End Violence Against Women have slammed the latest episode of Poldark for including a “rape scene.”
The BBC show had promised to deviate away from the series of novels by Winston Graham which it was adapted from but shocked fans by including the moment where Ross Poldark seemingly rapes Elizabeth Poldark.
On this weekend’s episode, Aidan Turner’s character was pushed away by Elizabeth, who then said “you will not dare” before they had sex.
Controversy: End Violence Against Women have hit out at Poldark’s latest episode | BBC
According to Digital Spy, Sarah Green, co-director of the campaign group, said that the depiction of consent was ambiguous and that it was an “irresponsible portrayal.”
“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,” Green argued.
“They have dodged the problem of sullying the main character by portraying him as an outright rapist by making the scene ambiguous. It’s an irresponsible portrayal. 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.”
Consent: Sarah said that the depiction of consent was ambiguous | BBC
Sarah also said that the depiction of rape is not appropriate in 2016.
“It’s damaging and it didn’t have to be done that way. 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 depiction of rape in 2016 is not appropriate,” she added.
“They have made it seem normal and okay and minimised the potential after-effects of such an attack on the victim.”
Damaging: The campaign co-director thinks they didn’t have to portray the scene in the way they did | BBC
Writer for Poldark, Debbie Horsfield spoke out about the campaigner’s comments and said that they had Winston’s son, Andrew Graham, on scene to clarify what his father would’ve wanted.
“One of the first things you learn when you’re adapting a novel is that no two readers imagine a scene the same way,” she said.
“This is even more acute when a scene ends abruptly, as is the case in Book 3 Chapter 6 of Warleggan, when the action cuts out and the rest is left entirely to the reader’s imagination.
Clarify: The show brought on Winston’s son Andrew to find out what his father’s intentions for the scene were | BBC
“However, as programme makers, we needed to decide what the audience would actually see. And, as far as possible, to bring to life what the original author intended the scene to depict.
“We were fortunate to have Winston Graham’s son Andrew as our consultant on the series so we were able to clarify with him what his father’s intentions for this scene were.
“What you saw onscreen is consistent with what we believe those intentions to have been.”
Story-telling: The writer’s son said that the end of the scene is left to one’s imagination | BBC
Andrew also spoke out about what his father was trying to say in his story-telling.
“There is no ‘shock rape’ storyline in the novels. To say so is to misconstrue my father’s text,” he said.
“The BBC has cut nothing and Mammoth Screen’s portrayal of these scenes is entirely true to my father’s writing.
“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 long-term love and longing. It was, as Aidan Turner has put it, ‘unfinished business emotionally.'”
