Lindsey Williams's Blog: Random Nonsense, page 2
August 25, 2016
Re: "Do Better: Sexual Violence in SFF"
I am writing today’s blog entry in response to this article and addressing some of the debate surrounding it. TW: Discussion about rape and sexual violence in fiction.
I have been hesitant to comment about this publicly because 1) I’m still sorting through my feelings about this topic and 2) I have myself written sexual violence in my Motherhood series so I question my ability to be objective about rape in sci-fi and fantasy right now. Not that I have to be, but I strive for it. Moreover, I worry that I’m not able to completely express the entire scope of my thoughts and feelings about this, despite the fact that I’m a writer and it’s what I do for a living. Ironic, I know. I think it speaks to just how complex this topic is.
It’s also made me think about what my motivations were for writing an entire series around sexual violence and about the reactions I received, which seem to be split pretty evenly down a gender line. Women generally seem to get it and it resonates with them, whereas guys have complained that it’s ‘hitting them over the head with politics’ (because yeah, rape is just so darn ‘political’, that’s the REAL problem).
I seem to have concluded where I began - that I’m writing this series because I have something to say about bodily autonomy, powerlessness, sexual violence, and stigmas surrounding parenthood for women (among other things). There are things I feel need to be said and explored. I want people to think about it. I want people to FEEL about it. This topic in particular is a big deal to me and I won’t claim to have written about it flawlessly, but I do hope I’ve raised questions in people’s minds. That is always the point of my writing, at least so far. So I guess it kind of irks me when people make blanket statements about this topic and how it relates to writing, because just leaving rape out of fiction altogether is not what I would consider ‘doing better’.
So, on to this article. The author states:
Sexual violence in genre fiction is not the only thing that reminds female readers that they are seen as vulnerable, as targets. And besides, art holds a mirror up to life, right? Why shouldn’t genre fiction present our world as it is?
But then I do start to get a little mad, because damn it, that’s not what we do around here. We talk about universal experiences, like loss and love and fear and home and family. But sexual violence doesn’t have to be universal. It doesn’t have to be ubiquitous. It doesn’t have to be constant.
But it is universal, and ubiquitous, and constant. The realities of rape in this world are nothing short of horrifying and godawful. For men and women. There is, like, A LOT of rape going on here. Mostly by men. (Yes male rape is big deal too, but I am choosing to address fictional depictions of female rape per the article.) We have such poorly drawn concepts of consent, we can't even keep our kids from raping each other, and then bullying each other about it until they literally kill themselves. If that's not effing universal enough, I don't know what is.
I’ve seen my peers say things about this article (and others) ranging from; “This reads as another complaint of "I don't like rape or sexual violence so a writer shouldn't include it.", to “I’m so tired of hearing SJW’s talk about rape - keep your opinions out of my fiction”, to rightfully pointing out the fact that a rape doesn’t outwardly affect a female character's appearance the same way, say, cutting out an eye would. I find that last one is especially thought-provoking.
I’ll be the first to agree that pointless inclusion of rape and sexual violence in our books needs to go. Holding up these two things as ‘just the way things are’ DEFINITELY needs to go and that’s a fact. I think people forget that while ‘art imitates life’, the reverse is also true. We need to give more thought to the latter, I think. And please miss me with that ‘people know the difference between art and real life’ nonsense. It’s a very complicated aspect of art and media but I really believe representation matters, period. I don’t really have the space here to cover it all but when we represent casual and gratuitous rape, sexism, and sexual violence, IT MATTERS. However, we can’t have the conversation at all if no one is bringing it up.
Yes gate-keepers are annoying, and there will always be pushy peers and fans and fandoms who seem to think they should be able to control the art they love. (They don’t know writers very well, obviously.) People have been arguing about what the point of art is, probably since its creation. And we’re still arguing. We’ve been debating the artist responsibility vs. freedom of expression thing for a while now.
That debate is probably not going to be ‘won’ any time soon, but for me it’s quite simple really. The bottom line is: does your story NEED it? If you cut it, would it make any difference at all? Are you doing it just to be shocking or attention-grabbing? Are you doing it because you’re just going for ‘realism’ (see above on ‘that’s just the way things are’), or is there really a point to it for the story and the character? Take the time to figure this out, truly. We need to give this kind of thing serious consideration as a community because it matters. It’s not a goddamn joke.
