Im sure you all remember the game of thrones rape scene that caused so much controversy on the internet a few months back. In it, Sansa Stark was raped by her husband. Feminists and even wider society were not having it, it created an absolute shit storm on the internet with the outrage originating apparently from the idea that even in a middle aged, fictional fantasy setting where life is cheap for both men and women, violence against women is still the worst crime one can possibly commit.

Absent from their complaints was the fact that reek, the unfortunate soul tasked with watching the ordeal was castrated and enslaved by the same man who raped Sansa. Nobody seemed to care when this happened, but I wouldn’t expect them to I guess, since society is very comfortable with the mutilation of male genitalia. Here is a sped up (so as to avoid copyright) video of the scene.

So there you have it. An unpleasant scene to be sure, but certainly something that is on par with a great many violent scenes in television and hollywood today depicting physical abuse of rape victims.

The reason I bring this up is because only a few months ago the television series outlander depicted a much more brutal rape, this time of a man, and there was what amounted to internet silence on the offending episode. An article titled Why Isn’t Anyone Talking About The Graphic Male Rape On “Outlander”? gives the following details on the subject.

A rape on Game of Thrones this season has sparked a ton of debate—and calls for a boycott of the show—but perhaps the most graphic sexual assault on television hasn’t garnered much attention. On the finale of Starz Outlander, our hero, Jamie Fraser (Sam Heughan), is tortured and sodomized by the twisted Black Jack Randall (Tobias Menzies). Yes, the show’s sole queer character (to date, anyway) is a violent, sadistic rapist. Not exactly breaking down stereotypes. Jamie’s torture, mutilation and rape is recounted through flashbacks—in multiple scenes over two episodes—as his wife Claire (Caitriona Balfe) later tries to learn what happened and bring him back from utter despair. But the reaction to the scene was far different than the one Thrones received: As E!’s Ask Kristen writes, “the majority of fans who’ve spoken out via social media have unabashedly praised the episode and its Emmy-worthy writing and acting.” Ronald D. Moore, Outlander‘s executive director, has been stunned by the reception to Saturday’s finale. “It’s been overwhelmingly positive,” he tells E!. “Any fan response to something they love will always have outliers that hate it who still watch it over and over.”

It’s been overwhelmingly positive because when a man is getting raped wider society doesn’t really care, that’s why. Forget about the fact that the rape scene was easily more brutal and horrific than the game of thrones scene, the compassion gap will see to it that the same amount of empathy for male rape will not be given to a man, whether it is in a fictional setting or in reality. I have a video of the scene recorded on vimeo, I do not know if it will be taken down or not but here it is.



Watch and see for yourself gentleman.