MTV recently released a show that caught my attention since it tackles, literally, an issue that as a college student concerns me. One in five women and one in 16 men are sexually assaulted while in college. These alarming numbers gave birth to a new type of hero in MTV's "Sweet and Vicious". It is the type of show one would expect from MTV, it is set on a college campus and of course it has a sarcastic vibe, and one of the main characters smokes pot on a regular basis throughout the show; however, it never looses sight of the issues surrounding rape culture, violation, and consent.
In "Sweet/Vicious" we meet two female characters that make the show worth watching. Jules, a sorority girl that comes off as being "basic" yet, she is the one bringing sexual perpetrators to justice, and Ophelia, a college student that is about to get kicked out because of smoking and smuggling pot on campus ;however, she figures out what Jules is doing and wants to join.
The show relies heavily on its main characters' sarcastic approach to sexual assault. They both have little to no trust on the campus police and on one of the episodes one can see how one of the victims simply gives up on the process because of how tedious it is to file a report on the perpetrator. Jules is a rape victim herself and this gives much more depth to the plot of the story. Both vigilantes are fed up with how common sexual assault has become in their college campus but most of all how these women have to constantly see their rapist among their peers."Sweet/Vicious" however is much more than just tackling sexual assault, it is also about the constant pressure society puts on women.
"We tend to be a little more conservative in the way that we view things, so in that sense, I would think (such depictions are) still taboo," says Keisha Hatchett, assistant editor at TheMarySue.com.
We are still living in a rape culture where former Stanford University student Brock Turner can get away with a few months in prison while his victim will have life-long consequences due to his behavior, and now you have Donald Trump, accused of sexual assault, gain more support by denigrating women.
I think this show is worth watching not only for the two kickass female characters but also because sexual assault should not make us uncomfortable yet, it should be a conversation among college students because in the end, anyone can be a victim.
