Since my early teens I have been watching Law and Order: Special Victims Unit on a semi-regular basis. Before I was enrolled in this class, I believed Olivia Benson to be a strong female role model and believed she was quite different from other women leads in action. At that point in time, some of the reasons that I thought she was different from other female leads in the action genre included the fact that she was significantly older than most female action leads, I felt that the more conservative apparel helped to separate her from the rest, I believed that Olivia Benson was more competent and capable then most female leads often showing up her male co-workers. After completing this course, however, my viewpoint of Olivia Benson shifted.…show more content… During the lecture “Investigating Women” one of the main things that was discussed in class was how women tend to have to go undercover in traditionally female roles (hookers, strippers, showgirls, waitresses, etc.) Although Olivia Benson never goes undercover in one of those traditional female roles she goes undercover in certain positions that only a female could. Detective Benson, goes undercover to a speed dating event in order to identify and catch a rapist. Benson, also goes undercover in a women’s correctional facility in order to prove a correctional officer is raping inmates. While undercover, she is sexually assaulted and almost raped herself. Another mold that Olivia Benson seems to fit is…show more content… Olivia Benson works with many rapists being a part of the Special Victims Unit, often there is a chance of her being raped playing into the “damsel in distress role”. As I mentioned early in this paper, Detective Benson was undercover in a women’s correctional facility when she was seconds from being raped when one of her male co-workers saved her. In a later episode she is then kidnapped by a serial rapist/ murder named William Lewis. Lewis kidnaps her, ties her up, and tortures her for four days, and as Lewis is about to rape her, Benson breaks free. She then loses control and beats him to an inch of his life. She then continues on her journey for revenge by lying on the stand about beating him to make sure Lewis is arrested and punished. With this she exemplifies the rape revenge
