How Feminism Is Portrayed in Law and Order

I just read this article on how feminism is portrayed in television and basically, the article just made two points and extended it over eighteen pages. The two points were that Law and Order SVU was feminist in that the female detective was an independent woman who did not have much of a domestic life and the television show was anti-feminist in that most of the rape and murder crimes were the woman's fault. Even if she was beaten and had an encounter with a sex offender, the evidence would point to the supposed victim setting up the perpetrator for personal gain, mostly for money from his wallet or a lawsuit.
Role reversal was discussed in this article. Detective Benson was first mentioned. She is an unmarried female (and the only on the team!), and hardly has a personal life outside her work life (305), so she does not fit into the stereotypical "family woman". However, it is mentioned that she dates a reporter, which means she is not too much of an uptight worker (309). Her partner, Detective Stabler, on the other hand, has a family of his own and that aspect brings out a somewhat more feminine side to him when he is at work. Whenever he is investigates a crime, such as one that involves a woman murdering a man when he was supposedly trying to rape her, he thinks of what would have happened if it was his own daughter in that situation. This trait sometimes gets in the way because there is usually a loophole in the crime, such as the perpetrator being set up. In those cases, Benson is the one that is right because she does not have a family that she could relate the crime to, so she is always trying to dig deeper in the other direction (312). Benson would be the more masculine of the two partners because she goes by facts and Stabler goes by emotions.
This article also discusses how when parents are blamed for the crimes of their children, most of the time, it is the mother who is framed. Mothers who do not adequately raise their children are more of a target then fathers who do not adequately raise their children, because it is the mother who is supposed to be the loving one and give up everything for her child (314).
Another aspect of the show is how many of the episodes blame the women. Like I mentioned in the first paragraph, most of the female victims actually come out to be the perpetrator due to setting the rapist up on purpose or taking a date rape drug.
Well, I somewhat accomplished the same thing this article has done except I stretched my point over four paragraphs instead of eighteen pages. Basically, the show would only be considered feminist because of Detective Benson being an independent woman. Otherwise, women in that show are usually played off as the "bad guys."

Cuklanz, Lisa M. and Moorti, Sujata (2006). 'Television's "New" Feminism: Prime-Time Representations of Women and Victimization', Critical Studies in Media Communication, 23:4, 302-321.