that will deeply affect viewers.