The YouTube site WIGS announced that The L Word’s Jennifer Beals and Pretty Little Liars’ Troian Bellisario are teaming up again for twelve new episodes of their webseries Lauren, AfterEllen reported. Bellisario, best known to many as Spencer Hastings on PLL, plays the title character, a sergeant in the US Army, who makes the decision to report the fact that she had been raped by several male soldiers. Her testimony makes it all the way up her chain of command to Major Jo Stone, played by Beals, whose lack of support for her fellow female soldier is perpetuated by a broken system.
The series takes a hard look at the epidemic of rape within the US armed forces, a subject that was addressed in the Academy-Award nominated documentary The Invisible War. The horrific truth is that not only do these rapes go widely unreported in the military, but women are encouraged and often threatened to keep quiet when they do endure rape or sexual assault. According to the documentary, many in the armed forces see the problem as more of an occupational hazard than a serious issue. Furthermore, a study done by the Guardian reports that only about 14% of sexual assault cases in the military are reported, and of those 14%, only 5% of the accused are convicted.
The first three episodes of Lauren are available on the WIGS YouTube Channel, and the series is set to continue this spring. But you can catch the series here.
Ep. 1
Ep. 2
Ep. 3
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