I just watched the first season of Bad Sisters on Apple. It's a murder mystery where the victim is the most vicious villain, and a group of five sisters set out to kill him.

But my post isn't about the murder mystery. It's about the friendship between the oldest sister, Eva, and a co-worker, Gabriel. If you don't want to know about the nature of this friendship, read no further.

Eva and Gabriel meet, are attracted, and get to know each other. Long before Eva figures it out, we can see that Gabriel is gay. So when they have a lovely day of friendship together, and go back to his place, sort of drunk, we feel tension she doesn't. Will he tell her? How will she feel when she finds out?

At no point does the viewer think "Is she going to rape him?"

When she pushes him onto his bed, and climbs on him, kissing him, and he resists and finally puts his hand firmly on her chest and says "Stop," she stops. He tells her he's not into girls, and she immediately accepts this new information, and forgets all about sex with him. They remain friends.

Has a similar situation ever happened in other fictions? If the Gabriel were a lesbian, and the Eva a man, we would know the scene would be about the conflict between the man not stopping. In a comedy, there might even be a madcap chase and struggle, ha ha ha, before she kicks him in the nuts and he comes to his senses.

And in real life? I would fear for her. Because I've been there, when I was young, wanting a man's friendship so desperately, believing the feminist ideal that men and women are equal and can be friends, even sleep together like I do with my straight women friends. Equals.

I don't believe that anymore.

Maybe this scene is here deliberately, so that we would notice how men live in a world of relatively little peril, while men like the Villain harm women in every way. But I think not. I think the scene is here to pretend that when consent is withdrawn, the right thing to do is to stop, and all is well. And funny. It's a fantasy of straight women wishing men would be like themselves. Decent.

Has anyone else seen the show, and did you ponder this scene like I did?