Rape Rarely Referenced

[peppermintyrose]

I keep seeing this one around, and even though I've dealt with it generally before, I'm going to break it down for those who can't see. There is this assertion that Sookie's rape - the trunk scene with Bill - is not dealt with in the text, and that CH glosses over it. Usually it's said by people who haven't been victims, or occasionally one lone

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[peppermintyrose]

Plenty of children who are abused by a parent still survive even though they live through a long period of offending with the offender - and even talk to their parents when they leave home. Plenty of women are raped by husbands or boyfriends who keep coming around. They still survive through what happened. One personal experience doesn't trump the sheer deluge of different experiences. Not every victim has the luxury of not having to face an offender afterwards.

The girl I mentioned above went through 6 more months of school with her rapists. It happens in real life that the offenders don't conveniently disappear. In her case, her offenders actually knew what they were doing - and did it anyway. She faced off with them at school, where everyone thought she was a slut, barring her mother. She had the strength to do that. It's not out of the realm of possibility that a rape victim would do that, or could do that. So Bill staying around, making continued judgements on Sookie is something that I know a real life victim actually went through.

I think that it is in Sookie's nature to allow people to be close to her even though they don't deserve it. Certainly, if I knew a woman who even thought of dating a man who had once threatened to kill and torture her, I would tell her to run far, far away because murder can't be taken back. Yet there are women who don't bat an eyelid and also praise Eric as straightforward and honest.