I get a little mad, because we can imagine horrors beyond human comprehension, and yet still we insist that rape is the worst thing that can happen to our female protagonists. We can open a rift between universes and allow a tentacle to herniate through a void in the sky, but we can’t suspend our disbelief enough to erase casual misogyny from the worlds we build.
I mean, sometimes IT IS the worst thing that can happen to a woman, herniating tentacles notwithstanding, so why not our female protags? There is a whole lot to explore with this very-relevant thing that happens to one out of three women. An observant author can do a lot with it, say a lot with it. One can hope that it’s done right, but it won’t always be. We have only begun to scratch the surface and I’m honestly glad I’m starting to see more discussion about it. I’m glad it’s showing up in our fiction and that you’re sick of it, so we can talk about it. I think we should. Tired of hearing or reading about it? We’re tired of living it. Let’s talk.
Believe me, I get mad too that we have a hard time envisioning a world without misogyny. The fact that this is the way it is speaks volumes. I also get mad when I read about the stats on recognition for female writers, and that men actually say things like ‘all women want to be raped’. I get mad about a lot of things. And I write about them. Writing is mostly about emotion, and while I don’t condone using rape as some kind of lazy emotional shortcut, I also don’t think the answer is to just ghost the issue entirely. There are some well-made points in the article about rape in fiction, but silence is not the solution. Not now - and about this - not ever.
If we want rape and casual misogyny to disappear from our stories as a possibility, it needs to disappear from our society as a possibility. Until then, people are going to write about it. Some are going to write about it better than others. I definitely hope more women will write about it. If we don’t like it, we should do something about it.
I guess what I’m saying is, I agree, we should DO BETTER.
I have been hesitant to comment about this publicly because 1) I’m still sorting through my feelings about this topic and 2) I have myself written sexual violence in my Motherhood series so I question my ability to be objective about rape in sci-fi and fantasy right now. Not that I have to be, but I strive for it. Moreover, I worry that I’m not able to completely express the entire scope of my thoughts and feelings about this, despite the fact that I’m a writer and it’s what I do for a living. Ironic, I know. I think it speaks to just how complex this topic is.
It’s also made me think about what my motivations were for writing an entire series around sexual violence and about the reactions I received, which seem to be split pretty evenly down a gender line. Women generally seem to get it and it resonates with them, whereas guys have complained that it’s ‘hitting them over the head with politics’ (because yeah, rape is just so darn ‘political’, that’s the REAL problem).
I seem to have concluded where I began - that I’m writing this series because I have something to say about bodily autonomy, powerlessness, sexual violence, and stigmas surrounding parenthood for women (among other things). There are things I feel need to be said and explored. I want people to think about it. I want people to FEEL about it. This topic in particular is a big deal to me and I won’t claim to have written about it flawlessly, but I do hope I’ve raised questions in people’s minds. That is always the point of my writing, at least so far. So I guess it kind of irks me when people make blanket statements about this topic and how it relates to writing, because just leaving rape out of fiction altogether is not what I would consider ‘doing better’.
So, on to this article. The author states:
Sexual violence in genre fiction is not the only thing that reminds female readers that they are seen as vulnerable, as targets. And besides, art holds a mirror up to life, right? Why shouldn’t genre fiction present our world as it is?
But then I do start to get a little mad, because damn it, that’s not what we do around here. We talk about universal experiences, like loss and love and fear and home and family. But sexual violence doesn’t have to be universal. It doesn’t have to be ubiquitous. It doesn’t have to be constant.
But it is universal, and ubiquitous, and constant. The realities of rape in this world are nothing short of horrifying and godawful. For men and women. There is, like, A LOT of rape going on here. Mostly by men. (Yes male rape is big deal too, but I am choosing to address fictional depictions of female rape per the article.) We have such poorly drawn concepts of consent, we can't even keep our kids from raping each other, and then bullying each other about it until they literally kill themselves. If that's not effing universal enough, I don't know what is.
I’ve seen my peers say things about this article (and others) ranging from; “This reads as another complaint of "I don't like rape or sexual violence so a writer shouldn't include it.", to “I’m so tired of hearing SJW’s talk about rape - keep your opinions out of my fiction”, to rightfully pointing out the fact that a rape doesn’t outwardly affect a female character's appearance the same way, say, cutting out an eye would. I find that last one is especially thought-provoking.
