Grimm’s Problematic & Irresponsible Repeat Use of Rape Narratives
There’s a problem with Grimm. No, not the overcrowded and inconsistent plot. Not the appropriation of racism and queer oppression. Not the underutilized female and PoC characters or the utter lack of queer representation. All of these things are problems with Grimm, of course. But what I want to talk about right now is Grimm’s rape problem.
A lot has been written about consent, non-consent, and the characters of Grimm. Every time there’s another instance of it in the canon, the fandom discusses it. But what we’ve yet to discuss fully is Grimm’s recurring use of rape and sexual assault narratives as devices to spur the plot and characters forward…or the full implications of the fact that while we may be talking about it, the writers and their canon certainly aren’t.
In every season so far, there has been at least one scene depicting rape, sexual assault, or characters in sexual situations who do not have the ability to give good consent. And in every season, it’s been one of these on-screen rape scenes that served to push the plot forward, raise the stakes for the characters, or generate shock value, usually in a season or midseason finale.
In season one, Hank is spelled by Adalind to develop an obsession with her and then raped by her while he is under the influence of her magic. Later, he jokes that “if she wasn’t a lawyer, I’d think she rufied me.” No one ever acknowledges that Hank was in fact drugged and raped, whether or not it was the literal “date rape drug” she used.
In season two, Renard and Juliette find themselves in the thrall of another of Adalind’s spells, this time one that causes them to become obsessed with one another. The nature of their attraction to one another is explicitly sexual and tinged with violence, markedly unhealthy and undeniably unwilling on both sides. Every situation in which they are physically intimate with one another is an instance of coerced sexual contact, in which Adalind has once again used magic to take away someone’s ability to say no, therefore negating any ability they had to say yes. Within the narrative, however, it’s never truly addressed as such, and is played for dramatic intrigue throughout the first half of the season.
Possibly the most talked-about instance occurred in the season three finale, in which Adalind disguised herself as Juliette and raped Nick, resulting in the loss of his power to see the Wesen world, the removal of his identity as a grimm. Yet again, the rape itself is shown on screen, but no one acknowledges what happened to Nick as a rape. Not even a year later, when Adalind shows up carrying a child that purportedly resulted from that rape and uses it to manipulate Nick into protecting her from a vengeful Juliette.
And finally, in season four we have an instance in which Nick and Juliette must re-enact his rape while Juliette is wearing the body of his rapist in order to restore his powers and save his friends. Even if that were not the case, they’re still having sex not because they want to, but because they feel they have to. Neither Juliette nor Nick actually wants to do it or is comfortable doing it, for different reasons. That is not good consent, that is coercion.
Again, this occurs on screen, and is not framed as problematic or potentially re-traumatizing at all. Rather, it’s written and acted as humorously awkward, and actually ends in both parties enjoying themselves.
Although I have named the most prevalent instance in each season, there are multiple other situations and instances of rape narratives–both literal and allegorical–that bear a mention.
For example, the season one episode “Lonelyhearts” introduces a Wesen called a Ziegevolk, a goat-like Wesen who releases pheromones so strong that their targets cannot resist them. This is sexual coercion no matter what, but this particular Ziegevolk kidnaps and cages these women, keeping them captive and drugged, raping them repeatedly, impregnating them, and forcing them to bear his children.
There’s also the season one scene in which Nick knocks Adalind down, climbs on top of her, and forces a kiss on her in order to trick her into biting him and ingesting his blood. Although not a literal rape, the framing of the event is very explicitly an allegorical rape narrative and does begin with a forced kiss. Whether there are ways to handwave it away in-universe, the real world implications of that scene and its aftermath are disturbing.
Yet another instance comes near the end of season two, when Nick falls under the thrall of a Wesen who “inspires” men and forces them to fall in love with her. And earlier in that same season, Adalind sleeps with Renard while he is still under the influence of the obsession spell, and unable to give good consent.
Rape and sexual assault are so prevalent in this show that thus far, half of the main cast have been victims of it at one point or another. And yet in none of these instances is the nature of what has happened acknowledged or dealt with at all. The word “rape” is never used to describe what happens to Hank, Nick, and Sean. Adalind Schade is never called a rapist in canon. The lack of good consent between Juliette and Sean or Adalind and Sean is never addressed.
Meanwhile the Grimm writers blithely continue to use rape as a plot device without taking responsibility for what they’re writing. And while the writers never frame the relationships between Hank/Adalind, Juliette/Sean, or Adalind/Nick as romantic, healthy, or desirable (although I can’t say the same for some of the fandom, unfortunately), their failure to call it what it is reinforces the notion that men cannot be raped by women, by framing three separate on-screen rapes perpetrated against men by Adalind as merely sexual encounters that are regretted later.
It’s a serious problem, a narrative built on and moved forward by rape that never acknowledges or treats seriously the nature of the story it’s telling…or the messages that story is sending.
