Billy chelsea mashup Y&R

Viewers reacted with outrage to Chelsea and Billy’s conversation about his rape.

Young & Restless tackled a serious issue in the shared past of Chelsea and Billy as she called him to her apartment to own up to what she did to him years ago in Myanmar. Unfortunately, the daytime drama’s handling of the subject left a lot to be desired — and left fans flooding social media to express outrage on several points, one of which was portions of the dialogue.

Specifically, in one part of the conversation, Billy appeared to be attempting to shrug off Chelsea’s sexual assault of him by characterizing it as just another “wild” incident from his partying days:

While Billy could technically have been referring to his wild days as something he enjoyed and not the incident that occurred between them, he was still trying to brush it off, and worse, it sounded like the victim taking on blame, which sends a damaging and unacceptable message.

Could the show have been trying to depict a man not wanting to accept that he had been taken advantage of? Perhaps, but the bottom line is that a rape occurred and viewers expected it to be addressed as such. Many of the negative remarks about the scenes called out the higher-ups for not using the correct term for the assault or treating it with the same seriousness they have other social issues. Notably, the show neglected to do a PSA on the topic as it did for Chelsea’s recent suicide attempt.

Also suspect were the show’s reasons for bringing this up again at all. Was it an attempt to clear the path for a Chelsea and Billy romantic pairing?

What was also peculiar is that the writers were addressing this now as though for the first time. It’s incredible to think that the characters were engaged and didn’t have this conversation before heading toward the altar together.

Not all Young & Restless viewers were unhappy with how the writers dealt with the serious issue, however. There were fans who had a completely different takeaway.

Please let us know your thoughts on Billy and Chelsea’s recent scenes in the comment section below. If you or anyone you know has been affected by sexual assault, help can be found through RAINN by calling 800.656.HOPE (4673).

Keeping it real: Look back and reflect on other soap stories dealing with real world social issues in the photo gallery below.