Some of the most memorable scenes I’ve seen on screen involve sexual assault. Years after watching them, I can still recall every detail. How it was filmed. If there was music playing. Where I watched it. What feelings it stirred in my own body. These scenes have disturbed, devastated, and galvanised me. Often all at the same time.
So I was shocked to hear the actor and writer Doon Mackichan, of the comedies Two Doors Down and Toast of London, as well as the seminal sketch show Smack the Pony, suggest that they only make things worse for women. Speaking at the Hay Festival over the weekend, the 61-year-old lamented the nation’s obsession with “crime porn” and described it as “profoundly deflating for women”. She continued: “We are watching stuff that makes us debilitated and exhausted, it just doesn’t help us overcome this. We are wading in very, very ugly waters of misogyny and violence against women.”
