“The voices of women fill the pages with outcry for justice for our sisters, but when it comes to rape and consent and the fight for justice, women must also stand up for male victims as well.”
The newest Netflix obsession, Bridgerton, comes from TV’s peak pound-for-pound provocateur, Shonda Rhimes. And just like Shondaland productions Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal, and How to Get Away With Murder, Bridgerton’s propulsive dalliance with the messy underpinnings of society have all but endeared fans across the globe.
But just because it addresses and seemingly brushes past issues of class, status, and rape culture doesn’t mean we as an audience cannot take them on seriously.
In “Daphne Bridgerton raped her husband and why it’s important to not romanticize it,” writer Yia Vue focuses on Daphne, who so desperately wants a child that she rapes her husband, Simon. Vue places that violation within a larger historical context, attempting to extend conversations around consent culture to include men, too.
It is difficult enough for male rape victims to come forward. Harder even to deal with society’s toxicity in telling him to just “man up” or even worse, pat him on the back and tell him he should just like it.
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