Break the silence

Keith Rice as Finn O'Connor in Hollyoaks.

Last week Finn O'Connor was found guilty in Hollyoaks. Rightly. Because he was guilty as a sin. Early this year John Paul McQueen was raped by his student Finn O'Connor after months of bullying because of his sexuality. After months of suffering and agony, at last he did break the silence about the rape and he was charged for the rape and found guilty. And that was after another rape attempt of Nancy Osborne. Finn O'Connor is really an evil character. But it is also a character with so many dimensions and I can't help feeling for him in some way. Because of the imprisonment, Finn O'Connor now has left the show. But I hope that he will come back because I think that Finn O'Connor has more dimensions to show us. And also, Keith Rice is really a great actor that has portraited the part of Finn in a really great way. Well done Keith! I like you, even though I really dislike Finn. In one way. Well, it's complicated.

Finn O'Connor and John Paul McQueen.

That James Sutton is a great actor I already knew, but this storyline also let him give John Paul McQueen more dimensions. It is a very powerful storyline that is not typical for a soap opera. rape is always taboo to talk about and there is so much shame associated with it, and that's why this storyline is so important! I really think it should have won the prize for best storyline in the Inside soap awards (even though the Patrick/Maxine storyline was a worthy winner). James Sutton supports the Breaking the silence campaign that encourage male survivors of rape to come forward and talk about it. We really need to break the silence and talk about it! I think this storyline of Hollyoaks is vital and applauds both James Sutton and Keith Rice for it! And I really would like to see what kind of person Finn O'Connor is after inprisonment.

Keith Rice and James Sutton.

And a parenthesis: Keith Rice and James Suttons are good mates in real life. I like their football tweets in weekends. Even though I'm not at all interested in football...

Gary Lucy as Luke Morgan in Hollyoaks.

And my dear readers, this is not the first time Hollyoaks has a male rape storyline. We saw it already in 2000 when the character Luke Morgan Played by Gary Lucy (yes, Danny Pennant in Eastenders) was raped by bully Mark Gibbs after moths of bullying. When at last Luke starts defending himself, Mark pays back by raping Luke. Luke is traumatized for life after this and eventually moves to Canada. An awful storyline that really broke boundaries. The Hollyoaks special when this rape occured was even called Hollyoaks: Breaking the boundaries. So I am applauding Hollyoaks for dealing with such a taboo two times.

Kalle och Valtteri in after the rape.

But Hollyoaks are not the only ones. Salatut Elämät has also done it. Some time ago our Kalle (Pete Lattu) was raped by his ex boyfriend Valtteri who went to jail for that. And that's about all I know. I have googled it and I know there is some articles about this storyline in cuberspace but there isn't really a point to google translate it. I'm sorry neighbours, but finnish is a really weird language that doesn't really work translating in the translate service mentioned. It really doesnt make sense. The only thing I know is that Kalle dated a woman (Katariina) for a while after the rape and now he is dating Lari. I don't know if Kalle has been dating another guy since the rape but maybe we will see Kalle dealing with the rape and moving forward while dating Lari. We'll have to wait and see.

Finally, I once again want to applaud both Hollyoaks and Salatut Elämät for giving us theese storylines. The unreported cases of male rape is huge and by showing theese storylines, it is hopefully a chance to help male rape victims to deal with it and to seek help for it. Wee need to remove the taboo of talking about rape in general, and male rape in particular. Break the silence.