Trigger Warning: This post discusses rape and issues of consent.

In my recap of last night’s Agents of SHIELD I made an inexcusable mistake , glossing over the fact that Ward was raped by sarcastically referring to it as “fun sexytimes,” for which I sincerely apologize.  I have no excuse, as I recognized that it was rape while watching the episode, but that fact never made it into my recap.  It was only after a commenter helpfully pointed it out to me that I went back and made a small edit, however I feel like that was not enough.  So let me make this perfectly plain: Agent Ward was raped by Lorelei.

Lorelei used her mind control powers over men to bewitch Ward into devoting himself to her and following her every command.  When she says she wants to give him a “gift” she really means she wants to take advantage of her power over him to rape him.  Given that he was not in control of himself, he was in no position to give consent to the sex they had, making it rape.  It doesn’t make any difference that he seemingly enjoyed it, or that he agreed, because his condition at the time makes him unable to consent, which is the key aspect of what makes something rape.

I’ve seen a bit of discussion online about the scene, but not as much as I expected.  I’ve also seen some pretty infuriating comments that show either a lack of understanding or just straight-up not caring about the issue.  Several people pointed out that Ward probably enjoyed it, that he wouldn’t have objected to sex with her if they’d met in a bar, or that the fact that he was sleeping with May while having feelings for Skye somehow makes it less objectionable.  Those are all the sorts of excuses floated around whenever a woman accuses a man of rape, bringing up her sexual history, claiming she was flirting with the guy, or whatever, none of which mean that the act was not rape.  I feel like American society is getting to a point where those excuses are frequently called out as bullshit when we read them on the news, even if there are still far too many people who believe that those things mean that “no” really means “yes” and our system needs a lot of work to get it to a point where rape is treated the way it should be treated.  However, since Ward is male, many of the excuses that the internet would object to if he were female are seemingly dismissed because of his gender.

If you want to see a gender-swapped version of the story from last night, you need only look at season 6 of Joss Whedon’s first show, Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  In the episode “Dead Things,” Warren and his henchmen use magic/science to control a woman, Katrina (Warren’s ex-girlfriend), to be their slave.  Like Ward she follows every order they give, and is completely devoted to them.  (The only difference being that Ward is seemingly aware of what’s happening but unable to resist, while Katrina is unaware.  After the spell wears off on Katrina, she screams at them, “This is not some fantasy, it’s not a game, you freaks!  It’s rape!”  For all intents and purposes, the plotlines are the same, and the change in gender does not somehow make what happened to Ward anything other than rape.

Now, to be clear, I don’t object to a story using rape as a plot point, as long as it is done in a way that does not glorify it or excuse it.  I think there are many interesting character developments that could come from the events of last night’s episode, particularly concerning the Ward/May/Skye relationship triangle.  And I do feel that Lorelei’s actions were in keeping with her character, who uses men as her objects and playthings.  However, I’m very disappointed that the rape was depicted as “fun sexytimes” on the show, as if it were any other steamy but consensual sex scene.  It’s not acceptable to show rape as something meant to titillate the audience.

So why did this happen?  It’s hard to say.  It’s possible the episode’s writer Shalisha Francis had one intention with the scene but that director John Terlesky misinterpreted it.  Regardless, it was clearly a mistake, most likely brought on by a lack of awareness or education.  I would like to hope that this will be addressed in a future episode (it seems like something Skye would point out), but I’m not particularly optimistic about it.  I’m not going to stop watching the show because of this, as I do genuinely love the show, but I do consider this an inexcusable mistake.  I don’t feel that the show, the showrunners or producers made the choice to intentionally glorify rape, however going forward I hope they’re more careful about this.