I’ll be the first to agree that pointless inclusion of rape and sexual violence in our books needs to go. Holding up these two things as ‘just the way things are’ DEFINITELY needs to go and that’s a fact. I think people forget that while ‘art imitates life’, the reverse is also true. We need to give more thought to the latter, I think. And please miss me with that ‘people know the difference between art and real life’ nonsense. It’s a very complicated aspect of art and media but I really believe representation matters, period. I don’t really have the space here to cover it all but when we represent casual and gratuitous rape, sexism, and sexual violence, IT MATTERS. However, we can’t have the conversation at all if no one is bringing it up.
Yes gate-keepers are annoying, and there will always be pushy peers and fans and fandoms who seem to think they should be able to control the art they love. (They don’t know writers very well, obviously.) People have been arguing about what the point of art is, probably since its creation. And we’re still arguing. We’ve been debating the artist responsibility vs. freedom of expression thing for a while now.
That debate is probably not going to be ‘won’ any time soon, but for me it’s quite simple really. The bottom line is: does your story NEED it? If you cut it, would it make any difference at all? Are you doing it just to be shocking or attention-grabbing? Are you doing it because you’re just going for ‘realism’ (see above on ‘that’s just the way things are’), or is there really a point to it for the story and the character? Take the time to figure this out, truly. We need to give this kind of thing serious consideration as a community because it matters. It’s not a goddamn joke.
I get a little mad, because we can imagine horrors beyond human comprehension, and yet still we insist that rape is the worst thing that can happen to our female protagonists. We can open a rift between universes and allow a tentacle to herniate through a void in the sky, but we can’t suspend our disbelief enough to erase casual misogyny from the worlds we build.
I mean, sometimes IT IS the worst thing that can happen to a woman, herniating tentacles notwithstanding, so why not our female protags? There is a whole lot to explore with this very-relevant thing that happens to one out of three women. An observant author can do a lot with it, say a lot with it. One can hope that it’s done right, but it won’t always be. We have only begun to scratch the surface and I’m honestly glad I’m starting to see more discussion about it. I’m glad it’s showing up in our fiction and that you’re sick of it, so we can talk about it. I think we should. Tired of hearing or reading about it? We’re tired of living it. Let’s talk.
Believe me, I get mad too that we have a hard time envisioning a world without misogyny. The fact that this is the way it is speaks volumes. I also get mad when I read about the stats on recognition for female writers, and that men actually say things like ‘all women want to be raped’. I get mad about a lot of things. And I write about them. Writing is mostly about emotion, and while I don’t condone using rape as some kind of lazy emotional shortcut, I also don’t think the answer is to just ghost the issue entirely. There are some well-made points in the article about rape in fiction, but silence is not the solution. Not now - and about this - not ever.
If we want rape and casual misogyny to disappear from our stories as a possibility, it needs to disappear from our society as a possibility. Until then, people are going to write about it. Some are going to write about it better than others. I definitely hope more women will write about it. If we don’t like it, we should do something about it.
I guess what I’m saying is, I agree, we should DO BETTER.
August 13, 2016
My rating system
5- “I want to wear your skin as clothing so I can absorb your genius.” *heavy breathing*
4- “I hope you enjoy your new stalker!”
3- “This was pretty damn good. I will be keeping an eye on you in case I want to level you up to 4.” *wink*
ALTERNATIVELY – “I know you, so this rating is obligatory.”
[Enjoy figuring out which category you fall into.] *wink*
2- “Meh. It was ALRIGHT, I guess. I’d probably give you another chance.”
1- “Haate. Please stop writing anything. In fact, you are hereby banned from even making shopping lists.”
*Thanks to C.J. Perry, for assistance in coming up with this super-cool rating system.
**All opinions are the author's own (or are they?) and do no reflect the views of anyone else.
4- “I hope you enjoy your new stalker!”
3- “This was pretty damn good. I will be keeping an eye on you in case I want to level you up to 4.” *wink*
ALTERNATIVELY – “I know you, so this rating is obligatory.”
[Enjoy figuring out which category you fall into.] *wink*
2- “Meh. It was ALRIGHT, I guess. I’d probably give you another chance.”
1- “Haate. Please stop writing anything. In fact, you are hereby banned from even making shopping lists.”
*Thanks to C.J. Perry, for assistance in coming up with this super-cool rating system.
**All opinions are the author's own (or are they?) and do no reflect the views of anyone else.
Random Nonsense
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