In the name of equality, yes. What's sauce for the goose...
My very deep and meaningful message on this thread was that if people are being 'battered' as a result of being cruel and hurting others, not just men per se, it's not exactly easy to feel sorry for them. is it? I wasn't suggesting it should be a hard and fast rule though just to make that clear

Like grubby Peter Barlow for instance, who would feel sorry for him if he was tied to a lamppost and pelted with the bistro leftovers. Not me that's who.

It's not just violence either. Men in general are often ridiculed, mocked and publically humiliated and it's all played for laughs because we're meant to side with the women. Kat and Bianca have been appalling to poor Tamwar all year and yet we're meant to laugh along with them because they're 'just having a laugh'. Do me a favour.

Aah, but it works the other way as well. Women are still often portrayed as victims in the media, in a way that's offensive to us (Ripper Street being a very obvious and exploitative example of this).Soaps are one of the few types of programming that are better at showing stronger female characters, but even then they often rely on the cliche of the 'survivor' who has terrible things happen to her and is a subject for empathy or pity.

Distress would cause tears and shouting, of course. But violence? I wouldn't think so and certainly not in those circumstances.

Soaps continually portray violence against men as acceptable and violence against women and heinous (which it is).

And yes, on the other points, never in soap is a woman portrayed at the moron or village idiot to be laughed at and toyed with by male characters.

It is despicable how men are portrayed in soaps, I agree. There seems to be some kind of tacit understanding that we have to be denied strong male characters who won't stand for any crap and aren't afraid to stick their necks out and fight for what the believe in and what's important to them without being demeaned and made a mockery of, even by their own family.
And if an occasional strong male slips the net, like Karl in corrie, they soon turn him into a hate figure and pariah.
And without any men to take seriously and respect we end up with a pretty structureless framework for a community even a soap community.
No incentive to live or love. What woman wants to commit to a weedy, effeminate and drippy slob for the rest of her life like the average soap man? I'd rather be a nun.

I think the police would tell you something different. Women might not be portrayed as idiots, but how often are they shown as 'slappers' or 'whores'? I'm not disagreeing with you by the way, I was appalled by the slap too, but surely the circumstances were mitigating?I wouldn't judge someone very harshly who did that in those circumstances.

I never thought of Trevor as troubled, he was a bully and a control freak who used his wife as a punch bag. He didn't need a reason to do that either - it was everyday behaviour for him. I don't think you can compare him to Moira Barton as it isn't normal behaviour for her to do that. She is constantly preaching to Cain that he shouldn't use his fists every time he has a disagreement with someone.

I do understand why she did it - I am not saying she was right but I do understand why.

I think it was very odd that the Police did nothing, and I do think that if it had of been a man then they would have immediately arrested him as well.

Agreed, what Moira did, horrible to watch though it was, in no way compares to Trevor's actions or those of the woman in Coronation St. Funnily enough, earlier in the episode, she told Adam how stupid it was for him to hit Declan. In that same episode we also saw Cain attacking a police officer to distract him while Adam escaped. Soaps show a lot of violence in extreme circumstances, and sometimes in it's context it's understandable. I can understand why Cain wanted to help Adam and lunged at the policeman, but I can also see why Moira was so worried and furious that she hit him for it.

I agree, I think where the writers went wrong was not to show her being arrested, as she should have been.

Tbf, Ripper Street is based on history, (however fictionalised), and it's a simple matter of fact that women were victimised back then, and my pet hate is the rewriting of history to 'fit' modern perception and opinions. Programmes like that should and do serve to remind us that those ways don't exist any more, (at least not to anything like the same extent).

Personally I'm torn on this issue. Violence of all sorts goes on in real life and I don't expect soaps to pretend otherwise, whoever that violence is directed against.

On the other hand, I do think that over a period of many years now, soaps are trying too hard to portray what they see as the 'strong and feisty' woman, who (to me) just comes across usually as gobby, aggressive mares. Seems like overcompensation to me.

For me, random slaps by or to any gender are not acceptable - you can put somebody down perfectly well verbally. But storylines involving domestic violence are perfectly acceptable if they highlight and raise awareness of the utter hell that many people suffer as a way of life.

Because soaps are written by and aimed at women. Interestingly, when soaps are getting sky high ratings its because men are tuning in as well.

I remember the complaints EE got over Phil always hitting Lisa.

It might have been based on history Jaded, but it was certainly designed to appeal to certain baser instincts. From the one episode I saw of it, it was very lascivious. Had it been a bit more interested in the story and less in the exploitative scenes I might have stuck with it.

I don't like the strong and feisty cliche either, or the 'strong woman hurt by bad men' thing that soaps so often do, and I do think that Moira hitting Cain was horrible, but the circumstances can't compare to domestic violence (whether it's men or women as the perpetrator). I can't imagine how angry I would feel in those circumstances - whether it's acceptable or the right thing to do, people do lash out when these sorts of things happen.

Are they written hy women? I'm surprised at that tbh. I would have said it was written by men who had an idea that this was what women wanted. I could understand it being written by somebody like Julie Burchill but not a woman like me.

As a woman I have to admit I only find strong and confident type men appealing and thats what a lot of other women really want to see too. We really like the old fashioned heroic action figure who'll sweep us off our feet. It's nature. So what are they going to do about it?

Remember Phil slapping Sharon in the Vic it was shocking, imagine it the other way around nobody would of noticed.

but we do. It was a shocking scene in Emmerdale last night which prompted this thread.

I only watched one ep of Ripper Street too. Didn't like it and felt it was aimed at the 'lowest common denominator'.

And yes, of course there are degrees of violence and one slap, by or to, another character is not comparable to sustained domestic violence. I just don't think that Moira's 'temper slap' was necessary or added to the story in any way. Personally, much as I love and adore Cain, I think Moira is intellectually far above him, and as such, should have been able to crush/punish him with a single look or well-chosen word.

I'd reluctantly expect random violence from a less articulate character, (eg Ali, Dan, Robbie, Rachel, Adumb, etc), but I expect characters like Moira to be better than that and show others how it should be done.

I realise however that I have way too high expectations of soap in that and many other ways.

That's the point it was not shocking, a women slapping a man no big deal, it should be but it isn't.

Jaded! I'm shocked! He's not a stupid lad our Cain She could have, but people don't always react as they should, do they? Not when their that upset. Anyway, the put down would probably have hurt him more

What disappointed me was the police not doing anything about it. These days, I just don't think that would happen. They arrested Charity for kneeing Cameron in the groin. Moira should have got the same treatment.

Yes, that's how I imagined it too - men in over-compensatory mood. A cursory glance at Wiki, (don't know how up to date it is), shows there are currently 3 male and 3 female writers for Corrie. What that tells us I have no idea, except that it's certainly not just written by women.

Women are the main audience in soaps. The writers tune towards that. Including the male ones - they want to keep their careers.

Certainly, to me some of the most famous female characters are very two dimensional, cliched, and more like 'drag' characters than real women. - Angie Watts and Bet Lynch being good examples of this. They might be good characters for entertainment value, but they're not realistic.

I found it shocking, and I'm a woman. It was very violent.

Gratuitous violence is coming from inarticulate writers, not simply the characters, thats my belief. Maybe if the writers came up with a general consensus to try and steer away from sensationalism and irritating 'issues' and veer more towards everyday matters and real life family orientated living and family matters, like Corrie used to mimic so well, then people might actually enjoy it more!

The thing they can't seem to get their heads around at all is the fact that the more believable and realistic they make the drama, the greater the real excitement and entertainment in conjunction with story, the realer the shock value and surprise in real terms. If that makes sense.

What was it that happened in Emmerdale last night?