#**svu

[aimmyarrowshigh]

is svu’s episode this week really about a thinly-veiled analog for ilhan omar being raped in a synagogue

because not only is it super disgusting when they invent fake sexual assaults against super thinly veiled analogs for real women who aren’t publicly survivors of sexual assault (like last week’s disgusting “what if BEYONCE got raped?” episode, which, like, what the FUCK svu WHAT THE FUCK WHO GREENLIGHTS THIS SHIT ANYMORE WHAT HAPPENED, MARISKA???) but also

what the fuck in general

this show is not capable of handling islamophobia or antisemitism with nuance

what the actual fuck

everything about this premise is what the fuck

and i know, given that i’m only five minutes in and already angry because they’ve said the k-word twice and are Whataboutisraeling as the plotline, that it’ll turn out to be A TWIST: IT WAS [some other group here] but like

THAT DOESN’T MAKE IT BETTER, THAT MAKES BOTH JEWISH PEOPLE AND MUSLIM PEOPLE AND ALL RAPE SURVIVORS LOOK WORSE. agjadkgakdgandtnwntwgnandgmdgmadgm

i have hated every episode of SVU since season 12 when they entire writers’ room decided to flip hard-right and push the narrative that the rapists are the real victims in this country and that rape is titillating, or whatever, but like

what the fuck

(AND, speaking of not liking antisemitic stuff on TV this week, like, i’ll give B99 latitude because I know andy samberg and michael schur are the ones writing it in, but can we retire Irish Cop Charles Boyle’s hasidic Jew costume? Because Rosa was right, it’s offensive and they’ve used it way too many times now.)

[aimmyarrowshigh]

next week, on the same night, at the same time, both svu and criminal minds are airing episodes about murderous creepy clowns, because neither show is even pretending to pretend to be about anything other than retraumatizing people and exploiting Bad Shit

[i-exist-solely-for-fandom]

thinking about SVU and that one line from Hole’s song Asking For It that goes “if you live through this with me, I swear that I will die for you”

[i-exist-solely-for-fandom]

I rewatched Payback today and i had a lot of thoughts on it and i wanted to share them here… this is very negative but i do think it’s a really really interesting episode of television and im really fascinated by the views and attitudes in it so i would love to talk if anyone has any thoughts!!!

I actually understood more of the investigative details this time. Still leaves a bad taste in my mouth that Olivia essentially having the barest sympathy for victims of rape and mutilation and torture during an attempted ethnic cleansing is framed as her not doing her job properly because she has to be “objective”. Interesting that emotion is seen as such a bad thing here. Like yes it did compromise her work and she tried to cover the victims but it’s fucked up that they’re mad about it. And like obvs this is L&O, they’re police, they’re not going to deeply interrogate how unfair a system that locks people up and ruins their lives for retaliating after rape or is so bad that a victim would rather KILL HERSELF than go to jail is. I know that. And I know that they did what they could within like this genre of show, (presumably—we don’t really see this, but it’s implied by Cragen chastising Olivia and Elliot (which by the way fuck him!!!!)) working things out to get the other victim lesser charges and a relatively short psychiatric stay instead of longer prison time and this kind of gives an understanding the existing system could be unfair but they’re working within it to do what’s best. But it’s really bleak that this was “progressive” and “controversial” for the time. And you can still see this huge lack of any human empathy for victims in the main characters’ actions. Like Munch for literally making fun of the rape victim and asking if her “psycho drama” was over???? And he’s supposed to be a likeable character!! And Cragen being so harsh on Olivia and Elliot for working within an unfair system to maybe get literally the TINIEST bit of a better situation for that woman. Like he was literally complaining that they didn’t give her more severe charges like oh! so you want her life ruined because she killed her rapist. And also fuck Elliot for deciding to arrest (and MAKING OLIVIA ARREST bc he KNOWS she’s uncomfortable with it) these women even though he literally admitted he didn’t have enough evidence and he wanted to lie to the victims to see if he could get them to confess. They could’ve just dropped it. So they’re also literally going OUT OF THEIR WAY to try and put rape victims behind bars.

Olivia (and Jeffries but she was barely in this episode) is basically the only moderately sympathetic character in this entire show and i think about her a lot. The conversation she has with Serena made me tear up. god…. i will say i think it’s an incredibly powerful and interesting writing choice to give her that backstory and the only silver lining in this episode is the emotional vulnerability and empathy and care (again, bare minimum but huge for a 1990s police show) she treats the victims with and that she’s clearly the main MAIN character and we’re meant to sympathize most with her. So that’s something.

I have a hard time imagining this in the context of 1999 but I try to examine this as a reflection of attitudes at that time and I just think it’s so bleak. I’m thankful we’ve moved somewhat further than this in like, general public attitudes, but it’s so bleak that we’ve needed to come so far and so bleak that a lot of the attitudes issues that are presented in this episode still exist today and that they’re glorified and glossed over here and still today. Idk… this is just a really tragic episode all around. Really really compelling though, as television. This is an incredibly intense show and I think the thing this episode does WELL is that it perfectly sets up that intensity that the entire show has and the character dynamics and the exploration of complexity/nuance in how sex crimes can be and are responded to within the criminal/legal system. I also saw someone talking about how the way this show explores things like that was really genuinely a novelty at the time and it opened up conversations! So i feel like i can appreciate that. But also it’s so incredibly copaganda-y and in the context of a show that also emphasizes realism (all those ripped-from-the-headlines cases) in something that’s so under-addressed and so awfully treated, I think we would be remiss to say that the attitudes we see here (and in the rest of the show) also close down so many doors and often disparage sympathy for victims while glorifying the criminal/legal system’s responses, which historically has had and does have really bad responses when it comes to sexual assault.

[i-exist-solely-for-fandom]

they are called Special Victims Unit bcuz they give certain victims special treatment #noticing

[aimmyarrowshigh]

oh, svu. ~the real murderer is feminism? oy vey. you should have bowed out with stabler instead of rehiring an entire writers’ room of right-wingers.

[aimmyarrowshigh]

The new "music during scenes" thing on SVU is... Not SVU-y.  Are they trying to be CSI?