Some topics are so overdone in our real lives that they just shouldn't find their way into entertainment. The term "legitimate rape" is one of those, but that didn't stop Law & Order SVU from using it for their episode airing tonight.
After a woman is raped by a co-worker and becomes pregnant, she presses on with her rape charge even though she has chosen to keep the child. They really did pull the whole plot from the headlines, didn't they? Not just Todd Akin's comments, but the whole "child of rape" thing, too.
The rape caucus of the 2012 election gets its close-up tomorrow night, when Law & Order: Special Victims Unit airs its "legitimate rape" episode. Judging from the promo clip, Todd Akin's campaign-sinking term is ripped from the headlines and pasted into a very different context: an expert witness explaining why a pregnant plaintiff could not have been raped. (Boooo.) Mariska Hargitay's eye-roll, however, has ways of shutting that whole thing down.
This feels unnecessary to me. It just perpetuates a debate that isn't one at all. I realize everyone is out to make a buck or two, but surely there's got to be an original thought in one of their pretty heads.
