s/o things in movies/books that would lead to a restraining order in RL

[ET is the best alien.]

Family Matters. Laura's father is a cop and he accepts Urkel stalking his daughter. And then after years of his creepy behavior, she falls for him, and gets engaged to him. And then there is Myra, who plants a camera in his glasses.

[CakeEater]

There were a lot of things in Glee which really bothered me.  I get that it's all exaggerated and a parody of high school (and being teased in high school), but the Glee kids put up with abuse every day that the administration should have prosecuted - and if the school wasn't willing to do anything about it, the kids should have been able to take charges to the police.  Slushie facials, getting thrown in the dumpsters, getting locked in port-a-potties, getting assaulted in the hallways - I guess what makes me mad is because these kinds of things *do* happen, and schools *do* turn a blind eye when the culprits are popular/important/well-connected enough.  I did eventually watch the first 2 seasons of Glee, but the very first episode I ever saw was the rape scene and it put me off the show for over a year.  I mentioned that to a friend and he didn't remember any rape scene, but it was a major plot point: Coach Sylvester drugs the principal and sets him up so she can take a picture of the two of them in bed together and threatens to send it to his wife.  You then see that she's still in her track suit, i.e. you assume nothing happened, but he doesn't know that.  All he knows is that he woke up after being drugged and found himself in bed with someone he doesn't like, who then photographs him against his will and blackmails him with it.  I know it's not what you'd normally think of as the kind of rape scene a show like this would include, but it just boils my blood that there's no repercussions for the characters whatsoever.  Heck, the whole Quinn being pregnant thing stems from her sleeping with Puck "because I had a few too many wine coolers and because I was feeling fat that day." How is that not date rape?

This is all a bit excessive, I think.

Blackmail isn't the same as rape.

And Quinn was feeling bad about herself, and made a bad decision, not that he did anything against her will.

[Twik]

Blackmail isn't rape, but this one does have a sexual humiliation connotation. Oh, and it's a major felony, which could result in serious jail time, not just a harmless little trick.

The second one may not be "against her will," but it does indicate a mindset that a boy is entitled to use a girl sexually when she is not *really* interested in sex with him, because, hey, it's against all nature for a male to turn down sex. Even if he knows the girl will suffer for it afterwards. Because that's what being a real man is all about, getting some.

[twoferrets]

I recently re-read the Flowers in the Attic series, and while I remembered the icky stuff from the first go round many years ago, what really struck me as an adult was what an awful, obsessive person Christopher (the older brother) is.  My younger self saw them all as thrown into a horrible situation where horrible things happened; now I think that Christopher would probably have been creepily possessive of his sister regardless.

On another note, Diana Gabaldon's "Outlander."  I know it's a period piece, but the part where Jamie does his "duty" and administers a proper beating to his wife soured me on the whole series.  It's been a while since I read it but I think the wife eventually even accepts that it's her fault for driving him to it.  NO.

[artk2002]

"Kiss Me Kate", with Howard Keel.  His character is terrible.  He lies to and tricks his ex-wife then, when she finds out one of his lies and is furious at him, he spanks her on stage.  But, in the end, she goes back to him.

Another Howard Keel film: "7 Brides for 7 Brothers".  His character, Adam, persuades Milly (who's working as a cook in a nearby town) to marry him and keep house for him, but fails to mention she'll also be cooking, cleaning and keeping house for his 6 brothers too.  She finds out when they arrive home, and why she didn't bean him with a frying pan is beyond me.  Then, because his brothers are all mooning around, missing the girls from town they fell in love with, he persuades them that it's a great idea to go into town and kidnap the girls.   Milly and the girls do give all 7 of the brothers heck, but even so.

To be fair, "Kiss Me Kate" is based off of Shakespeare's "Taming of the Shrew," and although I can't remember if the spanking occurs in Taming of the Shrew (I'm leaning toward yes), it's a fairly accurate adaptation, if I'm remembering correctly.

I couldn't find it in a quick scan of the script, but... Taming of the Shrew is one long case of abuse. Petruchio starves Kate, keeps her awake and provides a perfect lesson in gaslighting. It its favor, it has some of the best word-play and puns in the English language. To redeem it, I imagine that Kate and Petruchio settle down to a relationship more like Benedick and Beatrice, despite "I am ashamed that women are so simple."

