Here is Caitriona Balfe’s interview with Inquisitr
From Inquisitr:
Some blame Game of Thrones, with the rape of Sansa Stark (Sophie Turner) by her husband Ramsay Bolton (Iwan Rheon), for making the concept of sexual violence on television such a hot topic, but Outlander star Caitriona Balfe recently pointed out that Game of Thrones is not the first, nor is it the only series, to use sexual violence as a plot device. Including Balfe’s own Outlander, with the other series being Banished, Ms. Balfe mentions two historical dramas that have featured storylines which included rapes.
Read more after the jump
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Outlander‘s Caitriona Balfe approaches the topic as many professionals in creative arts might, as she points out that sexual assault was a fact of life in 18th century Scotland, the setting in which Outlander takes place.
“I think what we’re trying to show in that – during that time – sexual violence was a weapon used against women. It still is unfortunately, throughout a lot of the world and here,” the Outlander star said.
Caitriona points out that to be either socially relevant or historically accurate — two goals for which Outlander strives — events such as rape and sexual violence cannot be discarded.
“I think you can’t discard that. In that time women were like second-class citizens and the easy thing for men to do to intimidate that, to abuse them was to use sexual violence,” Balfe said. “And I think in a sense a lot of period pieces that’s the go-to but that’s the case. We’re trying to show life as close as possible to what it was back then.”
You can read the rest of the interview here
Rape is still used as a weapon in modern times too! I remember during the Servian-Bosnian war during the 90’s that Servians raped Bosnian women in order to be repudiated by their men. The purpose of that action was to extermine the Bosnians, who were muslims in a Christian-orthodox territory.
At the same time I remember the story of Rob Roy: he was hidden because the red coats wanted to imprison him. They went to his wife and raped her in order to make him to come and confront them. That’s why she hid that fact as much as she could in order to keep her husband safe.
Reblogged this on Ana Fraser Lallybroch Blog.
Seems that these quotes from Cait are are all from this Express article which was published Friday. Inquisitr typically just (slightly) rewords other people’s interviews.
http://www.express.co.uk/entertainment/tv-radio/580949/Outlander-Caitriona-Balfe-rape-scenes-sexual-violence
The writer linked it in his writeup, but didn’t state credit to the source.