General Hospital Star Opens Up About An On-Screen Trauma: ‘At 17 You Follow The Rules’
Good thing, we can all be proud of who Laura has become today.
Like any other medium that was created long before the entertainment industry began to question its ethics, General Hospital has always been full of questionable storylines.
The worst one, however, was also considered the greatest love story and got the most recognition back in the 80's, causing a lot of confusion now.
Luke and Laura's relationship was the one that earned them the title of "super couple."
Back in the '80s, they were the ones who gave General Hospital the success it still can't beat. What other cast could say they received a bottle of champagne from Princess Diana herself to celebrate?
More importantly, the episode featuring Luke and Laura's wedding was watched by a groundbreaking 30 million people.
The point was that all those people had been celebrating for years a couple whose story began with rape but was later softened to "seduction."
For many years, viewers of General Hospital applauded the love story that was really a story of abuse. It was not until 1998 that the show finally addressed the issue correctly.
Genie Francis, who plays Laura Collins on the never-ending soap, admits she doesn't approve of the way her character's relationship was created.
At the General Hospital TCA panel back in January 2023, the actress stated how glad she was that the show was openly admitting how wrong it was to portray rape as an act of love:
“As a young kid at 17, I was told to play rape and I played it. But, at 17, you follow the rules, and you do as you are told, and you aim to please. At 60, I don’t feel the need to defend that anymore. I think that the story was inappropriate, and I don’t condone it. And it’s been a burden that I’ve had to carry to try to justify that story, and so I’m not doing that anymore.”
It's hard to imagine a soap opera portraying any relationship in a healthy way, but stopping making excuses for sexual assault and starting to call things as they deserve to be called is a good first step.
To see what's going on in Laura's life today, tune in to ABC Monday through Friday for new episodes of General Hospital.
Source: TV Line