Two Avengers fics that handle rape in an different and mature manner
Just read a couple of fics from avengerkink that I have to laud, because I feel both handled a very sensitive subject -- rape -- in two very different manners, but both handled it well and had a *point* to what they were trying to say.
I have the ability to separate fantasy from reality, and therefore I am capable of writing, reading, and discussing fics that contain rape, whether its dirtybadwrong sexy non-con, or rape recovery fics that focus on the whump and angst and emotional stuff.
That being said, as much as rape is used as a plot point, or for cheap angst, there's not many people who do anything interesting or different with the concept in fic. I feel like both the authors of these two fics did do something kinda interesting with the concept.
The first, What The Serpent Said, takes Loki's threat to "pay a visit" to Jane from Thor and runs with it. Jane confronts Loki on what he's done, and there's no threats, no screaming, no nothing, just the cold hard truth. Loki and Thor are both nigh-immortal; long after Jane, her people, and her world are dead and gone, Thor will *remember* her and how Loki *wronged* her. No matter what he does from here on out, for all the thousands of years they have left, nothing can ever be the same as it once was. That's a staggering thought.
The second, an untitled Steve/Tony fic by thingamawhatsit, is about the aftermath of Tony's rape, and how it affects, or rather, *doesn't* affect him. This fic is preceded by some wank that makes both sides look bad: several people take offense to the prompt that requests that "One of the Avengers is raped and it isn't a big deal, they aren't traumatised or anything. In fact, they are just annoyed about their physical injuries." A nonny [not OP] shows their ass by suggesting that a character could be "bamf" enough not to be affected by their rape.
Another nonny pipes up and discusses how she, personally, wasn't traumatized much by her own rape, so another nonny responds with a condescending post about how it will "take a long time before you are able to process and deal with the assult" [sic]. Basically, dismissing her experiences as being repressed trauma.
I gotta get personal with y'all. First of all, I'm a sexual abuse survivor. I don't like talking about it very much. The only reason I ever do is because there's so many fucking people who just *have* to put their cheap two cents in, and these people inevitably will say something condescending, inaccurate, and/or just plain fucking stupid on the subject of rape and recovering from rape. There's nothing that makes me incoherent with rage more than other people presuming they understand what happened to me, or that they know what's best for me, or that they know "what's really going on" in my head. Fuck you. *I* am the one who's lived with this for YEARS. *I* am the one who finds something inside myself that makes me get out of bed, every single day, and live, and love, and yes, have consensual sex because that's what *I* want. Don't presume you can fight any of my battles, tell me what's best for me, and sure as hell don't tell me how I feel. I also don't like it when other rape survivors are told similar things. It smacks of "oh you're so ~broken~ and ~tainted~". Didn't we evolve past this point?
My mother was also raped, quite brutally, several years before I was born. We had a heart-to-heart about our experiences. Her feeling was that she was not greatly affected by what happened to her. It was something that happened, it sucked, she got over it almost immediately. That doesn't mean she's some sort of special "bamf" because her rape didn't scar her for life. That's just how she is. I carry the scars of what happened to me every day, but that doesn't mean I'm broken and I should just "get over it" like she did, nor does it mean that MY experience was legitimate and hers was not. We both had a wrong done to us. We reacted differently. That's what HUMAN BEINGS do.
Back to the fic. The fic takes an honest, but somehow light-hearted, look at how Tony deals with what happened to him. Like my mother, his perspective is that the rape was a form of physical assault, and it doesn't affect him beyond that. He doesn't want to be handled with kid gloves, or treated like a broken thing. Steve's overly conscientious behavior annoys him. I particularly like the ending:
"Sirs, the Thai food has arrived in the lobby."
"I'll get it. Do you - is it okay if I give you a kiss?"
"Do you even have to ask?"
"Yes. I'm sorry, but yes. Right now I have to ask."
Sigh. "Just don't keep this shit up forever, okay? You keep treating me like I'm broken I just might have to oblige you so I don't go insane. Er. Now hurry up, if this kiss needs permission for take-off it better be damned impressive."
