aikaterini

Looking through critiques of the webcomic,“Starfighter” (which I haven’t reviewed yet) and one comment stood out to me:

“Saying Cain didn’t rape Abel because he secretley “wanted it” ignores the fact that Cain would have proceeded regardless of whether Abel enjoyed it.”

(-Elf on an Elk)

Because I think that that statement applies to any fictional romance that romanticizes sexual assault and rape. Be it Fifty Shades of Grey, any old-school Harlequin romance, or fanfics. Usually, when readers try to defend the rapist hero, they point to the heroine’s behavior.

“Oh, sure, she said no, but then she changed her mind.”

“Yeah, she was trying to push him away, but then she started screaming his name to the heavens in ecstasy.”

But to me, that’s just another form of victim-blaming. Or, if not victim-blaming (since in many scenarios, the heroine does come to “enjoy” the sex with the hero), then it’s another case of putting all of the responsibility on the woman. Many feminists have criticized standard warnings about rape as being targeted solely towards women: don’t go out late at night alone, don’t have too many drinks, etc. Since, most cases of rape involve male rapists, many feminists have pointedly asked why there aren’t warnings directed at men, why men are not told, “Don’t have sex with a woman who’s obviously drunk and out of it,” “If she changes her mind, then stop,” etc.

And the same principle applies here. Nothing is said about the hero’s behavior when it comes to the rape, it’s all about the heroine’s reaction (or, in yaoi, the uke). Oh, her heart is pounding, she’s blushing, her body’s enjoying it, she asks him for more, etc. And for me, that’s missing the main point.

Which is, okay, you’re saying that the hero didn’t rape her because she changed her mind (under dubious conditions, but that’s a whole other story). Because eventually she gave in and said yes or she let him have his way with her.

Here’s a question, though. Why if she didn’t?

From the author of “The Rape of James Bond,” (which I posted about here: http://aikaterini.livejournal.com/70414.html) comes this article, which is also very thought-provoking: http://www.newstatesman.com/culture/2013/08/i-hate-strong-female-characters.

Some highlights:

-          “No one ever asks if a male character is “strong”. Nor if he’s “feisty,” or “kick-ass” come to that.”

-          “Is Sherlock Holmes strong? It’s not just that the answer is “of course”, it’s that it’s the wrong question.”

-          “We need get away from the idea that sexism in fiction can be tackled by reliance on depiction of a single personality type, that you just need to write one female character per story right and you’ve done enough.”

-          “Richard has the spotlight. However weak or distressed or passive he may be, he’s the main goddamn character.”

-          “Richard has huge range of other characters of his own gender around him, so that he never has to act as any kind of ambassador or representative for maleness. Even dethroned and imprisoned, he is free to be uniquely himself.”

-          “Nowadays the princesses all know kung fu, and yet they’re still the same princesses. They're still love interests, still the one girl in a team of five boys, and they’re all kind of the same. They march on screen, punch someone to show how they don’t take no shit, throw around a couple of one-liners or forcibly kiss someone because getting consent is for wimps, and then with ladylike discretion they back out of the narrative’s way.”

-          “Their strength lets them, briefly, dominate bystanders but never dominate the plot. It’s an anodyne, a sop, a Trojan Horse - it’s there to distract and confuse you, so you forget to ask for more.”

-          “What do I want instead of a Strong Female Character? I want a male: female character ratio of 1:1 instead of 3:1 on our screens. I want a wealth of complex female protagonists who can be either strong or weak or both or neither, because they are more than strength or weakness. Badass gunslingers and martial artists sure, but also interesting women who are shy and quiet and do, sometimes, put up with others’ shit because in real life there’s often no practical alternative. And besides heroines, I want to see women in as many and varied secondary and character roles as men: female sidekicks, mentors, comic relief, rivals, villains. I want not to be asked, when I try to sell a book about two girls, two boys and a genderless robot, if we couldn’t change one of those girls to a boy.”

There have been plenty of fans who disliked HBP because of the romance. But what if Harry Potter had travelled the same path that many other YA fantasy books have travelled and gone even further?

--

Where do I begin with Madame Red, Ciel Phantomhive’s aunt? She is the sister of Ciel’s mother, who fell in love with her brother-in-law because he once told her that her red hair, which she had believed to be so ugly, was beautiful (because that’s a solid reason for true love, right?). Fortunately, she nursed no grudges against her sister for marrying him, because she loved them both and was content to be part of their family. I won’t lie; I was very relieved that Madame Red didn’t turn against her sister because of a man, as she could have done in many awful writers’ hands. In fact, this harmonious arrangement extends to Madame Red’s husband, who knows that she secretly loves her brother-in-law, but promises to provide for her because he loves her. She is touched by his kindness and agrees to marry him.

Wow, I thought, what an agreeable lot! How very convenient! I wonder if anything could possibly disturb this happy family –

– Oh, wait, then Ciel’s parents died in a house fire. Madame Red, of course, was devastated. But that wasn’t the end of her life yet. After all, despite the oppressive social mores of her time, she managed to become a doctor. I don’t know how they let her in, considering the time period, but whatever, that’s pretty awesome. A Victorian woman becoming a doctor all by herself and working in a hospital? Wow, this is so cool, she sounds like such an awesome character!

Wait for it…

I often hear or read people say that concerns about representation of women and girls in the media are unwarranted, that feminists are being “too PC” and obnoxious for wanting to include more roles for women in fiction, and that it’s not a big deal.

Well, to all of that, here’s a simple question that is both rhetorical and literal:

I’ve been a fan of mystery novels for a long time. I’ve read many works by Agatha Christie and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Miss Marple, Hercule Poirot, and Sherlock Holmes have long been familiar names to me. I’ve enjoyed reading about them and their adventures and I’ve enjoyed seeing their cases unfold on screen. Nowadays, whenever I watch any modern-day versions of Holmes and Poirot that usually come in the form of cops, spies, or modern detectives, I think about those particular two male detectives whenever a rather troubling trend comes up involving female detectives and/or spies.