Set among the everyday lives of ordinary, working-class people on the rainy cobbles of North Manchester, England, Coronation Street is the world’s longest running soap opera. It is enduringly popular partly for its hard-hitting, topical storylines.
The show’s writers have partnered with charities to tackle contemporary issues from hate crime to radicalisation. One such current storyline – supported by the sex education charity Schools Consent Project – tells of the rape of one of the show’s main characters. In episode 10,892 (broadcast on March 3 2023), Amy Barlow, who is 18 years old, is raped by her friend’s on-again-off-again boyfriend, Aaron Sandford.
My research shows how typical Amy’s experience is of the state of rape justice in England and Wales. Like many victim-survivors of rape, she feels blamed by the police. She also blames herself for what happened.
This storyline highlights what academics and charities call “rape myths” – the commonly held beliefs about sexual violence that blame the victim-survivor and exonerate the perpetrator of rape.
Victim-blaming
Entering the show in 2022 as Amy’s friend Summer Spellman’s boyfriend, Aaron is portrayed as a typical all-round nice guy. Aaron supports Summer through an unplanned pregnancy, cares for his alcoholic dad, becomes a valued mechanic in the local garage and is quickly liked by everyone – including, at first, Amy, with whom he ends up sharing a flat.
The rape storyline begins when Aaron and Summer split up in early 2023. One night, at the flat they share, Aaron and Amy start drinking and flirting. They share a drunken kiss in a bed, after which Amy passes out. When she wakes up, Aaron is gone, and she realises that he has raped her: he had sex with her while she was unconscious.
According to the UK Sexual Offences Act 2003, someone commits rape when they have sex with a person who does not have the capacity to consent. Being unconscious due to intoxication, as Amy was, means she was unable to consent.
Amy, here, represents the one in four women in England and Wales who are subjected to sexual assault or rape. As is the case for five in six women who are raped, her attacker is someone she knows. Like one in three adults who are raped, she is attacked in her own home.
She reports Aaron to the police, which isn’t something most victims do. However, even though he is brought in for questioning, the case is swiftly dropped without further action, due to a lack of evidence.
In England and Wales, only one out of 100 rapes recorded by the police result in a charge. For those which do, victims now have had to wait an average of two years for the case to appear in court.
Enduring rape myths
Amy’s storyline contains several rape myths. Sexual violence experts define these as consisting of stereotypes for what supposedly “real” victim-survivors and perpetrators of rape should look like and how they should act.
Such beliefs scrutinise a woman’s behaviour to blame her for the assault. They contribute to a climate that minimises the nature and impact of sexual violence.
Amy is raped by someone she knows and who is well-liked in the community. My research has shown how this means that people are less likely to hold Aaron responsible for his actions.
She also gets drunk and flirts with Aaron prior to the assault. These are two factors that are strongly related to people blaming the victim-survivor, rather than the perpetrator, for the rape.
And after the rape, Amy is accused of fabricating her rape claim to cover up consensual sex that she regrets. The latter is a very common rape myth, despite only a small fraction of rape claims being false.
To reduce sexual violence and to provide better support for victim-survivors like Amy, rape myths need to be prevented. Schools Consent Project, the charity with which Coronation Street partnered on Amy’s storyline, rightly argues that education is important. Narratives like this can help to create awareness of rape myths and how they impact victim-survivors of rape.
As I have argued, however, because rape myths are so ingrained in our culture –- in the media, in online pornography –- education alone will not work. We need action, on the part of all of our institutions, to weed out these destructive beliefs.