*Trigger Warning* Rape: A Crude Plot Device?

I really believe you have to be careful how you handle a rape scene. It has to be realistic, and what I hate most is when the raped woman then falls in love with the man who raped her. Have a good reason for the rape, and show it as it really is.

On the other side of the coin, of course it's up to the accuser to prove she's telling the truth. This is the very basis of criminal law, and rape is no exception.

I must say that I hate rape scenes or even scenes where rape is an imminent threat.

I stopped watching Outlander for that reason.

There was also a scene in The Whistleblower that bothered me a great deal. It was already clear that the girls in it were suffering a lot. The scene of the brutal rape just felt gratuitous at that point. I almost stopped watching. I have never been able to watch the movie again, because of that scene alone.

Jamesaritchie said:

I really believe you have to be careful how you handle a rape scene. It has to be realistic, and what I hate most is when the raped woman then falls in love with the man who raped her. Have a good reason for the rape, and show it as it really is.

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I'd bump it up to extreme caution. Writing these scenes is exhausting—emotionally, mentally, and can affect you in ways you hadn’t considered. The ‘reason’ for writing such scenes needs to be so integral to the story that to not have it/them, is to cripple the manuscript.

I agree with the cautious note. My biggest pet peeves with rape in stories are where it's solely a plot device in the moment (as in there are no consequences. It's just a shock scene before the victim is killed off or goes on to do whatever they do next without the rape affecting anybody after the fact) or when the rape is shown in a way that makes it sexually provocative (stressing how beautiful the victim is, how sexy they are, instead of focusing on the victim's emotional state and reactions, and lingering on images of their naked body). If an author can substitute their rape scene with a non sexual assault or rough sex, I'd rather they did.

There are many contexts to consider when considering this, I think.

What M.S. Wiggins said is, I think, critical. If leaving it out cripples the work, then don't.

But rape isn't a plot point. As virtue_summer said, rape is an act of violation and violence with consequences far beyond the act itself. For the victim and for everyone around her. This act is going to have a ripple effect all the way through the rest of plot, I think. It can't not do that, so far as I can determine. Not if it's to be portrayed at all realistically.

I don't believe in telling people not to write something. But do your homework. This is not a little thing, and I don't think it's capable of being little.

I hate rape as plot point. And I despise romanticizing rape, à la Veronica Mars. That has forever colored my perception of an otherwise fantastic TV program.

Mainly I have problems with using rape as a plot device and then ignoring the fallout, not just for the victim but for the people around the victim, and the impact of sexual assault on interpersonal relationships. So often the character who is the victim of an assault just doesn't change, and I don't understand that.

I guess my feel is that if rape is part of a story, then the story should be about rape, and in all its ugliness and life-changing consequences. It can't be, "I'll put a rape scene in to show how terrible this man is", or even, "I'll have her get raped so she'll have something to overcome".

Megann said:

I must say that I hate rape scenes or even scenes where rape is an imminent threat.

I stopped watching Outlander for that reason.

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Yeah, I can see that. I stopped watching Game of Thrones because of that. There's only a few actual rapes, but the threat of rape is like an underlying current throughout the series.

I'm still watching Outlander (the heroine is just so damn cool, I love her), but I can understand why some people would choose not to. I'd probably stop if there were ever an actual rape scene. I think there's one coming up, though? Urk.

I've found I have the same problem in my own work, sadly enough. It's almost habitual to reach for it. The protagonists are in a dangerous situation? Better imply they could be raped, it'll up the tension! I have to smack myself, sometimes.

When I began reading the OP I first thought of the 2006 movie The Fall and was very confused.

In my first novel, the main character is trapped in a situation she didn't have the knowledge to foresee. She's raped, multiple times. It's horrible. I deliberately made it so because I am so tired of "romanticized rape."

My character lives. She grows. She is not limited by that horrific experience--she does a lot more than live out her life as rape victim and survivor--but she is forever shadowed by it.

Why did I write that? Well, I'm a rape survivor. And I wanted to write a story where a woman can survive and heal, and live a life that is not defined by that one experience.

Quote: "last week saw award-winning US scriptwriter Aaron Sorkin at the centre of a media storm after a topical subplot about an alleged campus rape in his journalism drama, The Newsroom, was branded ill-conceived, clunky and, in the words of the New Yorker’s television critic Emily Nussbaum, 'crazy-making'."