[Betelnut]

I love this movie but there is some borderline abuse in it:  The Quiet Man.  The John Wayne character really manhandles the Maureen O'Hara character quite a bit.  The scene where he drags her through the entire village is over the top.  Granted, she also does a number on him too (using sex (or lack thereof) as a weapon is not cool either!)

That said, I love the movie.  I want to see it again now!

[athersgeo]

Wicker Park. It stars Josh Hartnett (amongst others) and it is a walking, talking ROMP through behaviour that ought to get the perpetrators jailed (or at least restrained by a judge).

To quote from my review of it (written just after I'd watched it): "Hartnett's character's an obsessive borderline stalker (frankly, if I'd been the girl he falls in love with, I'd have run the other way, fast). Hartnett's friend (Matthew Lillard) is a blowhard idiot. Rose Byrne plays the girl who's madly in love with Hartnett but is dating Lillard (and who actively wrecked Hartnett's original relationship with his stalking victim)...about the only character with an ounce of sympathy is Diane Kruger's - and she's an idiot for not running far and fast away from Hartnett for stalking her!

By the end of the film, I was vaguely hoping for them all to fall under buses or SOMETHING. The ghost of Al Capone could perhaps kick them all out of Chicago. ANYTHING. I'm sure I've seen films with less sympathetic characters, but right now, I'm struggling to recall what and when.

It's a remake of a French film, "L'Appartment", so whether the French version is any better, I wouldn't like to say. It can't conceivably be any worse."

Anyone seen the French original care to comment?

[Slartibartfast]

There were a lot of things in Glee which really bothered me.  I get that it's all exaggerated and a parody of high school (and being teased in high school), but the Glee kids put up with abuse every day that the administration should have prosecuted - and if the school wasn't willing to do anything about it, the kids should have been able to take charges to the police.  Slushie facials, getting thrown in the dumpsters, getting locked in port-a-potties, getting assaulted in the hallways - I guess what makes me mad is because these kinds of things *do* happen, and schools *do* turn a blind eye when the culprits are popular/important/well-connected enough.  I did eventually watch the first 2 seasons of Glee, but the very first episode I ever saw was the rape scene and it put me off the show for over a year.  I mentioned that to a friend and he didn't remember any rape scene, but it was a major plot point: Coach Sylvester drugs the principal and sets him up so she can take a picture of the two of them in bed together and threatens to send it to his wife.  You then see that she's still in her track suit, i.e. you assume nothing happened, but he doesn't know that.  All he knows is that he woke up after being drugged and found himself in bed with someone he doesn't like, who then photographs him against his will and blackmails him with it.  I know it's not what you'd normally think of as the kind of rape scene a show like this would include, but it just boils my blood that there's no repercussions for the characters whatsoever.  Heck, the whole Quinn being pregnant thing stems from her sleeping with Puck "because I had a few too many wine coolers and because I was feeling fat that day." How is that not date rape?

This is all a bit excessive, I think.

Blackmail isn't the same as rape.

And Quinn was feeling bad about herself, and made a bad decision, not that he did anything against her will.

He wasn't raped, but he didn't know that.  As far as he knew, he was, and he had no way of finding out differently.

[Winterlight]

House.  One can go episode by episode and count how many things would put House and/or his team in jail.

I once made a dr friend promise to sign me out AMA if House ever came near me- OK, I was on morphine at the time, but I stand by that! *g*

[Nikko-chan]

Someone mentioned House... and there's a scene i saw that squicked me out. It was (I guess) supposed to be all cutesy and aww "Doctor making dying child's  wish come true" it came off as "oh ehell no, call the cops now!" to me. I will leave the following for you to judge.

Anyone remember the one House episode where the team was taking care of a young cancer patient who was like nine? She commented to Doctor Chase that she would never have a first kiss, and Doctor Chase looked at her, leaned over, as gave her a quick peck on the lips. I was so squicked by that. 'You are an adult!' I admonished him in my head. 'You do not get to do things like that. EVER!'

Anyone as squicked out as I am?

[ica171]

Someone mentioned House... and there's a scene i saw that squicked me out. It was (I guess) supposed to be all cutesy and aww "Doctor making dying child's  wish come true" it came off as "oh ehell no, call the cops now!" to me. I will leave the following for you to judge.

