timepiececlock | Observe my bitter ranting!

It continuously amazes me how often fanfics use rape as a storyline for hurt/comfort fics. Sometimes (like today) it really annoys me, considering that most often it's the femal character who endures, and then becomes the love interest for any one fo the other characters. For example. I just watched the second half of this really cute (kinda sad) episode of season 4 Stargate SG1, "Divide And Conquer." It had this really shippy moment between Carter and O'Neill that kinda took me by surprise (after a rather funny incident where the alien girl hits on O'Neill, which also suprised me because I seriously thought none of these people got laid, like EVER), and I thought I might explore and see if Sam/Jack is a pairing that I'd like to read. I did consider it once before, after that time-loop episode where he kissed her, but then never really tried to get into because I'm not all "Yippee!" about that show/fandom in the first place. However, this eppy was kinda touching, in a different way since most of the show's touching moments end up being about platonic comeraderie/frienship and loyalties therein. On screen, in this episode, the Sam/Jack shippiness was restrained and kind of sad, but in a well-acted and sappy way.

So I go to ff.net, set the filters to Carter, O'Neill, 'all ratings', and 'romance.'

And lo and behold, the fourth-- FOURTH!-- fic that turns up on the list is a hurt/comfort story involving rape as Sam's "dark secret." ::gag:: Ugh. I mean, come ON. Why does this show up in EVERY FREAKIN fandom? I swear, there hasn't been a fandom I've come across yet where I can't go patrolling a list of fanfictions and find a rape fic. Reversely, I've only really read 1 good fanfic that deals with the topic of rape in a way that didn't on some level irritate or offend me, and that was

lordshiva's Daemons Luminati fanfic. And that one involved the sodomy/rape of a male character.

Why the obsession with this cliche and often sexist storyline for nearly any pairing imaginable? And why, if they're going to write about it, do they all have to suck so badly?

---

Omake: (how the viewing went)

**O'Neill & Carter discuss the fact that they omitted something in the lie-detector test that had to do with their ranks & working relationship**

Rashaka: Hey, I don't remember this. I don't think I've seen this episode after all.
Dad-unit: I haven't either. [a rare thing, considering Dad's become a SG1 DVD-phile now.]
Rashaka: What'd they do, anyway? Have sex, kiss, accidentally grope each other or something?
Dad-unit: They had a tender moment.
Rashaka: That's it?
Dad-unit: It was tender.
Rashaka: *makes disgusted noises* This show is so P-G!
Dad-untit: There was a force field between them.
Rashaka: *huffs*

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I, uh, sort of did a rant about it a while ago. I just don't feel like restating it. Boy, am I lazy, huh?

::Reads:: Yeah, I remember reading that one a long time ago. Ditto about the frustration of seeing this kind of thing written by girls. Even the ones that involve revenge still annoy me on some level, because it makes me wonder "why does the woman have to be shamed in order for [insert male character here] to notice & fall in love with her?" Same problem I had with Tess of the D'Ubervilles, which (to me) read like a bad rape!fic written 150 years ago.

I was thinking about this very subject today, after seeing another flowery Spike/Buffy story recommended glowingly on the BetterBuffyFics list. Uggh.

I read Deerskin by Robin McKinley (scroll down to the bottom to read her take on it) when I was about twelve years old. There is No. Way. In. HELL I could EVER find rape "sexy" or NOT find reprehensible someone who thinks it is.

after seeing another flowery Spike/Buffy rape story recommended glowingly on the BetterBuffyFics list

hmm.... I've looked at that book on the library shelf, but never read it. I scrolled down to read the author's comments, and I have to say that such a fairytale would make me mad, too. I once read half of this short novel version of Sleeping Beauty (I think it might have been by Anne Rice?) where she gets raped as she's woken, and then gets taken off to be a sex slave in the prince's kingdom. And apparently *all* the nobles endure this, male and female alike. I had to stop reading that book out of disgust.

I :heart: Robin McKinely though, and have often planned to read more of her books. I loved the Blue Sword... seriously, I wanted to be that girl. Except for the unhappy parts. But beautiful swords, beautiful horses, beautiful guys, magic... bring it on. And it was serious too, which is always a way to attract me.

Have you ever read stuff by Vivian Velde? I discovered her in my middle teens. Her books tend to be short and Young Adult, but I found that they had great appeal to me as a teenager, even though by 15 I had stopped reading most YA books. Her first book I read was The Conjuror Princess, and then later it's prequel, The Changeling Prince. Both surprised me at the maturity of content that they managed to include, while still passing under that YA rating, and to do so in a responsible manner.

Why can't all writers be cool like that, I ask? ::sigh::

Hurt/comfort aside, I want to know why there are so many stories where the guy rapes the girl, and she falls in love with him. It just really seems to go with 'rape is the victim's fault/ girl's are just asking for it' bullshit.

Because of course I would love to be raped. What woman doesn't want to be brutally victimized and sexually abused?

I want to know why there are so many stories where the guy rapes the girl, and she falls in love with him

You know, I haven't really read any of those. I count myself lucky. And feel sorry for you that you have.

Yes, you are very lucky.

I swear I'm a magnet for BadFic! It finds me and beats me over the head repeatedly on a very regular basis.

Observe my bitter ranting!

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I left out the Key Point of that post

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