Ok, there is something with soap operas, violence and gay relationships. Straight relationships to I guess, but there is a significance in gay once, I think. The classical scenario is that a gay character is so deep into the closet that he can't handle the fact that he is attracted to another man that he uses violence to suppress both his and the other gay characters feelings. There are lots of examples of that.
 |
| Amy interrupts a tense moment between Brendan and Ste. |
The most obvious example of this is the relationship/non-relationship between Ste Hay (Kieron Richardson) and Brendan Brady (Emmett J. Scanlan). This seems to be the first example of domestic violence in a gay relationship in a british soap opera. The actors stated that they were very proud of the storyline, and I do think that it is avery important matter to portrait. In the beginning of the Stendan journey, Brendan handled it by smacking Ste up about every second time they got together. Ste tried to stop loving Brendan and borke it off with him several times, but always ended up in Brendans arms in the end. In time, Brendan did start to handle his aggression and dealt with it and stopped smacking Ste up, and they started an sort of equal relationship, but even then he smacked Ste when he was haunted and pressured, a couple of times. Ste of course forgave him. Again and again. And Stendan is a very very popular couple. Even though their relationship was dashed by a little violence.
 |
| Ringo beating Yannick almost to death, |
Another homophobic character very deep down into the closet is Ringo Beckmann (Timothy Boldt) from Unter Uns. His self-disgust knew no bounds when he almost hit his fling Yannick Benhöfer (Eric Stehfest) almost to death, just because he wanted to have a proper relationship with him. Ringo on the other hand, repented of course, and tried to get Yannick back. But thankfully, Yannick never forgave him andleft the series just some episodes after the abuse. It would have been to unreal if he would have forgiven him, I think.
 |
| Lenny and Carsten beating eachother up before some snogging. |
Well, another storyline with a lining of violence is the Cenny one. Carsten Reimann (Felix Isenbügel) and Lenny Cöster (Alexander Becht) liked beating both eachother and others up. When they were not fighting with other gangs, they were trying to resist eachother and did that with som beatings. In the end, Lenny even participated in an assault of Carsten, where they actually both were so damaged they ended up in hospital. Lenny, of course, changed his mind in the last moment and tried to stop the gang from beating Carsten up. Carsten had a hard time forgiving Lenny, but because he loved him so much, he finally did. And they live happily ever after.
 |
| Deniz and Roman forgot it all. |
There are some similarities between the Cenny and the DeRo storylines. Just as Lenny knew that the gang was going to beat up Carsten, Deniz Öztürk (Igor Dolgatschev) knew that his hockey team mates was going to beat up Roman Wild (Dennis Grabosch). The homophobic hockeyplayers told Deniz about their plans, and even wanted Deniz to participate in them, and Deniz never really tried to stop them. He was a coward. He was running after them, but then he chickened out and ran away. The homphobes broke Romans knee and almost ruined his figure skating career. At first Roman knew nothing about Deniz's part in the assault, but when he knew, he never really had a hard time forgiving him. But, I read in an article that the actor, Dennis Grabosch, said that he never would have forgiven such a thing. But, I have to say, thank you writers for Roman forgiving Deniz, otherwise, we would have missed out on one of the most beautiful love storys of this century.
 |
| Joscha is not happy with Kai. |
Alles was Zählt have given us another great love story where there was a bit of violence. Joscha Degen (Carlo Degen) was closetered football player that even got married to a woman to hide his homosexuality. But when he met the hot doctor Kai Seebach (Alexander Gier) on his wedding night, there was no turning back. But when they shared a cozy moment in the bushes, and Joschas team mates showed up, he reacted irrationally and pushed Kai into the bushes. Thank gods that Deniz showed up and talked some sence to Roman by telling him not to be such a pusch over and not letting others pay for his assholeness, and Joscha apologized to Kai. Kai in his hand, ended the thing between them, because of how Joscha treated him. A perfectly logical reaction. But of course, he couldn't resist Joscha and eventually gave in. And they lives happily ever after.
 |
| Larias. Not always friends. |
 |
| Craig and John Paul. |
There have also been some smacking and pushing between Larias and McDean. That is Lari Väänänän (Ronny Roslöf) and Elias Vikstedt (Petteri Paavola) and John Paul McQueen (James Sutton) and Craig Dean (Guy Burnet). In both cases passion won against anger and the couples were united. And this made me start thinking. I am not saying that these kind of stereotypichal scenarios are just in gay relationships. I am fully aware of that abuse are present in straight relationships in soaps to, even though I think it is more common that there is more common with a little bit of violence in the beginning af relationships between men, in the denial state. Maybe it's about testosteone and male stereotypes. Violence is present in both same sex and straight relationships in both soaps and real life, and people stay with their partners after abuse in real life to. And it is important to show this in soap operas to bring awareness of violence and help people deal with it, and maybe even seek help. Hollyoaks is actually very good at directing to help lines when showing these storylines. But, because of the ordinariness of at least a little bit of violence in gay relationships in soap operas there is some kind of message that it's ok with a little bit of violence. Expect a little bit of abuse, but after that everything is fine. But I get that it has to some drama to the storylines, and even I have confessed that a lot of my favourite storylines actually have som violence in them (see above), but it really would be nice to see a nice helathy gay relationship with no violence, no infidelity and no fucking brain tumour, or shooting maniac, or a collapsing building, or strange deadly virus, just happiness, love and lots of snogging. Would that be too uninteresting to watch?
