Women’s groups cry foul over Poldark ‘rape’
The BBC has been sharply criticised over a Poldark scene that campaigners say depicts “rape”, amid claims it was handled “in the worst way” possible. A women’s campaign group said ambiguity about the female character’s consent in last night’s episode was “irresponsible” and a “manipulation” by the show.
THE BBC has been sharply criticised over a Poldark scene that campaigners say depicts “rape”, amid claims it was handled “in the worst way” possible.
A women’s campaign group said ambiguity about the female character’s consent was “irresponsible” and a “massive manipulation” by the show.
Viewers last night saw Elizabeth pushing Ross Poldark away and saying “you will not dare” before he throws her on a bed and has sex with her.
Karen Thrussell, a producer, described the scene as a “fiery encounter that concludes with a consensual act”.
However, Sarah Green, co-director of the campaign group End Violence Against Women, said the depiction was “worse than a straightforward rape” because it showed the woman resisting her former lover before apparently enjoying being overpowered by him.
Fans had been told the episode, di- rected by Charles Palmer and written by Debbie Horsfield, would show consensual sex between the pair, with Aidan Turner, who plays Poldark, saying his character “doesn’t force himself ” on Elizabeth, played by Heida Reed.
Ms Green said the scene sent an “irresponsible” message about the issue of consent. “This is the worst possible way they could have come up with to handle the scene and far more damaging than if it had clearly been portrayed as non-consensual throughout.
“They have dodged the problem of sullying the main character by portraying him as an outright rapist by making the scene ambiguous.
“In the beginning, he is forceful and she is clearly rejecting him and it’s disturbing to watch. Then there is ambiguity when she appears to give in to him and that’s a massive manipulation on the part of the directors. It’s worse than if it had been a straightforward rape scene.” The campaigner said the episode risked “minimising” the trauma of sexual assault.
“Many viewers will feel the act was not consensual and yet she is glowing in the aftermath, which sends out the message that even though she said no she really meant yes,” Ms Green said. “It’s damaging. Poldark is a massive pop culture vehicle that will go into thousands of homes. The book was written in the 1950s when this kind of attitude was more accepted, but to have that depic- tion of rape in 2016 is not appropriate. They have made it seem normal and OK and minimised the potential after-effects of such an attack on the victim.”
Warleggan, the novel upon which the show is based, describes Elizabeth telling Ross Poldark: “Stop! Stop, I tell you,” before continuing: “But he took no further notice. He lifted her in his arms and carried her to the bed.”
The programme-makers consulted author Winston Graham’s son Andrew about his father’s intentions. He insisted that the novels do not feature a “shock rape”. “To say so is to misconstrue my father’s text,” he said. “To be more precise – in the novel Warleggan the point of departure for the relevant scene is indeed consistent with the potential for rape. But what then actually happens is not described but is left entirely to one’s imagination.
“The only way to judge what my father intended is to read the novels as a whole. Doing so it becomes clear, from earlier scenes as well as from Elizabeth’s immediate reactions and later mixed emotions that what finally happened was consensual sex born of longterm love and longing.”
A BBC spokesman said the programme did not show a rape, adding it was “for viewers to make up their own minds.”
In the lead up to this second series of Poldark (BBC One, Sunday), much was made of how a controversial rape scene in Winston Graham’s novels had been “cut” and updated in line with 21st century ideas of correct behaviour. But had it, really?
We got to judge for ourselves in the climactic moments of last night’s eighth episode in which Ross Poldark (Aidan Turner), on learning that Elizabeth (Heida Reed) had agreed to wed George Warleggan (Jack Farthing), went to confront her in the middle of the night. He kicked in her front door, entered her bedroom against her will, and refused to leave despite her repeated requests. He then insisted on having sex with her, despite obvious resistance on her part.
Coming at the end of a superbly brooding and atmospheric episode that saw Ross’s fortunes change like the wind, this made for high drama and strong shock value. Ross had evaded prison by producing false witnesses in court. His hopes of a miraculous reversal of his mining fortunes had been dashed by a tunnel collapse, resulting in the death of two men. At his lowest ebb, news arrived that the woman for whom he’s always kept a flame burning bright in his heart was about to betray him.
Meanwhile, his wife Demelza’s (Eleanor Tomlinson) fear of losing her husband to the newly widowed Elizabeth was ramped up relentlessly. And Elizabeth was characterised as much a victim as a pragmatist for accepting George’s offer of a high lifestyle and a vast inheritance for her son.
So Ross, a man of intense passions, broke in to her house and did what everybody including his wife, Elizabeth, and doubtless the vast majority of the audience have been expecting him to do for weeks. I just wonder how many viewers would agree that the scene as played out was a clear representation of “consensual sex”.
Obviously all good drama requires jeopardy. It must explore grey areas and prompt debate. And generally I think Poldark is one of the most emotionally involving dramas on TV. But the fact is there was no clear consent here – even if all was shown to be OK between Ross and Elizabeth the following morning. Legally, that’s too late. And with so many rape cases hinging on finely balanced issues around consent, it really is not good enough to suggest that leaving any room for doubt can be interpreted as acceptable.
Virginia McKenna’s Born Free (Channel 4, Sunday) was a documentary about a famous actress revisiting the role that came to define her in the public mind 50 years ago – that of the naturalist Joy Adamson in the hugely successful film
Born Free. But what began as a slice of warm-hearted nostalgia transmuted into something more meaningful.
“Nothing had been made like it before,” said actress Virginia McKenna of the film adaptation of the bestseller about how Adamson, and her husband George in Kenya, raised an orphaned lioness called Elsa, and had to teach her to kill before releasing her back into the wild.
Doubtless the film’s production methods, as recalled here, were revolutionary. Actors and crew worked out in the wilderness with animals that were for the most part untrained. Many of the anecdotes from cast and crew, such as how McK enna broke an ankle when a lion jumped on her, were hair-raising. But the chief focus soon turned to how Born Free changed the lives of McKenna and Travers profoundly.
The best moments focused on how the couple criticised publicly the sad fate of the lions used in making of the film, even before it premiered (McKenna revealed for the first time how a senior publicist had warned them that if the film failed it would be their fault). It also showed how they eventually came to found, in 1986, the Born Free Foundation which has done so much impressive conservation work in the intervening decades.
In truth, the film could have been more generous towards Adamson who was the pioneer here, not just a lonely woman with a sidetracked maternal urge. Otherwise, this was an insightful documentary that made a convincing case for how Born Free not only caught a wave new thinking in the Sixties about humankind’s relationship with the natural world, but itself played a small but key role in the rise of the conservation and environmental movements of the last half century. Poldark ★★★ Virginia McKenna’s Born Free ★★★★