"I'll see what I can do."
I have the ability to separate fantasy from reality, and therefore I am capable of writing, reading, and discussing fics that contain rape, whether its dirtybadwrong sexy non-con, or rape recovery fics that focus on the whump and angst and emotional stuff.
That being said, as much as rape is used as a plot point, or for cheap angst, there's not many people who do anything interesting or different with the concept in fic. I feel like both the authors of these two fics did do something kinda interesting with the concept.
The first, What The Serpent Said, takes Loki's threat to "pay a visit" to Jane from Thor and runs with it. Jane confronts Loki on what he's done, and there's no threats, no screaming, no nothing, just the cold hard truth. Loki and Thor are both nigh-immortal; long after Jane, her people, and her world are dead and gone, Thor will *remember* her and how Loki *wronged* her. No matter what he does from here on out, for all the thousands of years they have left, nothing can ever be the same as it once was. That's a staggering thought.
The second, an untitled Steve/Tony fic by thingamawhatsit, is about the aftermath of Tony's rape, and how it affects, or rather, *doesn't* affect him. This fic is preceded by some wank that makes both sides look bad: several people take offense to the prompt that requests that "One of the Avengers is raped and it isn't a big deal, they aren't traumatised or anything. In fact, they are just annoyed about their physical injuries." A nonny [not OP] shows their ass by suggesting that a character could be "bamf" enough not to be affected by their rape.
Another nonny pipes up and discusses how she, personally, wasn't traumatized much by her own rape, so another nonny responds with a condescending post about how it will "take a long time before you are able to process and deal with the assult" [sic]. Basically, dismissing her experiences as being repressed trauma.
I gotta get personal with y'all. First of all, I'm a sexual abuse survivor. I don't like talking about it very much. The only reason I ever do is because there's so many fucking people who just *have* to put their cheap two cents in, and these people inevitably will say something condescending, inaccurate, and/or just plain fucking stupid on the subject of rape and recovering from rape. There's nothing that makes me incoherent with rage more than other people presuming they understand what happened to me, or that they know what's best for me, or that they know "what's really going on" in my head. Fuck you. *I* am the one who's lived with this for YEARS. *I* am the one who finds something inside myself that makes me get out of bed, every single day, and live, and love, and yes, have consensual sex because that's what *I* want. Don't presume you can fight any of my battles, tell me what's best for me, and sure as hell don't tell me how I feel. I also don't like it when other rape survivors are told similar things. It smacks of "oh you're so ~broken~ and ~tainted~". Didn't we evolve past this point?
My mother was also raped, quite brutally, several years before I was born. We had a heart-to-heart about our experiences. Her feeling was that she was not greatly affected by what happened to her. It was something that happened, it sucked, she got over it almost immediately. That doesn't mean she's some sort of special "bamf" because her rape didn't scar her for life. That's just how she is. I carry the scars of what happened to me every day, but that doesn't mean I'm broken and I should just "get over it" like she did, nor does it mean that MY experience was legitimate and hers was not. We both had a wrong done to us. We reacted differently. That's what HUMAN BEINGS do.
Back to the fic. The fic takes an honest, but somehow light-hearted, look at how Tony deals with what happened to him. Like my mother, his perspective is that the rape was a form of physical assault, and it doesn't affect him beyond that. He doesn't want to be handled with kid gloves, or treated like a broken thing. Steve's overly conscientious behavior annoys him. I particularly like the ending:
"Sirs, the Thai food has arrived in the lobby."
"I'll get it. Do you - is it okay if I give you a kiss?"
"Do you even have to ask?"
"Yes. I'm sorry, but yes. Right now I have to ask."
Sigh. "Just don't keep this shit up forever, okay? You keep treating me like I'm broken I just might have to oblige you so I don't go insane. Er. Now hurry up, if this kiss needs permission for take-off it better be damned impressive."
"I'll see what I can do."