Days: Ciara's Rape

Just wanted to post a few thoughts about what we've seen so far in regards to Ciara (Vivian Jovanni) being raped by Chase (Jonathon McClendon) on "Days of Our Lives".

Honestly, I'm not happy with the choice of this story for the young cast of the show. Both characters were SORASed to teens less than six months ago, and now were made of legal age. (I'm guessing for the sake of this story.) Below are the reasons why I'm not happy. I feel this was done for shock value, which makes it more frustrating.

1. The location of the rape was the living room of the Horton house. This set was part of the show from the beginning. The famous Christmas ornament hanging takes place yearly there. So basically anytime we see this set from now on it has been tainted by this incident. How awkward will it be for Ciara to celebrate Christmas with her family where she was raped.
2. Until the rape, neither Ciara or Chase really did anything sexual on screen. In a way this is so much worse, that both of their first experiences of this nature are violent.
3. Chase being coerced by Andre (Thaao Penghlis) to act this way was just weird and creepy. It does not excuse what he did, because brainwashing someone to be a rapist isn't a fix it.
4. Hope (Kristian Alfonso) was acting as Chase's guardian, so he raped his "sister", which again is incredibly and extremely disturbing.
5. Chase is one of the few characters on canvas that is young and can date anyone as he isn't a Horton, Brady or Kiriakis by blood. While some rapists have remained viable on Days in the past, it is problematic.
6. If you look at the history of Days, the show has a very mixed record when it comes to rape. The other issue is the amount of characters who have been victims. When it seems that more female characters have been raped than not perhaps it is time to not do this sort of story.

Date rape is an awful crime. There was no question of consent in this case as Ciara clearly said no, and neither was intoxicated. She's not at fault, and it needs to stay that way. We'll see how Hope and everyone reacts once the truth is revealed, and hopefully one day I'll be able to view a scene in the Horton living room without thinking about this crime.