My Tuesday nights are usually saved for working and playing catch-up on my sleep, but this week something else caught my attention. MTV has released a new show called Sweet/Vicious, which is their own take on the rape revenge genre. Other movies like Thelma & Louise, Kill Bill, and I Spit on Your Grave have tried to do it also. This show does something different by focusing on two girls living on a college campus and working as vigilantes. Their main agenda is to help sexual assault victims and they do this by scaring the people who have assaulted someone into never doing it again.
Once the show progressed, it was brought to the audience’s attention that one of the main characters, Jules, has been sexually assaulted in the past which gave her motive for what she was doing. She is using her past experiences to help get revenge on these rapists who got away with it. Her usual night consists of her sneaking out, dressing in all black, and finding the person that committed the act. A couple things to note; the first episode shows that these rapists are all men so far, they have all raped women, and they are all then brutally attacked by Jules. So far she has stabbed a man in the leg and even used a Taser on a man’s genitals. Another important aspect is that, so far, all of these men have gotten away with it, too.
As I was watching this show I couldn’t help but think of all the real sexual assault cases that have been committed on a college campus. I thought of Emma Sulkowicz, a student at Columbia University that wanted her alleged rapist expelled. Until that happened, she carried her mattress around with her through campus and ultimately ended up carrying it through her graduation. I thought of Emily Doe, who had to read about how she was sexually assaulted online while she was in the hospital the next morning. I thought of all the countless KU Alerts I receive about sexual assault. If there was one thing this show did right, it was showing how many sexual assaults happen on campus and how many times the system fails the victims it happens too.
Although the show only has only aired two episodes so far, I think it leaves us with something to think about: Is the violence that Jules inflicts on these rapists the only way to fight back?