At the beginning of this summer, my friend introduced me to the show, "Orange is the New Black," a series that is only available on Netflix. The show intrigued me from the beginning, as the plot was one that no other show had delved into before. Piper, the main character, has had a bit of a wild time in her early twenties, but seems to now have settled down with her boyfriend. However, her past still haunts her, and because of her prior girlfriend, she is sentenced to 15 months in prison for helping with the smuggling of drugs.
Luckily for me, the next season came out pretty quickly after I started watching, so I didn’t have to wait a whole year in anticipation like some of you. In the first two seasons, I just viewed OITNB as another regular TV show, one that has drama but also humor. Beginning the third season, I just expected that the homosexual themes and somewhat annoying characters would continue. But something changed in this season, and it wasn't until episode 10 that I realized that this show could be more real than I thought.
This episode focused more on the aspect of sex, and more so on rape. In my opinion, one of the most annoying characters, Tiffany “Pennsatucky” Doggett, has the episode’s focus on her background prior to the prison life. Expecting nothing more than just a meth scene, I didn’t think I would ever feel any sympathy for Doggett. Watching her get raped not just once, but twice, was harder on my emotions than I ever thought it would be. I couldn’t feel anything more than sadness for Doggett’s character, knowing that the same sort of thing happens all the time to thousands of people.
Recently, while scrolling through Facebook, I came across an article that really reflects on this disturbing scene. In this article, the author, Jada Yuan, describes the importance of focusing on the victim’s face in a scene like this, where most other scenes show the perpetrator instead, thus making it more about their experience. Rape is not something that should be glorified in order to make a show more interesting and dramatic. If a producer so wishes to use rape in their program, it must be done realistically, and respect all parties involved. In our culture nowadays sex has become so apparent in our society that rape is common, and sometimes even viewed as a fantasy. It has become so usual for us that we forget that expecting someone to have sex with you because you bought him or her dinner is actually NOT okay.
In conclusion, most of the episodes of "Orange is the New Black" are mainly focused on humor, and to keep the audience watching. However, some really do touch on important issues that affect our society everyday; rape is just one of them. Looking at the show from afar, OITNB it is basically a “lesbian prison show,” but actually watching and understanding the backstories of these women in prison is more realistic and relatable than we think.
