Triggered...law & Order Svu Filming In My Building Again

[MesaRock]

This makes me so furious I can't stand it. Another day of gunshots and fake rapes and women screaming. I have gone beyond triggered into a state of fury. I'm getting ready for my morning therapy around sexual violence, meanwhile this society is busy providing the lucrative commodity of violence against women. More gunshots and women screaming and children sobbing on payroll. For the millions of rapesploitation entertainment consumers of Amerika, what kind of itch does this scratch for them? Are there not already sufficient "real" rapes, murders, and gender violence atrocities against women and children and infants to meet their needs? Or can they just not satisfy their greed for fake trauma?

 

[Casey_03]

I'm sorry, I realize this must be frustrating and deeply unpleasant, but would you rather rape and trauma just be ignored in popular culture? To make victims even more afraid to talk about it, to create more of a taboo? You are entitled to your opinion on this, of course, but I feel compelled to provide a counterpoint. You don't have a monopoly on trauma; other people have been victimized too, and for some -- including me -- it actually helps to watch these things portrayed on television. It makes the trauma seem somehow less isolating and easier to talk about. Maybe try to see it not as terrible people profiting off of trauma, but people promoting open discussion in society of terrible things like rape and violence.

 

[Ed Norton]

Law and order doesn't trigger me per se. It just makes me angry because it's a lie. At one point there were tons of unprocessed rape kits in many states. DNA testing isn't magic, I've personally done hundreds of DNA extractions and PCRs. I do see how this can be upetting and triggering on many levels, in terms of exploitation and a direct trigger. The reason that it's happening is simple CREAM, Cash Rules Everything Around Me.

 

[MesaRock]

Law and order doesn't trigger me per se. It just makes me angry because it's a lie. At one point there...

Thanks Ed. Yes, for years I worked with survivors, interfacing with law enforcement and fbi and the show is utterly unrealistic. now i work professionally as an activist in bringing these issues into popular awareness, and there are ways to do this without the profit driven salaciousness of this show.

 

[MesaRock]

they've shut down eight blocks for this, with the crew and actors laughing around the food services trucks, and a general atmosphere of entertainment complex. My heart goes out to myself - i don't even know how I'm going to get to therapy because the've shut down the subway stop and closed the roads to taxis and towed all our cars - and to all the thousands of survivors in the neighborhood who like me are most certainly being triggered by all the screaming and shooting and scenes of staged dead raped women lying on our sidewalks.

 

[MesaRock]

@Casey_03 after running six rape crisis shelters for decades, i'm well aware I don't have a monopoly on trauma. we ran on a shoestring budget, and the police rarely cared. I.e. unprocessed kits. The billions spent on this show could actually be spent in ways that benefited survivors of trauma, rather than the vacation homes of CBS executives.

 

[Ed Norton]

Just from here I can't count the number of unprosecuted cases. and ,of course, the cases where the sentence was reduced. Some cases only probation. I think that the public is misled into thinking that ALL cases receive thorough and dedicated investigation. People will watch and believe what they will but I don't have to drink the koolaide.

 

[Jade Miller]

I can understand your reaction to it and all of the points that you have made. But realistic or not (and I believe you when you say it is not), the show helps me on some level. It helps my insides. It's cathartic to see stories wherein people were hurt, they talked, someone listened, and justice was sought - if not obtained. Even if they are just stories, it helps me keep believing that this could also happen in real life. As I'm sure you know, the actress has dedicated huge portions of her paychecks to creating a non-profit that pushes to get rid of the backlog of unprocessed rape kits. She's listened and learned from real life victims.

None of these things invalidate your feelings. As much as I love the show, I cannot imagine what it would be like to have to be in close proximity to the filming of an episode. I'm sorry you're going through it. Everything you feel is perfectly understandable. I hope they're done quickly and your life can get (somewhat) back to normal. If I lived anywhere near you I'd offer for you to come stay over for a few days, but alas...I do not.

 

[Casey_03]

@MesaRock in an ideal world, yes, i agree with you that the money spent on the show would be better spent on helping survivors. But I still insist that you try to see if from another perspective - I myself am a survivor and the show has actually helped me and made me more able to talk about it. Though, yes, I do realize it is different for you when you are right in the center of filming. All I can say is hang in there.

 

[Friday]

I go on periodic rants against various forms of the entertainment industry, babble box, & sheeple of all kinds. Usually, same, I'm triggered over something.

I also have to resoundingly agree with @Casey_03 that it is invaluable that certain things which were once taboo in the extreme, never talked about & deeply shameful to even bring them up much less experience them, are now both part of daily conversation & awareness, as well as that things aren't as black and white as most people would like. (From it doesn't happen to if it happens then it happened because X). Television is pretty much the last area of the entertainment industry to hop on board bringing anything dark into the light. It's an extremely conservative medium. For cutting edge pushing boundaries of whatever the most taboo topics are in society? Don't look to TV, Movies (even documentaries, although that's the most cutting edge subgenre in film), or even novels. For true social commentary that breaks every rule and looks under every rock? Turn to comic books. They've been discussing rape for over 5o years. Can a man rape his wife? That decade long discussion presented a resounding Yes! more than 20 years before the laws were changed.

I never read comic books as a kid. I've absolutely fallen in love with them as an adult.