disappointedThere are a lot of ways to reach me; I try to be accessible and responsive whenever possible. Sometimes, this leads to my being asked questions I would never dream of asking an author who wasn't a) a personal friend, and b) in the process of getting drunk with me. I try to answer them nicely, for the most part, assuming I can answer them at all (I can't, always; some questions simply can't be answered).
Last night, I was asked—in so many words—when either Toby or one of the Price girls was finally going to be raped.
Not "if." Not "do you think." But "when," and "finally." Because it is a foregone conclusion, you see, that all women must be raped, especially when they have the gall to run around being protagonists all the damn time. I responded with confusion. The questioner provided a list of scenarios wherein these characters were "more than likely" to encounter sexual violence. These included Verity forgetting to change out of her tango uniform before going on patrol, Toby being cocky, and Sarah walking home from class alone. Yes, even the ambush predator telepath with a "don't notice me" field is inevitably getting raped.
When. Finally. Inevitably.
My response: "None of my protagonists are getting raped. I do not want to write that."
Their response: "I thought you had respect for your work. That's just unrealistic."
Verity is the bastard daughter of Dazzler and Batman. Toby is what happens when Tinker Bell embraces her inner bitch and starts wearing pants. Velveteen brings toys to life and uses them to fight the powers of darkness. Sarah is a hot mathematician who looks like Zooey Deschanel but is actually a hyper-evolved parasitic wasp. The unrealistic part about all these characters? Is that they haven't been raped.
Needless to say, I was a little bit annoyed, and I still am.
Statistically speaking, one in six women will be raped in her lifetime. This is just the statistic we know; it doesn't account for the fact that right now, reporting rape is a minefield all of its own, and many women choose not to subject themselves to that process. I do not know how many of my friends have been raped. I know that five of them are safe because of me, if you trust statistics. So you know. There's that.
Rape in fiction can be a powerful and important thing. It can be used to make important statements, it can be used to drive important stories. I love Robin McKinley's Deerskin as much because of the discomfort it causes me as for the beauty it contains. There are authors I will always trust, or try to trust, and it's important to show uncomfortable things through fiction. I am not saying that no one should write about rape, ever.
But rape in fiction can also be a problematic and belittling thing, used to put cocky heroines in their places. When Janet goes to Caughterha despite being told not to, her punishment is rape by the eponymous Tam Lin. When a superheroine needs a deeper, edgier backstory, there's always some previously third-tier villain with a de-powering ray and an agenda waiting in the wings. I read a lot of horror, a lot of comics, and a lot of urban fantasy, and the one thing these three things have in common is rape. Lots and lots and lots of rape.
And I don't wanna write that.
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, or even a strong female supporting cast. Why it's so assumed that I'm being "unrealistic" when I say that none of my female characters are going to be raped. Why this "takes the tension out of the story." There is plenty of tension without me having to write about something that upsets both me and many of my readers, thanks.
Toby will not be getting raped. Verity, Alice, Sarah, Antimony, and the rest of the InCryptid girls will not be getting raped. Velveteen will not be getting raped. Rose will not be getting raped. If this makes my work unrealistic, then fine. There's a reason I write science fiction and fantasy.
But I do not write rape. And the fact that this somehow makes me "unrealistic," rather than making me an author who makes choices about what she wants to write...that's the part I find upsetting.
You know. In addition to everything else.
September 28 2012, 20:48:47 UTC 4 years ago Edited: September 28 2012, 20:54:32 UTC
You know, I admit baldly that I like rapekink and write rapekink: I might think of rapekink with an author's established characters, I might admittedly get off on seeing it show up in an author's book. But I hope to everything there is that I would never ever ask an author, "When are you gonna have your characters raped?" God.
If we're talking about a kinkmeme, a ficfest, or maybe a conversation with an erotica author who's known to specialize in that kind of thing--any of those venues where one's kinky fictional tastes and requests are invited to be laid out there, that's a very, VERY different kettle of fish. There are really people who don't get this? My eyes may never stop rolling.
And avoiding writing about rape as an author preference does not get to be dissed as "unrealistic." REALISM DOES NOT A STORY MAKE. And an author doesn't have to write anything she damned well doesn't want to. (That includes fluffy kittens and baby penguins, for that matter.) If I ask someone when they're going to write about drugs, poverty, sickness, any brutality, I don't get to say it's necessary because it's real, oh, I HATE that.
On behalf of all the kinky yet polite people who understand how not to approach an author with such a rude, invasive question, I'm sorry, dear lady.
(ETA: And rereading this post and the responses to it, I see that the issue probably isn't even kink for that kind of thing--it's the hideous assumption that rape makes plotsense because the characters are female or in danger or strong. That makes me so angry I can't even begin to address that coherently. Fortunately it looks like lots of other folk have.)
September 29 2012, 05:05:42 UTC 4 years ago Edited: September 29 2012, 05:21:44 UTC
I write porn. I write exclusively kinky porn, and a lot of it is violent and violates consent. I write it in the full understanding that I am getting my rocks off to gratuitously hurting imaginary people.
Someone has confused his gratuitous fantasy with realism. I hope for the people around him that his friends have good support networks and he's not allowed to extend these assumptions further into reality.
Edited to add: And with that taste in reading and writing and kinks, I am still frequently squicked out to the point of nausea by the way rape and (lack of) consent are represented in a lot of fiction; there's an E. Bear book that left me shaking and I couldn't finish it. So, back on topic, I'm adding my "thanks" to the stack for not accepting rape as a compulsory plot element.
September 29 2012, 13:27:38 UTC 4 years ago
And yes, in agreement with what you've said, rape in fiction certainly does not uniformly titillate me; sometimes it's enough to make me abandon the book/fiction.
"Realistic." Ugh.