Sexual Violence in Fanfiction: Fandom Trends

[nocturnes]

This is a post about the portrayal of sexual abuse in DBSK fandom. It may apply to other fandoms as well, but this is the one with which I am familiar.

TRIGGER WARNINGS FOR: sexual abuse, rape, and other sexual crimes.

Comments

[yuxo]

it never makes sense to me when non-con somehow turns into a love story between the rapist and victim...and how the rape suddenly starts to "feel good." esp in this fandom, because last i heard, bleeding out the ass can't feel all that good...

[nocturnes]

Yeah I never get that either. It's the sort of attitude that goes hand in hand with the victim-blaming that goes on in sexual assault cases ("she didn't struggle/didn't say no more than once, so she liked it." and whatever other awful explanations defence lawyers come up with sometimes), but taken one step further to turn that lie into the reality for the character. I don't know if it's a lack of awareness about what rape actually is like, or what, but I never quite know what to say to those.

[yuxo]

i think that might be it. i read somewhere that "most" women have rape fantasies and idk what sorts of sources would back that stat up but i'm sure it's not uncommon. thing is...a fantasy is a fantasy, there are safe words involved in a relationship with vast amounts of trust. the fics don't do that. the authors are either willfully dismissive of these concerns or choose to remain ignorant of them and i'm not sure what's worse since both paths trivialize the severity of rape.

[symphonied]

em, this is a great post. A+.

[nocturnes]

Thank you. ♥ It took me a while, haha. ;;

[symphonied]

also, I just want to add that I feel like it's ridiculous anyone would present any of these arguments... the point is that if you don't take rape seriously on the internet or whatever, it prompts you to trivialize it in RL too. I don't get why more people can't see how problematic it is because sadly it's not something you see just in fanfiction -- I've seen it in manga, too, for example, and it's pretty obvious even when you do something like go on youtube and you see comments like "I just raped the replay button". har har "it's a joke" except no it's not. it's just infuriating because it's nothing more than ignorance in a society where people refuse to educate themselves. /rage-y rant

[nocturnes]

YES. Exactly. There are alternative effects to everything that you do, even if you don't realize on a conscious level that they are taking place. And yeah, it's everywhere. :( I think a lot of it is ignorance (especially in the case of the replay button)--people just aren't thinking at all about what they're saying. But yeah I completely agree. ;__;

[cagedlight]

I'm going to echo symphonied's comments and say that this is a great post. ♥

I agree with everything you've said particularly in the "It's the Internet" section. The whole idea that "oh whatever, it's just the internet, no one takes this seriously" is one of the most infuriating arguments ever. I think it's similar to the "oh but it was just a joke" argument. Both trivialize rape and need to stop.

[nocturnes]

Thank you. ♥

I've heard that argument so many times, unfortunately. :/ (Even from my own brother when he's in the mood to be sexist just to make me angry.) But exactly, yeah. It doesn't take what victims have experienced into account at all.

[nocturnes]

You're welcome. ♥ Lol I had a lot to work with after how much we've talked about it. (Feel free to link it around if you want! I left it public because of that even though idk if anyone outside of my f-list will read it.)

[uw1m4]

This must have bothered you (and me too and many others too) a lot, ne?
I mean as you said, I too don't get it when a rapist or molester did it without proper punishment from the authority or at least society...
I've read a few fictions that brought up the subject and at least made me a bit satisfied with the ending because it can't be the other way around... but not many made that... probably lack of research?

[nocturnes]

It has for a very long time, yeah. I just decided to say something now because I've discussed it with a few people recently.

I do get why that part doesn't show up, because while molestation cases often result in convictions (at least here in North American, where I'm currently living), convictions for rape cases are rare.

I haven't found many that satisfied me either. There are a few, but they're very rare. And mmm, possibly, though I'm not quite sure about what the real cause is. Perhaps as someone said above, it's conflating rape and rape fantasy.

[uw1m4]

You got (and keep getting) good responds there :). It turns out that many people are concerned about these things too...

[nocturnes]

I have! It's been interesting to get other people's perspectives. And yeah, more people were bothered by it than I had realized.