Things I will not do to my characters. Ever.

::face-palm:: What the hell is WRONG with some people?!

Your general attitude towards the women you write is one of the reasons I keep reading you.

(Please note, I'm a guy. And I really, really hope noone reads this as 'mansplaining'. Pretty sure I'm not, but if I am, call me on it so I don't do it again)

Your worlds, your characters. Personally, I'm glad for the decision. I don't like reading rape scenes. And they usually don't make a lot of sense. "I can't find a way to turn this positive character into a grring angsty dark character I want for Act 3, I know...lets violate her". Writers have a million ways to do the same thing to male characters, loss, addiction, a war. Women, it always seems to be the same thing. And you never see it the other way around, I don't remember the last story when a male character is violated to further the plot.

So, thank you for your choice. Hopefully there will be less rape in fiction because there's less rape in reality. Hey, we can dream.

And you never see it the other way around, I don't remember the last story when a male character is violated to further the plot.

_Magic's Price_ by Mercedes Lackey comes to mind.

I can't decide which is more jaw-droppingly unbelievable: the misogyny or the stupidity.

Misogyny is a sub-category of stupidity.

The person asking this repulsive question sounds more like someone who is demanding to read about someone getting raped rather than someone who is looking for something "realistic". Good riddance to this person and anyone else that assumes a female in fiction should have to atone for the sin of being a girl and also the hero.

Thank you x Infinity for this post.

This is one of the grossest ways I've heard that question asked, though I've heard similar things before. But it's obvious that to this particular person who asked you this, it's not about "it'd be realistic" so much as "I think these characters deserve it, and I want to 'finally' see it happen!" And that is really, really, loathesome.

And also thank you for not wanting to make this into any of your characters' "tragic past." Sexual violence is NOT the only way for a woman to "become strong" and when it's used as a cheap tool to gain sympathy or a false kind of character depth, it's horrible. (Again, not that it can't be written about well, but that it so rarely is.)

WTF

Well, y'know what, I'll just be over here writing my unrealistic fiction.

What a freaking douchecanoe. I am so sorry you had to deal with that.

Oh, my stars. WTH.

I found out about this via my email loop - word is getting around about this. I hope it makes the thoughtless think.

As a rape survivor I thank you. I'm not sure what else to say, it is a sad statement, I think, when somebody expects a rape to happen. I'm not sure I put that right, but that's what it felt like to me. Either way, thank you for not planning on it happening.

*Picks jaw up off the floor*. I'm a bit afraid of anyone who thinks the way your questioner does. OK, more than a bit. If not having female characters raped at some point in a series is unrealistic, then I would like to subscribe to a different reality please.

Ugh. People are special.

My jaw just dropped. I can't believe someone would ask that, or even more importantly, think that. I'm, I'm, ug.

You're response is brilliant, though. Well said.

WTF?

Putting aside that you're THE AUTHOR and things that you don't want to write about won't happen in your worlds....

Unrealistic?

That one in six statistic, such as it is, is a cross-section of women. Certainly any woman could be raped, but the odds are not equal for all women.

Running through your heroines.

Toby? Mildly superpowered, healing factor and she's not afraid to use it by getting hurt, has a habit of defeating powerful enemies, being courted by a King of Cats, daughter of a Firstborn, friend of another, assorted tough allies. A pure human's unlikely to be able to rape her for a variety of reasons, and anyone in fey circles would know at least some of how STUPID doing so would be. Also, I don't recall much reference to rape among the fey, and there's no reason to assume that fey rape each other as often as humans do. The long lives and smaller social circles make a difference.

George? Journalist in a world where that means combat training. Has a good sense of danger and is rarely separated from her lover for long. Also, in hiding.

Verity? Trained to handle danger from the time she was old enough to walk, if not before. Rather more formidable than your average male human.

Sarah? TELEPATH.

Antimony I haven't seen, but like Verity she's been trained from a young age.

Rose? Ghost with a knack for travel and decades of experience in a dangerous world.

Velveteen? Superhero who animates toys, carries around animated toys, and whose animations persist while she's unconscious. Also, the many sins of the Evil "Superhero" Corporation do not seem to include poor training.

Running through his examples now.

Toby? Sure she's cocky and she may get herself killed one of these days. She can handle a human mugger. Of the many dangers she can't handle, for whom is rape on the menu?

Verity forgetting / not bothering to change? So? Most of the Incrypid aren't likely to rape a human, especially not a Price, and she can handle your average human rapist.

Sarah walking around alone? TELEPATH? With a don't notice me field on by default??? WTF again?

You're the author and can set the plots up so that anything makes sense, but of all your heroines I can think of offhand, Rose is the only one who hangs out in places and situations where the likely dangers include rape, and by now she's been dealing with those situations for decades. That is to say, if your heroines existed in a continuum of alternate universes where the basic reality you portrayed had changed in classic alternate universe fashion, and we read the entire life story of two dozen versions of all your heroines, I would expect to see some version of young Rose got raped somewhere, but I wouldn't expect that of any of the others, including current Rose.

And this putting aside you being THE AUTHOR?

