Symptom of Rape Culture?

[akashathekitty]

I'd really like as many as possible to comment on this, if you have the time/inclinations/a lot of feelings, okay?

It's about this story of mine. It's also available here if you aren't a member of H&V. In the Darkness, All Cats are Grey.

I just received a PM about that fic. Rather than summarize it, I will copy it in its entirety, leaving out who

Comments

[margotlefaye]

Given that I was the beta who said that there was legal precedence for considering what happened rape when the story was still in draft form, you might expect me to side with the flamer

[akashathekitty]

Given that I was the beta who said that there was legal precedence for considering what happened rape when the story was still in draft form, you might expect me to side with the flamer.

I actually didn't know what side you were going to come down on, but I'm glad you didn't come down on their side, as I would have liked to hear that before, then.

Also, for anyone who should happen to read this, Margot isn't the beta who discouraged me putting in more hints, either. That beta was a personal off-fandom friend of mine who hasn't betaed any of my stuff in a while.

Let me back up: I think deceiving a woman into believing she's sleeping with person X when she is actually sleeping with person Y is rape.

Agreed.

As far as fic goes, I think the choice to label a fic dub-con rather than non-con is also a technicality.

Agreed again. To me, it's a flavour thing. Non-con upsets me, dub-con titillates me. As fiction. Not in RL.

I recall being left with the impression that Hermione realized, after the fact, that there had been clues she had

[margotlefaye]

Well, now, I wouldn't go so far as to say that art should not be teaching moral lessons: quite the opposite, actually. One of the functions of art is to hold up a mirror to the real world, and sometimes, that's a funhouse mirror. What I mean is, that the image in the art exaggerates some aspect of what you're seeing in the real world, that is, distorting it a bit, twisting it a bit out of reality. But in the end, that distortion allows you to see the real world more clearly, rather than less so. So, you get things like "La Cage Aux Folles" which gives you a very exaggerated gay couple as a way of pleading for tolerance. The original Star Trek's multi-racial, multi-cultural crew was a real eye opener for American audiences in the mid-1960's, at the height of the America Civil Rights movement, and this is why Martin Luther King encouraged Nichelle Nichols (Uhuru) to stay in her minor role on the show when she was considering leaving

[akashathekitty]

Well, now, I wouldn't go so far as to say that art should not be teaching moral lessons: quite the opposite, actually.

My apologies, I actually meant it more in the sense that it shouldn't be expected to or required teach moral lessons, like you said. Of course, it can.

One of the functions of art is to hold up a mirror to the real world, and sometimes, that's a funhouse mirror. What I mean is, that the image in the art exaggerates some aspect of what you're seeing in the real world, that is, distorting it a bit, twisting it a bit out of reality. But in the end, that distortion allows you to see the real world more clearly, rather than less so.And as much as I HATE the concept of any of my fics supposedly being all about teaching the readers a lesson, when I look at e.g. COCK there's definitely a lot of commentary on things like sexuality / sexual equality / feminism etc. I'm trying to use the opposing views to keep a status quo so people don't attribute views to me than I actually have. Editing Hermione in that one so she doesn't

[margotlefaye]

But if it can make people see other points of view and/or question why they have their own specific points of views, that would be swell.

This. Exactly. *G*