Tommy’s aggression has left Kat feeling both fearful and guilty (Picture: BBC)
When you think of Kat Slater, you think of a fearsomely loyal, eternally tragic yet loving character; you think leopard print and leather boots and you thinkof sensational performances from the ‘YES I AM!’ queen Jessie Wallace.
When you think of EastEnders, you think of a show based on family and community, of gritty storylines targeted around often uncomfortable issues and of episodes that leave an emotional impact.
Marrying all of this together for a saga focusing on the very real issue of child-on-parent domestic abuse has led to a powerful and agonising look at the horrific position Kat has found herself in as a mum.
Kat, a character whose own childhood was heavily darkened by abuse, is the epitome of a resilient, surviving, powerful woman of soap; the type of character that goes down in the history books of the genre.
Mess with Kat as an enemy and you are likely to regret it. Have Kat on your side, and you have a battle already half won. As a character, she is a titan of feistiness, fun and ferocity.
Does that mean that she can’t therefore find herself the victim of abuse from a child? Despite the cries of ‘Kat would never let Tommy get away with that!’, this is as far from the truth as can be and a misconception that proves exactly why it’s vital for shows in the public eye like EastEnders to continue shining a light on violence against women.
Tommy’s aggression has been unpredictable (Picture: BBC)
Kat has the weight of the world on her shoulders (Picture: BBC)
Depressingly, even after the soap genre has covered a myriad of circumstances around abuse over decades, for some, there remains a stereotype of what an abuse victim should look and act like on TV. And, in the same vein, what they shouldn’t – aka, which characters would ‘never let abuse happen.’
There’s no such thing as ‘letting abuse happen’ or ‘letting someone get away with that’.
And there is no such thing as the ‘right’ abuse victim.
Over the last year and longer, EastEnders has been laying the seeds of a gradually worsening pattern of behaviour from Tommy, played extremely well by capable young actor Sonny Kendall.
Much of what would often be put down to teenage angst as well as the lasting effects of being a child brought up through traumas, started to play out.
Suddenly shouting, breaking things, storming out, making threats, playing mind games – has there ever been a parent who hasn’t come up against some of this from a teenage child?
No parent ever wants to see their child as any kind of monster and so it’s only been recently that Kat has been forced to face up to the daunting truth that Tommy’s behaviours are next level and go far beyond teenage tantrums.
Domestic abuse helpline
If you are in immediate danger call 999. If you cannot talk, dial 55 and the …read more
Source:: Metro
