Blade Runner rape scene
Last night I watched the original Blade Runner. I've definitely seen it before, but I didn't remember it well.
I was completely thrown by the rape scene. Not because it was necessarily out of character, but it was just a huge fucking unnecessary sidetrack from all of the other interesting things happening in the movie.
The first thing I did was search "bladerunner rape" to see what the rest of the Web has to say about it. There are a handful of posts by people who are shocked and appalled, and the rest is people defending it along the lines of:
- It was the 80s.
- you didn't understand these scene because you weren't paying attention to x y z complex imagery and film themes blah blah
- it wasn't supposed to be rape they just acted it badly (I'll say, their acting very thoroughly convinced me it was 100% rape).
- it wasn't rape because she initiated it.
*double take* .. *back up* .. I'm sorry, what?
Some of those people even went so far as to point out that "she initiated it" by playing the piano and taking her hair down.
You have got to be fucking kidding me.
Some people said if she'd said no he would have stopped. She literally ran for the door!
jfc
Some people pointed out that after he told her to say she wanted him, and she did (with pure terror in her voice) and then she said other sexy things without him telling her to that meant it was okay. His job is literally to hunt her down and kill her and every move she made after she realised she was trapped in his apartment (including staying here after he left) appeared to me to be out of abject fear for her life. That doesn't seem a whole like like consent, eh.
That is all.