Over the last few weeks, Great British soap Coronation Street has been tackling the subject of sexual violence to remarkable effect. The world of feisty character Carla Connor, played by Alison King (who joined the cast back in 2006), has been turned upside down following her rape by trusted fiance and business partner Frank Foster. The ground had been laid for such a violation, Frank having previously tried to rape Carla's on-off friend Maria. Carla ultimately chose to trust Frank, essentially labelling the incident an overreaction on the part of "naïve" Maria. Viewers have since followed Carla from forensic examination to police station, as she tries to process what happened.
Soaps might not seem like the most appropriate vehicle for educating the public about sexual violence given their mile-a-minute plots and pantomime characters. In fact, they have a pretty poor history of handling the subject with any skill or understanding (Hollyoaks' recent interactive storyline, where viewers were called upon to decide the outcome of a rape trial based on conflicting evidence, being a particularly clumsy example of this). That being said, the national Rape Crisis Helpline saw the volume of calls increase by 800% during the week of Carla's rape. The programme makers' decision to show the helpline number on screen, as opposed to being accessed through an info line, was a good one; viewers were affected by its content and wanted a confidential space to talk about their experiences. Helpline workers expected a spike in calls, but the reaction was overwhelming and unprecedented.
It seems that, when writers do their research, viewers have an established empathy with the cast that can prove invaluable in getting the message across. Read that "a woman is more likely to be raped in the UK than she is to get breast cancer" as print in a newspaper, and you might have trouble processing what that truly means. See that statistic humanised in the way Alison King did as Carla, and suddenly the size of the issue is brought home.
And this is a sizeable issue. The volume of calls to Rape Crisis not only illustrated that rape is still horrifically prevalent in the UK, but also that women struggle against countless obstacles in talking about and coping with the violence perpetrated against them. For some callers, watching the episode triggered memories and flashbacks. For others, seeing Carla's assault on screen gave them permission to name their own assault as rape, and validated that what happened to them was both serious and illegal.
97% of callers to Rape Crisis lines know their rapist (RCF, 2003), though this statistic may be changing. What Carla endured is a reality for thousands of women across the UK, who suffer sexual violence at the hands of a friend, partner or ex. In healing, survivors not only have to deal with the reality of being violated by someone they loved and trusted, but also the commonly held myth that rape within a relationship 'isn't really rape'. Although British law now recognises rape in marriage, the law has only been in effect since 1991 in England (and marital rape still isn't recognised as illegal in countless other countries). Public perception seems to be lagging behind, as myths continue to roam free, often being internalised by friends, colleagues, professionals, and ultimately survivors themselves, effectively dissuading women from reporting or speaking out at all.
At the heart of it, though, statistics don't always paint a clear enough picture. We need to rehumanise these numbers by educating ourselves as to the emotional realities of rape - what it means for those who survive it. If addressing sexual violence in television programs and talk shows helps us to do that, then surely that can only be a good thing. The workers on the National Rape Crisis line have no doubt helped to save lives by empowering women to get the support which they need and deserve - not with any special superpowers, just with a little education and understanding. If everyone took the time to educate themselves in the same way, we'd be a lot closer to creating a world where women and girls no longer need to live with the threat and reality of sexual violence.
For more information on how to support survivors, and some myth-busting facts about sexual violence in England and Wales, please visit rapecrisis.org.uk.
To access support for yourself or someone you care about please call the National Rape Crisis Helpline on 0808 802 9999, open every day 12 - 2.30pm and 7-9.30pm.