Scandal Recap: Youth sexuality, sex tapes, and consent

We can usually count on Scandal to include themes that are concurrent with elements and events in popular culture. With all of the spotlight cast on the video’d sexcapades of reality stars like Kim Kardashian – and more recently, Mimi Faust coming to fame via sex tape – it was only a matter of time before the controversial topic of sex tapes made it’s way to a show so appropriately named. The central plot of last night’s episode involved Olivia Pope “fixing” a dire situation in which President Fitzgerald “Fitz” Grant’s daughter, Karen, snuck to a party in another state and was video recorded having consensual sex with two boys.

Scandal isn’t usual the place we look to for examples of healthy relationship models and sexual tropes. In fact, if you are looking for those things, you should run the other way. If I had $100 for every time Fitz ignored the objections of Olivia Pope while coming on to her, (last night’s episode was no exception) I’d be able to afford Pope’s signature Prada bag. Cyrus Bean, the President’s Chief of Staff, is being unknowingly extorted by a sex worker named Michael. Huck tortured his coworker Quinn, pulling out several of her teeth, before they began a passionate affair. But apparently someone in Shondaland has been following the conversations about feminism happening all over popular media these days. Last night, Scandal made it’s best effort to address some of the sexist limitations placed on women’s sexuality.

In the scene that I found most compelling, Fitz confronted Karen about her transgression, and she had some choice words for him. Digesting the details of his daughter’s night of partying, which included drinking and drug use, Fitzgerald presumptively and unprompted asked Karen if she was raped. Her response was, in my opinion, the most feminist moment of the episode:

“Dad. I cut class. I ran away from my secret service goons. I helped some girl I barely know jack her fathers private jet to go to a party. I got drunk. I smoked weed. I shot up something awesome. And yet the only way that you think I could have sex with 2 guys is if I were raped?! … Look what they did to me!? What about what I did to them!”

In a culture that glorifies father-daughter purity balls, virginity pledges, and promise rings that appoint fathers as gatekeepers of their daughters sexuality until marriage, this bold statement by a teenage girl to her father during prime time was important. Karen daringly reclaimed her own sexual agency and ability to decide who and how many people she has sex with.

Later, alone with Olivia Pope, Fitz attempted to argue against Karen’s behavior because she was his child, implying that she was some sort of special exception to the rules of underaged sex. Pope quickly reminded him that “every girl is someone’s daughter.” This line was a challenge to the good girl vs. bad girl binary that assumes that only “some” kinds of girls are prone to sexual behavior. In a more obvious example of the episode’s feminism, First Lady Mellie Grant directly names sexism as the reason Karen’s exploits are taken so seriously in the White House. She tells her daughter, “It’s not fair. And it’s definitely sexist. If you were a boy they’d be giving you high fives. But you’re not. And your knees are gonna have to stay together.” Mellie comforts her daughter by acknowledging sexism and slut-shaming as an inescapable part of life in America’s spotlight, while simultaneously reinforcing those sexual limitations.

True to the show’s history, Scandal’s brand of feminism left some things to be desired. Karen’s sexual experience was pathologized by Olivia Pope, who claimed that she had “daddy issues;” Fitz, who erased her sexual agency by assuming she was raped; and Mellie, who credited her behavior to grief over her lost brother. But more than these tropes, I found a huge problem with the issue of the sex tape itself. It remains unclear whether or not Karen’s sexual encounter was taped consensually. I found the fact that this question remained unaddressed to be problematic. Recording someone without their permission is a violation of privacy and a form of sexual exploitation that can be just as harmful as rape and sexual assault. Karen did not assume and accept victimhood, and the fact that she was recorded remained a neutral part of the storyline. This oversight implies that being recorded is simply one of the consequences of having sex as a young person. This intentional violation is placed on that same playing field as STIs and/or pregnancy — an assumed risk/penalty for having sex.

We need more dynamic representations of youth sexuality that move away from tired trauma and risk tropes. Instead, we need to understand the transformative and empowering potential that exists in young people making healthy, autonomous decisions about their bodies and sexualities. Depictions of sexuality should be clear about what is and isn’t acceptable and coercive; consent should remain at the front of these narratives.

Sesali trusts and believes in young people.