Anyone remember the one House episode where the team was taking care of a young cancer patient who was like nine? She commented to Doctor Chase that she would never have a first kiss, and Doctor Chase looked at her, leaned over, as gave her a quick peck on the lips. I was so squicked by that. 'You are an adult!' I admonished him in my head. 'You do not get to do things like that. EVER!'

Anyone as squicked out as I am?

I knew exactly which scene you were going to mention as soon as I read the first paragraph. In the context of the show, it was...OK, but I was sitting there wide-eyed going "he didn't really just do that!" I couldn't believe a doctor as ethical as Chase was at the time would even consider it. Of course, he did eventually kill an African dictator, so maybe we shouldn't be surprised that he would get that involved in a case.

[Virg]

ica171 wrote:

"This might be different because these things might have flown at the time the movie was made, but not today. In "The Breakfast Club," Andrew (the jock) tapes a very hairy student's rear end together. It's mentioned that when they took the tape off the skin came with it. These days, he probably would have had assault charges brought against him, and his punishment at school would have been much more severe than just Saturday detention. Also, Brian (the nerd) brings a gun to school. It's either a flare gun or pellet gun, I can't remember, but today he would have been expelled."

This is definitely a sign of the times.  The type of bullying that Andrew got detention for really did happen in those days and the much stronger rules about bullying that exist today are in no small part due to this.  Brian bringing a flare gun to school also falls into this category.  Back when the movie was released, such an offense would have warranted detention even though these days it would be considered much worse.

Nikko-chan, I have to say that the scene you described doesn't really bother me at all.  In my opinion, calling the cops on Dr. Chase for something like that would reach too far, because the circumstances just don't come together to make it anything squicky.  The girl wasn't being exploited or tricked, Dr. Chase was quite obviously not doing it for any prurient reason and it was a quick kiss, not a passionate "movie star" sort of thing.  While I understand why it might bother some, I can't say it struck me badly.

Virg

[nuit93]

I don't know about a restraining order... but I always wanted to call CPS on Lorelai Gilmore for feeding her daughter carp all.day.long.

It's an unusual culinary choice, but unless Rory was allergic to fish, I don't see the problem.

Rob

*snicker*

I remember reading a lot of V.C. Andrews books as a kid and eventually had to stop for all the incest in her stories.

To be fair, she only actually wrote the Flowers series, and I think also My Sweet Audrina.  Everything else was ghost-written.

I stopped reading them because they were all starting to sound the same.

Those 5 books are all the same formula: Rape, incest, child abuse, depression, death, murder, and more incest. So even if all the ghost-written books never happened, she pretty much painted herself into a corner for her novel "type."

My Sweet Audrina was quite a wacky trip but it didn't have incest.

Not directly, but the way Audrina's father acted towards her was a bit creepy and overbearing.

[Queen of Clubs]

"Kiss Me Kate", with Howard Keel.  His character is terrible.  He lies to and tricks his ex-wife then, when she finds out one of his lies and is furious at him, he spanks her on stage.  But, in the end, she goes back to him.

Another Howard Keel film: "7 Brides for 7 Brothers".  His character, Adam, persuades Milly (who's working as a cook in a nearby town) to marry him and keep house for him, but fails to mention she'll also be cooking, cleaning and keeping house for his 6 brothers too.  She finds out when they arrive home, and why she didn't bean him with a frying pan is beyond me.  Then, because his brothers are all mooning around, missing the girls from town they fell in love with, he persuades them that it's a great idea to go into town and kidnap the girls.   Milly and the girls do give all 7 of the brothers heck, but even so.

To be fair, "Kiss Me Kate" is based off of Shakespeare's "Taming of the Shrew," and although I can't remember if the spanking occurs in Taming of the Shrew (I'm leaning toward yes), it's a fairly accurate adaptation, if I'm remembering correctly.

Yes, and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers is parody of "The R@pe of the Sabine," which is an ancient Roman legend.   A writer adapted it into a story called "The Sobbin' Women." (Sabine/Sobbin) in the 1950s, I think.

I know what they're based on - I just have issues with both of them.  For me, what adds to it is, while Petruchio could get away with treating Kate in such an absymal fashion as he was her husband and women were treated as property then, in the film adaptation it was in the 1950s (?) and their characters were divorced.  Despite all that, I do - sort of - like the films.  In parts, anyway.

[BabylonSister]

In The Philadelphia Story, Dexter hits his then-wife Tracy and it's treated like it's no big deal at all. Tracy's little sister even thinks it was really cool and he should dock her again.