Of Swords and Parasols

I've started watching the BBC series Being Human, which is about a ghost, a vampire, and a roommate as housemates. So far (2 episodes) I enjoy it, though it isn't quite amazingly brilliant or anything. Shockingly, I like the angsty vampire. (Literally "shockingly," if you know me and most vampires.) Less shockingly, I also like the ghost. I am annoyed by the werewolf, who does far too much angst wallowing for my taste. Also, I don't need to be seeing his nekkid butt this much.

Speaking of the werewolf, have a scenario: You are a guy. You are (presumably platonic) roommates with a guy and another girl. You bond with a houseguest who is charming, despite being rather bad at manners when it comes to cohabitation. While you and your male roommate are out, your guest attempts to sexually assault your female roommate, which your roommates later confront you and your guest about.




If you picked the last option, you win!

In the spirit of providing visual aids, this is the character who was almost assaulted:




This is the assaulter:



And this is the guy defending the assaulter:



This is the other roommate stopping himself from ripping heads off over it, which did endear him to me, while simultaneously making me sigh sadly over other parts of it:



Can Annie actually be physically assaulted? Probably not. As near as I can tell, she's only corporeal when she wants to be, and even that's limited. (Which is why I don't actually have a problem with the attempted assault itself, just with this part. That and the "sexist come ons are cute if you're socially awkward, and the woman you were sexist to should apologize to you for calling you on it" from earlier in the episode.) And it was clearly regarded as an awful thing to say. But the writers still thought that this was an acceptable thing to have one of your main protagonists say, with the expectation that the audience would still like him and find it forgivable, and did not feel the need to have the character actually apologize for saying it. The proper term for that is "rape culture."