Rape in literature (warning may be triggering)

[careyjones]

Hi there, first off I'd like to introduce myself. My name is Carey and I'm 21 and just getting into feminism and found these wonderful boards.

I'm hoping to get some feedback from some of the more seasoned feminists on here, (but any opinion is helpful!)

My friend is writing a book...and in the book he includes a section about rape. The basic premise of the book is set in a futuristic world, where people get 'scored' for how well they play by the systems rules, how attractive they are, how many girls they can get. Its supposed to be a dystopian novel and he writes it very well and its funny and intelligent. In the section that I am talking about, he is introducing a character who 'one day realised he was a rapist'.

Now, he writes in quite a surreal way, and he is clearly not painting this rapist character as a sympathetic character at all. But there is something about it that just doesnt sit right with me. And i'm not sure what it is. I have tried to talk to him about it, but I really am quite new to these topics and can't quite seem to articulate what exactly I find uncomfortable about it.

He is a feminist. His mum and his sister were both raped...so he is not some sort of rape apologist.

He said his motivation for writing the rape scene was because he wanted to delve deeper into the MIND of the rapist, as even if we see them as 'evil' people (they do indeed to evil things) they are still people. He wanted to humanise them. Not excuse what they did but understand. And also to show how messed up the society had become, that things like this could happen.

I think my main problems in the scene were

1. the absence of any female voice. I think its very important to have the voice of the rapist to understand them...but having nothing from the girl...seems oppressive and not constructive. Unless he is deliberately trying to prove this point. In which case he needs to be more obvious.
   

1. The idea of 'stranger rape' in an alley way....whereas actually women are raped more often than not by friends or people who know them.
   

But there may be more. I don't know.


I want to be able to give him constructive criticisms on it...because i think it is so so so important to deal with these issues in the best way possible. We live in a society where rape joke are rife and politicians talk ridiculously about 'good rape and bad rape' so if we have the smallest chance to make a difference through literature/art/politics I think we should do our best to take it.

I'd like to post the excerpt (my friend wont mind, he has told me I can show it to as many people as I want to discuss it...he wants to make it good) I will post it in the next post and I would love,love,love to hear peoples opinions on it.

Beware it is quite descriptive of the rape, so if you are upset by thing like this you may not want to read on.

[Beachcomber]

What is your (general you) capoeira?

[SantaIsAnAnagramOfSatan]

yep - racism is patriarchal too essentially. it all stems from the same repressive, hierarchy based exploitative system aka patriarchy.

what's my capoeira (god why did you have to remind of the gorgeous brazilian ex ) ermm...

i speak up in family and i don't hang out with misogynists. i'm single so it isn't in my home (though i do have a little boy i'm already having to challenge on entitled attitudes and ridiculous gender assumptions he's picking up 'out there'). i don't work so i'm off the hook there. i'm not sure i have one tbh. i barely see any men and i gently challenge with the schoolgate mums. the headteacher and i are due a run in after i had to listen to him making awful generalising statements about little boys and little girls and their epic differences

i guess in my little cave experience of life these days i don't have one. yesterday i was doing the washing up rushing round like a blue arsed fly after our singing group (because if we don't get out on time the female organiser, who makes zero profit, gets charged more) and some old man came in the kitchen and said, "you couldn't make me a cup of tea whilst you're here could you?". i laughed aloud thinking he was cracking a joke but his dead pan face proved me wrong. at which pointed to the kettle and said something like you look like all limbs are in working order to me. so i guess not even old men get off the hook.

what's your capoeira?

[Beachcomber]

Well I have a DH, so that's one right there.

Youth is another one. I often see little boys acting entitled but they are not my children so what is one to do?

I agree with Twisty's description of patriarchy;

Patriarchy, which invisibly persists as the world?s most popular social order, is based on an oppressive paradigm fetishizing dominance and submission. Benefits in this culture of domination are accrued according to a rigid hierarchy at the top of which are rich honky adult males and at the bottom of which are poor female children of color.

If we didn't have patriarchy we wouldn't have dominance and submission, if we didn't have dominance and submission we wouldn't have oppressions.

[SantaIsAnAnagramOfSatan]

i agree - and i see financial clout and unethical versions of capitalism as merely an extension or development out of physical brutishness and clout.

[SantaIsAnAnagramOfSatan]

and i guess this is why i am a feminist and focus my energies against patriarchy. to me all the other issues are like fire fighting - what is it they call that when you rush around trying to put little fires out instead of tackling the source?

[Beachcomber]

I do think racism is another biggie though and that women of colour definitely get the double whammy.

I absolutely loved the letter written by a group of black feminists to the organisers of Slutwalk www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=232501930131880

Brilliant piece of writing.

[HollyGhost]

very late to this thread, but Beachcomber's quoting Twisty's description of patriarchy above has just given me a lightbulb moment. This culture of domination allowed so many institutions with endemic abuse to be accepted e.g. the Magdalene laundries, lunatic asylums....

The culture of domination persists, if not so explicitly as before. We have to find a way to work within it, despite it. It is a dystopic reality.

[SantaIsAnAnagramOfSatan]

exactly so the op's friend thinking he's writing an out there dystopic fantasy is bollox because in fact we already live in it.

[HollyGhost]

Indeed, maybe he imagines himself humanising the rapist as part of some edgy backlash against Atwood and the like. As you put it so well, this is "about as revolutionary and subversive as playboy"

[HollyGhost]

The reason I AM posting this here is because MY 'stop peddling rape myths' alarm bells were ringing when I read this.

I suspect that the OP's discomfort about this piece of writing has nothing to do with her budding feminism. I lived in flat shares with men for several years, at a time when I would not have considered myself to be a feminist. Had any of my flatmates presented me with their rape fantasy, I would have felt such discomfort that I would have promptly found alternative living arrangements.

How can she feel safe sharing her home with a man she now (on some level) knows to be a misogynist? I think she is mistakenly putting her feelings down to her feminism rather than a natural reaction to an obvious red flag.


CareyJones if you are reading this, I suggest reposting it in a different section of the forum, e.g. chat. I would be very surprised if you did not have at least as strong a reaction.

[ElderberrySyrup]

or the Creative Writing topic here