Stoking the fire of victim blaming. 

Directing attitudes through its framing.

Reality mirrored into something fiction,

hard watching brutal male rape depiction.

 

Pre-watershed show attracted many a complaint,

pretty pictures their narratives did not paint.

Victim focus feeding into survivors' worst fear

Men still hold all the power or so it would appear.

 

Creating awareness with the best of intentions,

taking onboard abuse charities' suggestions.

Mindfully underlining issues of consent.

Yet, gaslighting was all too evident.

 

Believable characters did well to display

the aftermath of those who did stay.

Differing attitudes Ben did find,

friends and family who were not all that kind.

 

Ben’s masculinity placed on display.

Toxic questioning, in a way.

Hard man image reminder so stark.

A nod to his father does it mark.

 

Asking questions of Ben’s victim status

when throwing his violent nature at us. 

Beating up guys twice his size, 

making vulnerable Ben seem like lies.

 

Whilst victim emotions came from a heinous crime,

his abuser exited at the very same time.

Though, this scenario too often rings true.

A different ending was important too.

 

For awareness is no good on its own

when toxic maleness is not shown.

Empowering survivors to find their voices,

Eastenders should have shown us other choices.

 

It really isn’t the dramatization that is told,

but the power of a male-led society that’s sold.

Victim-focused depictions inevitably stay

instead of challenging toxic masculinity that wont to go away.

_

Karen Burns is 49 and lives in Coventry, England. She is a graduate at Warwick after completing a Social Studies degree. Her interests are reading, poetry, writing reviews and she has a blog all about her daughter who has an eating disorder.