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

[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 ignored and had to deal with the fact that subconsciously she had known she wasn't with Ron, she had just been enjoying herself too much to stop.

Which was basically what I wanted. Some people read it differently and I'll consider that in the future. I know you say I can't please the world, but sometimes the difference is in the details. I believe that one single extra line could have changed the story for the better for a lot of people. =)

I also think that the rest of what the flamer is spouting is a load of crap.

She has a point, but then it gets buried in generalizations and blaming of outside influences. I'm not sure why she felt like she had to pile on that heavily. Maybe she got carried away.

I believe that art should be dangerous, not safe.

You think a PWP is art? I suppose it can be. I'm with you in that art (here fiction) shouldn't be teaching a moral lesson etc. I think what's going on, though, is that a lot of (often very bad) fiction normalizes rape, and considering the rape culture we live in, that worries people. That doesn't mean people shouldn't be allowed to write it, though. I think the key is to properly disclaim (without soap-boxing - just a one-line disclaimer that the actions aren't condoned) because that'll soothe the ones iffy about it and might be enough to make some people think "Oh, this is not okay? I guess I see that" which will chip just a tiny bit away at this rape culture of ours.

I believe ITDACAG is a great fic.

Aww, thank you. ♥

[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.

And those are two minor examples of why art should not be safe, why it should question the status quo, rattle some cages and make people uncomfortable. Some of the great books of Western literature were banned, or the authors charged with obscenity. Great art has been desecrated, destroyed, burned for being immoral, blasphemous, not politically correct (whatever the current politcs of the time). As an example, a trove of sculptures and other artworks confiscated by the Nazis as being "degenerate" and long thought destroyed has recently been uncovered.

So, yes, art *can* teach great moral lessons. But that's not the only purpose of art, and trying to straight-jacket artists into only delivering sanitized "moral" messages duly approved by whatever folks think they have the right to approve or disapprove of such things is antithetical to what art should be and must be to succeed: a free and uncoerced, unfettered expression of the artist's vision, whether that vision be dark or light, comedic or tragic, safe or dangerous.

And, ITDACAG is still a great fic. *G*

[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 preach the story to death (with views I don't always share!) is a pain. 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. Thinking is always good.

[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*