Dear Producers of Law and Order,

I came home tonight and caught the end of one of your shows; The case was a sex-worker who had shot and killed her blackmailer when he tried to rape her. I did not see the entire thing, and honestly, I don’t have to. It doesn’t matter what occured before this. I don’t care what you intended to be the truth of this murder, because the contents of this scene and the closing arguments that your “good guys” presented as a legitimate foundation against her actions possibly being self-defense against rape are so openly misogynistic and structure the trial solely to focus on her sexuality and the questionability of the rape that none of the rest even matters; the content of the prosecution’s arguments in their questioning and closing statements blatantly state, she had already had sex with numerous men, what was one more? Her actions couldn’t possibly be self defense because blackmailing someone into engaging in a sex-act isn’t real rape; none of it was in any way acceptable. Seriously? Who the fuck approved that? How many people did this script have to go through, and was signed off on endorsing the idea that blackmail isn’t rape? That just because a woman engages in sex acts with numerous partners she forfeits her right to say no? You took a trial that was supposed to be about a murder and you turned it into victim blaming and policing female sexuality.

I apologize for my writing style at this moment. The English Major in me is ashamed, but the rest of me is so pissed off that I just can’t. Even though I knew better from the cookie-cutter plot layouts that you people consistently use, I held out hope that the jury would find her not guilty. That the pompous man judging her and approving of her rapist’s actions would be taken down a notch. That the episode would be used as a platform to demonstrate that this isn’t right and that rape in any form isn’t acceptable. You even had her defense voice exactly that, that if she was found guilty that they–the jury–would be saying that a woman legally cannot defend herself against a rapist. I had hoped that this show would actually stand for something and the audience would be told by a jury’s vote that there was absolutely nothing acceptable in his argument, but no. His view is validated, she goes to jail. One of his female staff ask if what they did was right, and his reply is “it doesn’t matter, we won.”

I’ve never been a fan of your show, but this is one of the lowest moments I have ever seen on television.

Fuck you straight to hell.

From the bottom of my heart,

HoHPotter