Switched at Birth has covered a lot of life topics and broken television ground by being the first and only show on television to have American Sign Language weaved so seamlessly into its writing. However, the show is breaking ground once again with its current storyline, which involves a potential case of sexual assault. If you are a die-hard fan or have never watched the show, this is the episode you need to see.
Let me start off by saying that this will not be a discussion about what specific circumstances are right or wrong regarding sexual consent. I am by no means an expert, nor have I ever, or will I ever, assume to speak on behalf of a sexual assault victim, not even the fictional Bay Kennish of this storyline. I will specifically say what I think on a few topics, and choose to keep the rest private, because somewhere out there, if there is a girl who has been violated and reads this, she needs to know that her experience and her emotions are not anyone else’s to toss around and debate.
With that being said, the Bay/Tank sexual consent storyline needs to be paid attention to, and the writers need to be given high praise for wading into this kind of territory. To briefly recap, Bay and Tank were once together, and now Bay is back with her old boyfriend Emmett. Bay and Tank were at a party, both got very drunk, Bay blacked out and does not remember how she ended up in bed with Tank. At first Bay believed she cheated on Emmett; however, because she cannot remember the night, she does not remember ever giving consent, despite Tank’s claims that she never told him to stop. Once an official investigation is launched by the university, since the incident occurred on the university campus, everyone has their own assumptions and opinions about what happened. Tank is upset because he genuinely loved Bay, and knows he would never intentionally have hurt her. Bay is not left alone with her thoughts long enough to figure out how she feels, other than miserable (“I don’t even know what to think anymore because everyone’s trying to think for me”).
Some may say this is a clear cut case of sexual assault, while others may say it was just a confusing, drunken mistake. Each person and entity goes into their automatic instinct, such as Bay’s parents’ protectiveness and the university’s by-the-book process. Bay’s friends are torn between asking why they didn’t protect her, to why she wasn’t more vigilant about having her guard up. The writers do a fantastic job of playing this argument with “It’s because I’m a girl…we can’t let our guard down, it’s [just] that way” versus “you’re the guy…it falls on you to be in control of the situation.” Both are extremely valid points, but ones which don’t make the situation any less messy.
What is also on heavy display throughout the episode is the changing of the times. Beyond the murkiness of the actual incident, we live in the 21st century. The bright side to that is that laws and punishments have never been more stringent than they are now in sexual assault cases. On the other hand, for one reason or the other, these cases are constantly debated for public view thanks to the Internet, leaving very little room for privacy in a delicate situation. I think Bay’s mother Katherine says it best when she tells her daughter that only Bay herself can know exactly what experience she had.
By the end of the episode, Bay tells the university that while she doesn’t believe Tank would ever intentionally hurt her, she does believe he did something wrong, because as she said last week, she couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong. The university subsequently decides to expel Tank, a decision that Bay does not support, leaving her as torn as ever.
Many shows which tackle sexual assault and the topic of consent in their plots usually do so in a clear-cut case of rape or violation. Here’s the thing though, many cases aren’t clear-cut, and unfortunately, because they are so delicate, they are often overlooked or ignored by the entertainment culture. Switched at Birth should be praised for taking on, and handling so well, this particular storyline, particularly with two characters who are both well-liked by the audience. It’s a story which happens much too often in real life, with repercussions that last far beyond when we turn off our television screens. Attention should be paid.
[Photo via ABC Family]
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What really bothered me was that Bay was very clear that she didn’t want this investigated or talked about, and the University ignored her wishes. It’s a lesson to me, that if I was in this situation to keep my mouth shut and handle it on my own, or else my name will end up in the paper. If Bay wanted it to just go away, Melody and Lily should have let her. What they did was wrong.
Also, Katherine and Regina totally overstepped their bounds. There is no reason that a girl has to tell her mother if something like this happened. She might be just fine dealing with it on her own or with her friends. In my opinion, the only characters that were respectful of Bay and Tank, and handled this in the right was were Toby and Daphne. Everyone else was attention seeking and pushy.
I couldn’t fathom the investigation, how Melody believed it was possible to undertake it without Bay’s name going all over campus, even more daft was a campus newspaper allowing BTL comments on an alleged sexual assault story.
I thought it was good that they showed many different points of view but at the end they had to come to a conclusion. I don’t understand how after showing all the complexities of the case that the investigation just took Bay’s side of the story without any explanation of why they believed her and not him. Also if they believe him to be guilty of sexual assault why was there no police involvement?