Big Little Lies Is Exposing That No One Knows How to Talk About Abusive Relationships
LatestIn Sunday night’s Big Little Lies, Perry (Alexander Skarsgard) tries to have sex with his wife Celeste (Nicole Kidman) as they’re getting ready to go out for opening night of a local theatrical production. Celeste resists—she doesn’t want to be late to her friend’s big premiere—but Perry insists. Celeste then grabs a tennis racquet and smashes it against his penis. He is, after all, a rapist. And she was in fear of another attack.
By this moment in the show’s penultimate episode, we’ve seen Perry rape his wife several times—occasionally in the very closet where this particular scene takes place. Celeste is his victim, and Perry her abuser. But if you’d never seen Big Little Lies and just read some stories published by websites People, Cosmopolitan, or D Listed since the episode aired, you’d think the scene was played for laughs. All of these stories ignored the abusive nature of Celeste and Perry’s relationship, and instead focused on the prosthetic penis used for the scene.