Film prompts rape calls

Press, 30 November 1987, Page 9

Film prompts rape calls

By

JENNY LONG

The film “Extremities” which showed recently in Christchurch may have caused an increase in rape crisis calls.

The Rape Crisis Collective said the film portrayed women as helpless victims, and strengthened a harmful stereotype.

“The film reinforces women’s fears of being stalked and raped by a stranger, where in fact about 80 per cent of rapists are known to the woman.” The film starrred Farrah Fawcett, and the film advertisement said, “Vulnerable and alone, the perfect victim.”

Ms Liane Davison, the office co-ordinator of the Christchurch Rape Crisis Group, said that last Monday, after the film finished in Christchurch, the group had five calls from women who had been raped by a stranger. Until then, the group had received only two calls about rape by strangers since the beginning of the year, said Ms Davison.

“While we’ve no way of knowing whether the

film and the calls were connected, it seems more than coincidence.” The group normally had about three calls a day from women who have been abused by people they knew and trusted, said Ms Davison. In the movie, the leading woman, Marjorie, fought back against her rapist, but her reaction was portrayed as excessive. “Rape Crisis groups encourage self-defence, they do not condone further violence as the answer to violence against women. Such action should not be encouraged or glamorised by the film media under the guise of entertainmment”

The manager of the Kerridge Odeon Avon Theatre, where the film was shown, said he had not seen the film because he had been away on business. However, a letter from the Rape Crisis Group had arrived on the day of the last showing of the film, and had been sent to head office. The film had been booked for only a short session of just over a week.