13 Reasons Why: How Sexual Assault is Portrayed in Popular Culture
13 Reasons Why is a popular, yet very controversial show in today’s world. It covers topics such as suicide, sexual assault, bullying, drug and alcohol abuse. While it has been praised for shedding light on such a complex issue such as sexual assault, it has also been condemned for its portrayal of the same topic. Many have argued that specific scenes in the show are too graphic while depicting sexual assault. Others argue that the same scenes are romanticizing sexual assault for entertainment purposes. However, some praise the show for accurately depicting what it is like to go through a sexual assault.
The main sexual assault case in the show, involves Bryce Walker, a popular jock. He is accused of raping a popular cheerleader, Jessica Davis. The assault happened at a party while Jessica was semiconscious to extreme intoxication. Downstairs, over 50 people partying away, unware of what was happening. During the time of the assault, Bryce, was Jessica’s boyfriend’s best friend. Jessica considered Bryce a close friend too and never thought he posed a threat to her. However, after realizing that Bryce was her assaulter, Jessica changed her view on who she called friends. As Jessica gathered the strength to confront Bryce in court, he sent threats to her and her friends. Since Jessica knew Bryce before the attack, she knew what he was capable of and that made her even more reluctant to come forward about her assault. This is an accurate depiction of how popular culture depicts sexual assault. In the media today, most sexual assaults involve people who know each other. For example, last year there were many sexual assault cases in the media involving directors assaulting their actresses (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/05/us/harvey-weinstein-harassment-allegations.html), gymnastics coaches assaulting their athletes (https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/19/us/larry-nassar-sentencing/index.html) and even father’s assaulting their own daughters. All the women who were victims in these cases stated that they could not believe their assaulters were people they trusted and, in some cases, even admired.
It used to be that popular culture depicted rape as a random man running up to a woman in a dark alley and attacking her. Older shows such as the beginning seasons of CSI often depicted attacks as random and rare. A girl would often be walking in a big city and accidently enter the “wrong” part of town. Then a random, big, scary man would follow her and end up assaulting her. However, now shows such as 13 Reasons Why are doing a better job of portraying rape as more common and nonrandom. While the scenes may be a little graphic, they have helped to shed light on how sexual assault cases are changing. No more dark alleys but instead, a woman can be assaulted in her own home or in her friend’s house. No more isolated inccidents where a woman is alone on the street. Instead she is at a party, surrounded by over 50 people. Since this show is geared towards teenagers and young adults, it opens their eyes to situations that they may be put in or, have previously been in. 13 Reasons Why accurately portrays rape and sexual assault in the world today while bringing awareness to the issue.
