Rape.
It is a difficult word to write or say, let alone discuss. Regardless the
society or culture and despite attempts to prosecute rape at the highest levels
– even internationally as a war crime – it is still highly stigmatized.
Victims
of all ages and genders are often in positions of shame and fear as a result of
the assault they suffer. Popular media tends to address rape and its fallout in
terms of families or communities that are unsupportive or even condemnatory of
victims. In this dichotomy, the impact of rape on the community highlights the
reinforcement of shame and ostracism. And when the victim finds supportive
communities – be they families, friends, social workers or law enforcement
officers – the focus tends to be on providing immediate assurances to the
victims with scant attention to the long-term impacts on the victim or the
community.
The BBC
series Shetland dealt with rape and its
fallout in a very different way, however. As the name suggests, the series is
set in the Shetland Islands off the coast of Scotland. It follows the main major
crimes unit for the island, headed by Detective Inspector James Perez and
including Detective Sergeant Alison MacIntosh (“Tosh”), Detective Constable
Sandy Wilson, and Sergeant Billy McCabe. Perez is the highly skilled group
leader who is often socially awkward but still quite caring and protective of
his teenage daughter, his team, and those impacted by crime. Although raised in
the Shetland Islands, he lived in metropolitan Glasgow for many years and
experienced the seedy side of life as a police officer there. Sandy is a local
officer who appears tough at first but is particularly caring for his community
and his family. Billy is at once a blustery older officer with a warm side that
is more often expressed in gestures and jokes. And Tosh is a younger officer
who is a capable, fun-loving and beloved loved member of the team.
During
Season 3, there is a running storyline of a murder investigation that involves
a Glasgow mob boss and his henchmen. When the henchmen are unable to convince
Perez to back off from his investigation, one of them follows Tosh while she is
conducting investigations in Glasgow. Ultimately, an order is given for Tosh to
be abducted and raped in order to send Perez a message.
When
Tosh is found, she tells the Glasgow officers that she was abducted and left on
the edge of the city. Only when Tosh and Perez are alone does she admit that
she was raped. The show captures in painful detail the intimate nature of
processing for sexual assault. All this time, Perez is behind a curtain talking
to Tosh, acting as a father figure and source of comfort for her. Clearly this
has an important impact for Tosh but it also has a heavy impact on Perez, who
suffers with the knowledge of what has happened.
Tosh
insists on returning to work immediately, explaining to Perez that at work she
feels normal. However, she also insists that none of her colleagues know what
happened to her other than that she was kidnapped. Perez is scrupulous in
honouring this request but at the same time is careful to screen her from
certain aspects of the ongoing investigation that might be traumatic,
particularly when it appears that a rape from years before is at the center of
the murder investigation.
Beyond
these measures to protect Tosh, the rape takes a personal toll on Perez, who
not only wrestles with a certain level with guilt but also with the underlying
mentality of men that allows them to commit such acts. This pulls the cover off
a level of fallout from rape on the community – how decent and moral men in the
community come to terms with the fact that a heinous act was committed by a man.
Indeed, as the season progresses this shock and shame at the abilities of other
men seems to seep further into Perez’s life and sense of identity at a personal
and professional level. Personally, Perez finds himself so disrupted by the
sense that men are too often power-seekers in relationships that he nearly ends
a budding relationship. Professionally, Perez begins to examine the way in
which he – and to a larger extent the male-dominated police force – sees women
as officers and also as victims, particularly when they are victims of rape and
related crimes.
Perez
voices his professional concerns to Sandy in the context of the failure to
report the older rape. Sandy at first raises the standard questioning as to why
the crime was not reported and is touched when Perez asks him whether the
victim (in that instance a former sex worker) would have been taken seriously and
handled with dignity. At first Sandy seems to want to protest against this –
speaking, one senses, from how he would handle the issue – and then stops to
ponder how others in a police department, especially in a tougher metropolitan
area, would respond to such a victim. Ultimately, the victim in that case is
threatened and comes to Shetland to talk to Perez and Sandy. When she says that
she is willing to give a statement about what happened to her, Sandy is tasked
with helping her and is deeply affected. Indeed, he starts out by explaining
that they will do everything to protect the victim and to make sure that all
the necessary reporting is completed no matter how long it takes.
At
the very end of the season, Tosh informs Billy that she will be staying with
several of her friends for a few weeks. Although not necessary, she then
fumbles through explaining that the kidnapping was more than just a kidnapping.
Billy’s face goes through stages, from shock to deep sadness to near tears. He
struggles to find a response other than to look at her with sad affection and
offer her a hug if she is comfortable. She responds that she is not comfortable
with anyone touching her and then heads home, leaving Billy to sit down in his
office with what seems like the weight of the world on his otherwise reserved
shoulders. It is clear that this is a weight which will not soon be lifted and
that he is suffering at the idea of the pain caused to such a dear part of his
work family.
Shetland does a thorough job of examining the
impact of rape on the female victim, particularly where the victim is someone
who “should have known better,” in this case because she is a detective. It
also portrays a strong victim in the sense that she is eager to return to the
aspects of life which give her normalcy even if they are the reason that she
was assaulted. Yet it is in the shows portrayal of rape on the community of men
who love and respect the victim that it is most noteworthy and unique.
