Return of the Rant Meme

[sarolynne]

It's been a while, so I have lots of ranting built up, probably.

Same as before. You provide the topic, I provide the rant.

ETA: And I might as well add these, since I'm posting.

Comments

[sarolynne]

I had to think about this one. It's so hard because execution is a huge part of how angry I get. There's things that sound terrible in theory, because they're so trite, but if a good author gets to them, they can totally revitalize them. So. Generally speaking.

1. The man and woman who hate each other the first time they meet, but inevitably fall in love due to their undeniable sexual chemistry! There are like. Several things about that that piss me off. First and foremost, it's just so very woefully overused. I'm not saying love at first sight is better, or that a couple can't have some conflict or disagreement, but seriously, in my experience, if you just loathe someone right from the get go, you normally continue to dislike them. Also, the way it's normally written has a certain Taming of the Shrew flavor of sexism to it, or on the other hand, or melting the ice queen, or otherwise things which are themselves annoying and cliche in terms of gender politics.

2. Evil for the sake of evil. Whether this means the bad guy is just a plain old human who is ambitious enough to hurt people for no examined or developed reason, or if the reason is just a quick, tacked on handwave, or it's a whole race of just out and out evil creatures like orcs or demons who have no motivation for being bad other than it's what they are, it's boring, and it's forced, and it's a transparent attempt to make conflict out of nothing. I can believe in people whose priorities are out of whack. I can believe in other cultures which are incompatible with that of the heroes, I can believe in demons or dragons or whatever that are so alien and inhuman (being dragons or what have you) that what they do strikes us as evil.

But just evil that's hanging out for the sake of conflict... eh.

3. The constant threat of rape. Seriously, you know, I said this the other day--I'm not against bringing or exploring rape in fiction. But I get sick of people seeming to throw it in for no reason. It's less bad now, but I remember in high school, it seemed like I couldn't read a book with a female lead without rape/attempted rape/sexual harassment being a pivotal part of her story or back story. I get it. It's prevalent. But it doesn't have to be omnipresent, and it damn well shouldn't seem obligatory for an interesting female character. Because that's the message you start getting. That rape makes female characters deeper, more motivated and interesting. Yeah, to hell with that.

There's also the problem of rape being used as short hand for evil. This often shows up in one of two ways. The first being that the author is trying to establish a character as evil--so let's use rape! Here's the thing--rape is an evil action. However, that doesn't mean that all evil people commit rape. If the fact that this character is a rapist serves no purpose other than to remind me he's a villain, then do it some other way. Preferably in a way somehow relevant to the plot. If the fact that he's a rapist IS relevant, and will be addressed later, great. But if it won't, then don't use it.

The other way it pops up is to characterize groups rather than individuals, and in that case it often comes off as unrealistic and, you know, racist. No one of the good, heroic ethnicity commits rape! Only these villains! No one in the GOOD army rapes the women they find along their way. Only the evil emperor's forces do that. Even the good, idealistic army probably has some rapists in it. And evil the bad guys probably have some guys who really aren't down with that. The issue of sexual assault among certain minority groups and in the military is a thorny and important one. It's pretty rage inducing to see it tossed out there as throw away reminders of which group we're supposed to be rooting against.