Thai soaps trigger outcry over romanticising rape
17 Oct 2014 5:48 AM IST
In a famous scene from Thailand’s award-winning soap opera ‘The Power of Shadows,’ the handsome protagonist gets drunk and rapes the leading lady. He later begs her forgiveness, and they live happily ever after. Boy Meets Girl, Boy Rapes Girl, Boy Marries Girl.
The premise is so common in Thailand’s popular primetime melodramas it could be called a national twist on the universal romantic plotline. But calls for change are growing.The recent real-life rape and murder of a girl on an overnight train in Thailand has focused national outrage on messages in popular culture that trivialise - and some say even encourage - rape. Even the general who took over the country in a coup this year had to apologise after suggesting that women who wear bikinis on the beach are vulnerable to sexual assault.Many in the soap opera industry continue to defend sexual violence, in as a key to high ratings in a fiercely competitive industry that draws more than 18 million viewers a night.
The premise is so common in Thailand’s popular primetime melodramas it could be called a national twist on the universal romantic plotline. But calls for change are growing.The recent real-life rape and murder of a girl on an overnight train in Thailand has focused national outrage on messages in popular culture that trivialise - and some say even encourage - rape. Even the general who took over the country in a coup this year had to apologise after suggesting that women who wear bikinis on the beach are vulnerable to sexual assault.Many in the soap opera industry continue to defend sexual violence, in as a key to high ratings in a fiercely competitive industry that draws more than 18 million viewers a night.
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