Comments | prozacpark: The Rape of Inara: On heroines, consent, and women’s sexuality.

prozacpark

The Rape of Inara: On heroines, consent, and women’s sexuality.

Jan 13, 2011 19:00

I've always off-handedly known that Joss had planned a gang rape for Inara by reavers at some point, but never really pursued the details past what I had briefly come across? But it's something that comes up for me often in "Firefly" discussions in the context of So Glad It Died Before That. Ide_cyan provided some links in my last post with more details, ( Read more... )

jossverse, gender fail, rape culture, romance, meta, women in fiction, ohworld, firefly, butjossisafeminist!, pop culture, buffy, jossisnotgod, inara serra

Comments 55

meganbmoore January 14 2011, 01:09:57 UTC

Oh, great. Now I think handkissing has been ruined for me forever.

Also, romance novels...have gotten way better with that? But I still have to be choosy.

*depressed now*

You owe me PLL.

nicole_anell January 14 2011, 01:16:52 UTC

Now I think handkissing has been ruined for me forever.
God, right? That made me throw up a little in my mouth.

I have no words for this, except when I heard Morena mention it for the first time I thought "Thank GOD Firefly was cancelled" and getting the full version of the plot and its ~beautifulness~ is even grosser.

Also, I'm not quite as disillusioned as you (prozacpark) because I've never trusted Tim Minear in any way female-character-wise, but it does suck when someone who at least seems vaguely capable of doing better lets you down.

meganbmoore January 14 2011, 01:27:16 UTC

Just reading the description in this post has ruined a lifelong kink, I think...

lyssie January 14 2011, 01:40:02 UTC

...er, just reading all of the sadness makes me want to run a multi-fandom hand-kissing promptathon. (I am so contrary)

Thread 9

lyssie January 14 2011, 01:13:48 UTC

BUT HELS. A woman being raped OBVIOUSLY has to be about the man who ~caaaaares~ about her, because it is HIS PAIN at NOT BEING ABLE TO SAVE HER. And also his confusion about whether to forgive her.

(wow, that hurt to type)

ALSO. Rape is in real life, so any woman in fiction who hasn't been raped is impossible. We can have spaceships and dragons and parasitical viruses and giant spiders that make earthquakes, BUT SUSPENDING OUR BELIEF for women with happy sexualities is IMPOSSIBLE.

(so did that)

(also, if I could just kill people with my brain, we would have better narratives, y/y?)

prozacpark January 14 2011, 02:01:09 UTC

GAH, I might have cried while listening to that fuckery in the audio clip, I AM SO TIRED OF THIS CRAP NOW.

And also his confusion about whether to forgive her.

THIS is so true. And a plot element that bugs me like no other? Because it really brings into perspective that the man's problem isn't with faithlessness (because it wasn't her choice!) but with the now perceived lack of purity because women are objects whose worth can be ruined with things like rape.

The presence of rape in SFF especially irks me because with all the world building, they can't write rape out of their narratives? And we must have rape even when we're pretending to have a society where there's no sexism. Because rape is dark and edgy and just adds to your apocalyptic world-building.

(also, if I could just kill people with my brain, we would have better narratives, y/y?)

At the very least, why can't I punch people through the intrawebs? Repeatedly? And motivate them to do better?

lyssie January 14 2011, 02:14:10 UTC

I didn't cry, but I did a lot of "WHAT DID I JUST LISTEN TO WTF" faces. (WTF DID I JUST, WHAT. I DON'T HAVE WORDS)

Punching might help my outlook on life.

(The comment has been removed)

prozacpark January 14 2011, 01:42:43 UTC

ME TOO, BB! *clings*

I really just need to...never read/listen to anything the writers have to say outside of their work. This would improve much. GAH.

amathela January 14 2011, 02:10:56 UTC

Wow. That's.

Rape plots are horrible enough when it's the woman's plot (like, it's SO HARD to think of interesting things for female characters to do, rape is so EDGY AND INTERESTING), but when the focus is on someone else's epic man pain? UGH. JUST. STABBING FIERY RAGE.

prozacpark January 14 2011, 05:11:04 UTC

I don't understand this narrative fascination with rape arcs. At the very least, can people not recognize what a narrative cliche it is? Gah.

(The comment has been removed)

lilacsigil January 14 2011, 02:18:50 UTC

Yes, I was the same. It *seriously* undermines your universe to have these high-ranked prostitutes who are universally respected, then have your main character ~coincidentally~ speak for the mainstream trope of "ew dirty girls yuk worthless whores".

sabaceanbabe January 14 2011, 03:08:30 UTC

Mal isn't good enough for Inara. His behavior towards her was just flatly unacceptable at times. I was hoping when I watched Firefly that I was supposed to think that, and not be impressed with him or anything.

Me, too. :(

prozacpark January 14 2011, 05:13:24 UTC

Mal's treatment of Inara is horrible, and while we hear from Inara that she has called Mal worse things than a whore, I can't think of any bad word for men that holds the same stigma that the word whore does for women? But I'm pretty sure we're supposed to find Mal calling her a whore amusing and charming, when it's clear that it makes her uncomfortable. GAH.