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 30 2012, 04:50:04 UTC 4 years ago
The only recourse this reader has regarding your refusal to include his/her suggestion in the next story is to just stop reading your books. And I will support him/her in that decision if he/she chooses to boycott your books, just as I will support you in yours to not write about rape. However, I will not support crossing the line with unreasoning demands. Nor would I support him/her demanding that everyone stop reading your books just because you're not writing what one reader wants to read, and what you do not want to write.
To be perfectly honest? I don't think any author needs a reader like that. I'm sure there are authors out there who do write that sort of thing, and that particular reader would undoubtedly be his/her number one fan...but in the end, they're only fans watching from afar. They aren't doing any of the work.
The Litle Red Hen says that, as the fox and the goose and the dog and the cat did come not help her to till the soil, sow the seed, weed the field, harvest the grain, grind it into flour, or turn it into bread and bake it in the oven...they do not get to eat the bread. If this reader wants to see that sort of thing happen, then he/she should come up with their own characters and story setting and plot twists, and go write original fiction to his/her heart's content. Sow their own seed, harvest their own grain, make their own bread. That's the only way they are going to get to read exactly what they want to read.
...I wrote into a recent story a scene where the hero & heroine make it to the inner sanctum of their goal, expecting to find the bad guys there and ready to steal away the macguffin...and...the bad guys weren't actually there. They didn't show up at all during the entire claiming-the-macguffin scene, and I wrote into the story that the hero and heroine were relieved. Because that is realistic. There are far more chances that the Big Bad Terrible Thing will not happen than the number of chances that it will. (That, and the bad guys were busy trying to avoid being trampled by an enraged elephant some distance away--yay for comedic relief--but I digress.)
Write the story YOU want to write. Make it the best story you yourself possibly can, with your own ideas of how it should go, what will happen, and who or what will win in the end. The rest of your readers will be perfectly happy to read whatever you choose to create, when you do.
I'm with you in this,
~Lotm
September 30 2012, 18:42:45 UTC 4 years ago