I lied.

Even if he were correct that it was realistic, you've stated that you don't want to write it. Therefore it's not going to happen.

That's what has me most flabbergasted about this, actually. You have a limited quantity of time available. Why would you write something you don't want to, even if it WERE something that would likely happen to one of your characters naturally?

If he wants to read about your characters getting abused in ways you don't want them to be or don't want to write them being, he can write his own d*mn fanfic and not tell you about it. The author's obligation to the reader is to write good stories, not to let the reader choose plot elements.

But obviously, his desire to read your characters being raped is more important than your desire not to write that.

I am reminded that the sub population best documented to believe that all men rape (which seems to be part of the universe this creep is assuming) is, well, rapists.

Which combines squickfully with someone who goes to an author and insists that their version of reality is more important than the author's version of fiction.

So many levels of hate at that person, and so much love and appreciation at you. I know far too many women who have been raped, or nearly so, and for this jackwad to want to subject your wonderful, strong characters to that.... Ugh! NO. It's not unrealistic, it's being a better writer who can find more complex ways to deepen her characters motivations. Much like comedians who use excess profanity to disguise the fact that they're not actually funny, using rape just as a convenient plot thickener is just lazy, sloppy plotting.
<3 *hugs*

I... you... someone said WHAT?

Excuse me, I'm just going to go sit in the corner and weep for humanity now.

I do not understand—I will not understand, I refuse to understand—why rape has to be on the table for every story with a female protagonist...

As far as I can tell, it's the result of years of stupid writing. Want to cause trauma for a female character? Aim at the vagina, and figure something out from there. Some people come to expect this mrglfrbltz.

I do not write rape.

Thank you for saying this - I expected this already, but it's good to have this card played face-up.

Early on (#4 in the archive), the "home on the strange" webcomic suggested that for every rape storyline, there should be a corresponding castration storyline with one of the male characters.

The arguments for the first type of storyline all apply to the second.

You're being kinder than I might have been in the same situation. I might have made the name of this male person (I hesitate to call him a man) public, as I think he deserves public shaming.

I mean, for fuck's sake. It's not as though you don't put your characters through the grinder. I mean, seriously, has this dude read your work? It turns out there are other kinds of trauma women can experience other than rape! Who knew!

Also, "Verity forgets to change out of her tango outfit" -> rape? Toby is cocky -> rape? I just cannot even. I believe this guy needs to go to Respect For Women 101. Maybe the remedial version.

DEFINITELY the remedial version.

That question is just...well, I can't say "unbelievable", but I feel genuinely ill now.

Hats off to your response.

I can't believe the audacity. While I can see that, as you said, rape can be a powerful and important thing to drive a story along, I think you create damn powerful stories without it.

Respect for your work? Evidently they don't have any.

If he wants character-building rapes for female protagonists, that's what we have Alan Moore for. Everyone else would like to write female protagonists doing protagonisty things thank you very much.

I HAVE SO MUCH LOVE FOR THIS. ♥

I am a survivor of more rapes than I can count and have PTSD from intimate partner violence. And I like to watch movies and read books where women kick a bunch of ass and are action heroes and are not raped, because I think about rape so much in my everyday life that I am just exhausted by it. I tend not to read things or watch things without advance knowledge of their plots anymore at all; instead I have my partner watch them first and report back to me, or get book recommendations from friends whom I trust to let me know if there's rape in something so I can avoid it. (Reading plot synopses on Wikipedia doesn't always work because the NPOV brigade is interested in normalizing coercive scenes; check out the description of the one in Blade Runner for a revolting example.)

Anyway, thank you so fucking much for being stalwart and trustworthy, and I'm sorry this question ever got shoved in your face.

Their response: "I thought you had respect for your work. That's just unrealistic."

Wait...wait, what?

I mean, personally, I'd like to see what happens to the would-be rapist who tries to rape Toby, but I have a pretty good idea how how hard you work and how much respect your work.

It is my considered opinion that the person who said this is an ass.

By the way, may I also link this?

Wow, that sounds to me like someone (whichever jerk wrote to you practically demanding you rape your characters for their own personal amusement) who has entitlement issues.

Who gets to decide what happens to characters in a story? Last I checked, that was the perview of the AUTHOR. Not the reader. When I'm a reader, my choices are pretty simple. Enjoy the story and keep reading. Don't enjoy the story, but keep reading anyway. Don't enjoy the story and stop reading. At no point in time do I get to tell the author how to write the story. If something about the story makes me want to alter the story, either I A) do a little day dreaming, or B) write my own story in response. I do not get to C) tell someone else how to write their story.

All that aside, I'm getting triggery in response to what feels like an attempted rape by proxy. Like, it's not bad enough that rape happens to real people to begin with, now someone feels entitled enough to demand authors rape their own characters for the reading ?pleasure? of the audience. I'm skeeved out of my skin by this very idea. None of which I lay at the feet of our good host. I'm happy to see you standing up to this nonsense. And nonsense is exactly what it is.

Thank you so much for this.

I'd write more, but I'm having trouble seeing the keyboard through the tears.