Tw: rape, pedophilia, abuse
I am really into greek mythology and got very happy when I discovered the sub-genre of feminist mythology retellings.
I like greek mythology and I’m a feminist, give me stories about powerful ancient women and I’m happy.
Or so I thought.
I’ve read a lot of them from many different authors and literally every single one had at least one graphic rape scene.
Many of them also have mentions of pedophila and other absue.
I know those kinds of things where part of live back then and they still are a huge risk to women today.
Obviously we need books covering those topics, but it seems to be excessive.
I currently read Atalanta by Jennifer Saint, I am on page 50 and there where already one rape attempt, one rape resulting in death and kidnapping+rape of a minor.
It reads like misery porn at this point.
Circe was the same. The female MC was just pushed around and abused by men constantly until her entire character became “men are bad and I kill them”. Until she became a mother, then that was her entire personality.
How is that empowering at all?
It’s not even just that one genre. Fantasy and crime novels are also litered with rape stories.
Sometimes the rape is just something to spice up the story and give the mail MC something to do, I hate that!
When I started reading feminist literature I hoped that would stop, since I noticed it’s mostly male authors who carelessly use rape as a plot device, but no.
It seems to be even more common and even more graphic.
Why are power fantasies about strong women and fantasy escapism that isn’t romance with a female MC so hard to come by?
Where is the power in just repeating our suffering over and over and over again?
Imo it’s way more powerful to take Greek myths about strong women and show how badass they are without them getting hurt by men or having men hurting them as their whole motivation.
It’s gotten to the point where I just don’t read books that claim to have a strong, independent female MC because I assume that means she will get raped or wittnes rape.
Don’t get me wrong, those kinds of stories are important and should be written and I will read them if my mood is right.
It just feels like currently that is all we are getting and the constant doom and gloom is making me sad
by Sensitive-Use-6891
9 Comments
You like Greek mythology and are complaining about the depiction of r*pe? Ever heard of Zeus and the shenanigans he gets up to? Sexual assault exists in the real world I hate this idea that we need to sanitize everything and make books and movies all rainbows and star shine. If you don’t like books with these themes just read the reviews to see if there are any. There are plenty of online sites that give trigger warnings for books. And there are several YA novels aimed at teens that have a “strong independent woman” character and no graphic rape scenes.
This whole “I’m not comfortable so the world must change” mentality needs to end. No. No one is going to stop writing what they want to write just do you feel better.
I understand the need for lighter, easier stories without the gloom and doom. But 5 minutes on the internet will give you hundreds of titles like that that you can read.
I know what you mean..it gets kinda heavy and certainly depressing..
You have to bear in mind though that books need to get published…and what sells? Sex and violence. So even ‘feminist’ authors can be guilty of piling on the misery because it shifts books. Awful – but true. And particularly in fantasy, for some reason.
I like RJ Barker – he’s a man! But he writes in a feminist and non-misogynistic way; bad things can happen to his female characters as they do to his male ones, but not the same old same old of abuse and r*pe all the time.
Try The Tidechild Trilogy; this is an interesting world where women are the rulers [and are quite nasty!] but there are equal relations between women and men. What a joy to read a really good fantasy where you’re not on pins the whole time, waiting for the female character to get molested. There are two main characters, one male, one female; like I said, some bad things do happen to the female [and male] characters but not sexual and not specifically anti-women.
I refuse to read any more books where rape/abuse is a plot device, just there to provide drama and titillation for the male reader. Don’t read them! If enough people do this, they won’t get a publisher any more.
“write what you know”
I genuinely understand not wanting to read about rape, I try to be very careful about that as well.
I don’t think feminist literature is the place to look for books without sexual assault. I think if you want to read seriously about the experiences of women, which I think of as one of the goals of feminist literature, you will read a lot about rape and that’s rough.
That being said, there are lots of books out there that don’t have explicit depictions of sexual assault. It’s something I almost never encounter when I’m reading fiction. I feel like you’ve unintentionally directed yourself to genres where it’s more common
It’s a bit hard to separate them. Rape and abuse are tools that men have used to oppress women for thousands of years. Violence against women is kind of one of the core issues that feminists address.
Not to oversimplify or negate your point, but maybe it’s just time to try other stuff or perhaps you have a knack for sniffing these out. I’ve read a dozen books that I’ve enjoyed over the past 10 months and none had rape or abuse in them. There’s plenty out there to read that don’t contain these topics!
I think there are two different problems in those type of books: male authored fantasy books about strong women are often full of rape because it’s seen and used as a way to push the characters toward change (I personally find it gross 99% of the times it’s used this way) while feminist literature is often full of rape because… well, it is too common irl and at the same time it often gets hidden, swept under the rug, minimized etc. And in this case I think it’s important that they write about it. It’s not a way to unnecessarily repeat our suffering, in my opinion it’s a way to denounce it in all its form.
But I get needing good vibes in your reading, so your best bet is starting to check books for trigger and content warnings before starting them. It’s not shameful to protect yourself this way!
Books need conflict to drive plot. Things that drive conflict aren’t usually good. Rape, sexual assault, domestic violence, violence in general, murder, war, torture, theft, infidelity or the attempt/threat of these things.
I think you’re looking for the wrong literature.
If you want empowered women power fantasies, feminist literature is not the place to find it. Feminism is about shedding light on and acknowledging the injustices of patriarchal oppression of women. It used to be that things like sexual abuse and domestic violence were hushed up and pushed under the rug, that people couldn’t talk about or share experiences and grapple with their effect. Feminism, among many other things, sought to take it out from behind closed doors and force people to see the impact of patriarchal violence. Feminist literature is therefore almost always going to address some amount of sexual violence and oppression.
What you’re looking for sounds fun and absolutely worth wanting to read, just maybe instead of hoping to find it in stuff billed as feminist, try looking more for stuff that is (unfairly, imo) derided as chick lit or Mary Sue. It’s unfortunate that women’s power fantasies get a lot more flack than men’s, but it does exist. It just isn’t usually talked up as feminist.