CORONATION Street rarely makes major mistakes – but with Stephanie Davis’ affair storyline – they’ve got it seriously wrong.
Making her debut earlier this month as Courtney Vance, former Hollyoaks star Stephanie was thrown into the deep end.
Within about half an hour she went from devouring a kebab in front of Aadi to devouring him in front of a kebab.
And devour him she did, with all the self-control of a starving lioness pouncing on a bow-legged baby gazelle.
Corrie boss Iain Macleod promised fans a “fun, fiery storyline.”
He added: “Aadi will quickly find himself way out of his depth as he risks everything for Courtney. And while it is the best time he’s ever had in his life, he stands to end up in a whole heap of trouble!”
It could almost be mistaken for a fun storyline if there wasn’t a huge power imbalance. Nothing quite says “fun” and “fiery” like a boss forcing their barely-an-adult employee to sleep with them, eh, Corrie?
It’s not fun and fiery – it’s seedy and sordid.
Coronation Street could have chosen to explore the reality of a young man being groomed and abused by his boss.
Instead they decided to have Dev Alahan pimp out his son to a twisted couple, one of whom is now forcing him to sleep with her, which – for the avoidance of doubt – is rape.
The scene where Courtney threatened Aadi’s job unless he continued to sleep with her – is sickening.
It is so clearly coercion that you have to wonder what the hell is going on at Corrie for anyone to think it could be described as “fun”.
For a soap that does serious issues-based storylines better than any other – this is a huge mistake.
And not one that can be simply fixed.
The message that this storyline is sending out is not one of fun – it’s that young men should be expected to be sexually harassed and raped.
Don’t agree? Let’s make it clearer and flip things around.
Imagine for a second if instead of Aadi – this was Asha.
And that Dev had decided to send her to work for Courtney in order to convince them to go into business with him so he could make lots of money.
Imagine that Courtney had then made Asha her husband Darren’s assistant.
And then Darren had sexually harassed Asha, groping her in front of her family, demanding that she sleep with him to keep her job.
Not quite a “fun, fiery storyline” now, is it? But because Aadi’s a young man it seems Corrie think it’s fair game.
It’s bad enough but consider that the soap has only just wrapped up an entire storyline about Max Turner being groomed. Did they learn nothing?
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If they wanted anyone to be educated by the horrors of grooming – then they should start with themselves and urgently bring this storyline to a close.
Otherwise it risks making a mockery of any kind of serious issue Corrie tackles.
The simple fact is that Courtney Vance is a sexual predator – and she must be brought to justice.
