thoughtfulIf you make a post about the state of rape culture in urban fantasy, be prepared to deal with a lot of comments, reposts, and administrative scramble. This is not a complaint, I just want to write it down so that I'll remember next time. Also, I am still answering email and comments, it's just taking me a little while.
Things that make me proud:
With one exception, every discussion thread I have encountered has been totally civil and cool. Like, seriously, one site has had people going "but rape is essential to modern storytelling," and that is an amazing ratio. Thank you to everyone who has participated in this conversation, anywhere. This has been an incredibly civil, enlightening, interesting discussion, and I am so, so grateful that we all played nicely with each other.
A clarification of my position:
Okay, so. The one thing that I have seen people saying, which is reasonable, is that rape is an unfortunate reality of the world in which we live, and saying it never happens is not just unrealistic, it can feel like we're trying to erase the reality of survivors of sexual abuse. As a survivor of sexual abuse, this is absolutely not a thing that I am intending to do, or interested in doing.
But here's the thing. Had the question been "Will you ever write about a character who has been raped or otherwise abused?", I would probably have answered in the affirmative, just because I write a lot, about everything, and I'm not taking anything off the table. That wasn't the question. The question was "When will a character whose story you are already telling, who has not had this experience, have this experience on the printed page?" (Note that this was not the exact wording of the original question, but my reading of such. It's better punctuated, for one thing.)
I am not willing to write rape. I am especially not willing to write the rape of a first-person character, which describes all my current urban fantasy protagonists. I don't live vicariously through my characters, but there are sentences I am never, never writing as "I, me, mine." That doesn't mean I'm trying to erase the reality of sexual abuse. Just that it will never be a thing which happens during my books, because honestly, that is a thing I am not willing to put myself, my characters, or my readers through. I'm not telling stories that require it. I don't want to.
The other point I'd like to clarify is this: I've had a few people say that sexual violence should always be on the table simply because it's so realistic for male villains to want to use that against female heroes. Well, in my two primary universes, I have feral pixies living in a San Francisco Safeway, and frogs with feathers. If a lack of "I will dominate you with my dick" is all that makes you think I'm being unrealistic, I want some of whatever you're having.
October 7 2012, 02:15:45 UTC 4 years ago
Also, it kind of overlooks that writers craft their villains. Sure, if you're picking up scum and villainy at the local temp agency without looking at their resumes, you might end up with a rapist. But writers can choose what stories they tell, and if the villain or his henchmen makes them want to do the icky dance rather than the delighted evil cackle when they write him, that story might not get done on deadline. And then the cats go hungry and this is Bad.
It's not like there's a shortage of antagonists that don't see 'I will dominate you with my dick' as a primary goal, even in worlds without feral Safeway pixies or frickens.
October 7 2012, 02:18:57 UTC 4 years ago
Yes, this.
October 8 2012, 01:18:53 UTC 4 years ago
October 8 2012, 15:45:41 UTC 4 years ago
Because, c'mon. Better to be the attractive magnet than the dull hammer.
October 7 2012, 04:20:13 UTC 4 years ago
Deleted comment
October 8 2012, 18:27:00 UTC 4 years ago
I remember having an argument with someone who said that sex involving a certain character would only and always ever be rape, and I'm like, what, he could never like consensual sex? he could never disdain rape as the tool of losers? he could never seek out sex from his own side, from people who are as powerful or more powerful than he, or from the people he respects? he could never enjoy seducing someone instead, or accepting invitations from people who are into him? he could never want someone in such a way that he cares about what they think, or want them to come back for more?
I mean, there's a whole huge array of what a person, even a villainously-inclined person, can do with desire; there's a whole array of desire, for that matter. To go "villain equals opportunistic rapist" is pretty much the equivalent of going "villain equals kicking puppies for evil points." There's so much more to villainy than that.