I think the post suggests that rape in fiction isn't necessarily bad, but adding rape just to be adding it, is bad. I agree with that.

My sense is, one should write what makes sense for ones self, the story and the characters. To do otherwise would be bad.

I think that gratuitous rape -- i.e., the rapes that turn into love stories in Harlequin romances -- is wrong, but when it is part of the story and an important point in the story, there's nothing wrong with it.

You know I'm always happy to share my opinion -- whether anyone asks for it or not!

If it organically grows as part of the story, no, I don't think it's wrong. Hell, the DragonLance series has rape as the backstory of the birth of a major character (Tanis). And those were written for teenagers.

If it's being put in just for shits and giggles, though (Twilight) then it's bad.

Yeah, I'm with the others. A lot of stories throw in rape for the sake of it, or as a lazy shorthand for something bad, or along the lines of "huh, need tragic backstory, need gratuitous tormenting plot point, need to show that this person is a villain, need something the female demographic can relate to so they know how terribly feminist my story is, those bitches, oooh I know, RAPE!" Or worse, they'll use rape as something romantic or titillating. Those are pretty flippin' bad, and very common.

But to not talk about rape in fiction at all would be disingenuous! It's a real thing that really happens in the world to real people of all descriptions. Writing about rape in a sensitive way is one of the many challenges that good authors take on and pull off almost as many times as the lazy bastards use it to smack us over the head with something. ;)

ETA: read that post finally (it was good!). Yeah I don't think she was condemning all rape in fiction there, just the lazy gratuitous stuff that is like "lolz wimminz are the sex class" kind of bullshit.

I personally write/draw about rape a LOT. It's stuff I do for me, to work through emotional baggage from my past. If anyone has a problem with THAT, they can suck a bag of lemons.

But choosing not to write rape is fine, and choosing to write it is fine, the part where it becomes a misogynistic feed into rape culture is when we decide that rape defines (especially woman) characters (like the presumptuous person from this post) or that it's something to be viewed as sexy or deserved or any of that other dominant-culture claptrap. To say it MUST happen BECAUSE the characters are female (rather than something driven by the characters or story that is part of what the author has to tell regardless of the gender of the victim/perp) is 1. lazy as fuck and 2. suggesting that rape (or if we're being generous, surviving it) is the only thing lady-characters are good for. Um. Wow.

I should think you're safe. ;)

Edited at 2012-10-03 01:15 pm (UTC)

I read the post you linked to, and I have to say that my reaction to your own post is the same after as it was before I read that.

I think that you should write what comes to you. Each writer/author has a different story to tell. I'm not sure I've ever read a book that included actual rape--most include (consensual) sex, though. I do and don't write sex scenes (depends on the story), but if my characters lead there then I let them.

I think it should be the same for you. Writing is therapeudic, as is reading the written stories. Everyone needs to see themselves reflected in works of fiction. It gives them comfort that they aren't alone and that life can go on even though they have xyz going on. Rape victims are no different. :)

This paragraph in the linked post sums up my position:

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.

Or, in my own words: No, you should not be ashamed. The world should be ashamed that this element is part of the stories you personally need to tell.

If it's part of the story, it needs to be included. If it's just put in to titillate, and is gratuitous, then no. And a BIG HELL NO for those that glorify & glamourize it.

Morons are probably those that believe there are "degrees" of rape. Oh, but my eye is twitching now. I can't wait for the election to be done, and done right.

No you should not be ashamed. You're faithful to your muse, and it just happens to prefer dark and dangerous corridors. I think it's very courageous of you to travel the path you're on. I started writing a story about a teenage girl who murdered her boyfriend, but I stopped because I didn't have the nerve to continue. I'm proud of you Jodi. And nothing or nobody will ever change that.

Tardy to the party, but somehow I missed this entry.

OK. No. No no no no no.

Asking when a character is "finally" going to be raped is the problem of the person asking the question, NOT the author, whether that author writes rape or not. Also, NOT all rape victims are adult OR female, and of the ones that are, NOT all are wearing skimpy clothing/walking alone/whatever reason a woman is "asking for it".

I've written... really questionable stuff. Rape. Murder. Torture. Assault. Emotional/psychological abuses. Very strange sex scenes. Some also questionable. Magic. Currently passing a story back and forth with a friend that's basically an excuse for sex with shapeshifters. I don't know even WHAT goes on in my head sometimes. And a lot of the time I don't know WHY it's there. Sometimes it's because I want to work through something using my characters, or make a statement.

But a lot of the time, too, it's there... just because it's there.

I want to see how a character deals with XYZ situation. Or sometimes I just want to play with a concept that's not realistic and probably couldn't happen as though it WERE real, maybe even common, and COULD happen.

And even if an author writes a girl, wearing a short skirt, getting raped by a stranger while walking home from a bar, drunk, does NOT mean that author feel the girl "deserved" to be raped. It's just that... well... unfortunately? It happens.

Good things happen in the world. Bad things happen too.

And that's just how it is.