AGAIN?

[bloodyrosemccoy]

Dammit, there has got to be at least one speculative fiction novel out there that doesn’t introduce a female protagonist by RAPING HER.

It’s not so much that I disapprove of it happening in a story—stories are great because all sorts of totally awful things can happen to pretend people, instead of to real people, and I could write a whole dissertation on this. All I'm sayin' is, when it becomes the default way to introduce someone, I … get a little unsettled.

This book is pretty damn good anyway, and it does look like the incident serves some purpose of character and/or story development, but I'm starting to regard authors with suspicion when they open this way. Good grief.

Comments

[gethenian.livejournal.com]

...where the fuck do you get your fiction? o.0 I think you're looking in the wrong place.

[beccastareyes]

Is this where I offer book recommendations?

[lookingforwater.livejournal.com]

Because there's a weird little brainbug going around that the only truly meaningful traumas a woman can experience are rape and/or loss of/inability to bear a child.

And okay, those are pretty big traumas. But something like, IDK, watching in helpless horror as your lover kills your father works pretty good too.

[gryphart.livejournal.com]

May I suggest a trip to the mystery section for a bit? I found it helped wash the taste of other flavors of bad writing away, and it comes with the added bonus of less ickyness in general.

[chibicharibdys.livejournal.com]

Wouldja like recommendations? :D Speculative YA tends to not have that particular tropes, if you're looking for a break.

[nixve.livejournal.com]

Do you want some recommendations? Because I have shelves full of spec fic that don't involve rape.

[westrider.livejournal.com]

Interesting. I don't think I've ever actually run into this. The closest I can think of is Sword Dancer, but that's Del's second scene, and she just gets captured, she gets free before anything happens to her.

[stormteller.livejournal.com]

Are you choosing your books based on the cover? Because if you're grabbing a lot of titles that show, for example, skimpy women clinging to heroic males' legs, you shouldn't be surprised that they're not paragons of double standard aversion.

[queenlyzard.livejournal.com]

Well, what's the book already?