Quote: "Sorkin’s stand-in doesn’t lobby for more incisive coverage of sexual violence or for a responsible way to tell graphic stories without getting off on the horrible details … Instead, he argues that the idealistic thing to do is not to believe her story.”

I find these quotes about The Newsroom episode to be misleading to anyone who didn't watch the episode. I did, and it was one of the most powerful and thought-provoking scenes I've ever seen on tv. But the scene in question wasn't about rape, at least not directly, and no rape was ever shown.

This was the scene: A producer goes to see a young woman who claims to have been raped on campus. In order to protect other women from suffering her fate, she wants to put up a website where women can post the names of men who have raped them. The producer believes that the woman was raped, and he is very sympathetic, but he fears that the website could destroy the lives of innocent men who are falsely accused. The scene is a dialogue between the producer and the young woman.

To say that the script blames the accuser is entirely false. I watched the show with my wife, and we both just went, "Wow."

Thank you, eqb.

A crude plot device is exactly what rape is in most stories. I don't know how many books I've wall-banged for rape used as a plot device to motivate characters or just show how bad the big bad is, but I'm sure the number would be depressing. I'm in full agreement with what has already been said, that if rape is a part of a story it must be a major focus. It's just too big and life-altering to be anything else. Since I have no desire to read a story about rape (no offense to those writing it, just not my cup of tea) and no desire to see it trivialized either, I avoid books and stories containing it entirely.

ViridianChick said:

Yeah, I can see that. I stopped watching Game of Thrones because of that. There's only a few actual rapes, but the threat of rape is like an underlying current throughout the series.

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This is starting to turn me off the books as well. Most of the main female characters seem to be in danger of rape, one way or another, and when it started creeping into the sample chapter of a girl who's about eleven, I felt dirty just reading that.

guttersquid said:

Quote:

This was the scene: A producer goes to see a young woman who claims to have been raped on campus. In order to protect other women from suffering her fate, she wants to put up a website where women can post the names of men who have raped them. The producer believes that the woman was raped, and he is very sympathetic, but he fears that the website could destroy the lives of innocent men who are falsely accused. The scene is a dialogue between the producer and the young woman.
"

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I find a website like that about as terrifying as anything I've ever faced. It's not only a horrible idea, but the first woman who named a man without absolute proof she could prove in court would be sued for every penny she has, and probably for most of what she would ever earn. The first time a man's name was posted without a conviction, not only would the woman be in court, but so would whoever put up the website, and rightfully so.

It seems a pretty strange way to fight rape, and unless there's been a court conviction, certainly an illegal one, at least as far as civil law.

A website naming convicted rapists is perfectly legal, but one naming people women claim raped them is actionable in court. It's pretty much guaranteed that unless a conviction was required before anyone could post a name, the abuse would be rampant.

I didn't watch it, so I may be wrong, but powerful or not, it does seem to trivialize the process.

Jamesaritchie said:

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On the other side of the coin, of course it's up to the accuser to prove she's telling the truth. This is the very basis of criminal law, and rape is no exception.

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It's up to the STATE to prove the accused is guilty. The accused is not the prosecution.

Rape is a real thing, for both men and women. It happens in war, in prisons, on the streets, and even in people's homes and private lives. I don't think it should be off limits, either as a story focus or as a plot device. I learned about how horrible it was by reading some stories where characters were raped (a couple were even issue books, aimed at teens) and also learned something about the problems victims have with shame and self blame and so on. These novels dispelled some myths about rapes, gave me some information about how to protect myself from it, and helped me develop more empathy for victims.

However, it is a topic I'm leery about, both in my own writing and in books I'm reading. Why?

1. It's the ultimate crime of erasure and un-personing of the victim, and it's just about the worst thing a person can do to another without killing or mutilating them. It is a very powerful thing, and it shouldn't be trivialized. Yet is often is in fiction.

2. It's often misunderstood. It's a crime of violence, humiliation and control, not sexytimes.

3. There are a lot of real, live people walking around who have been victims of sexual assault. Reading about it in a book will cause them to relive their own experience.

4. It's often the go-to trauma for women in stories, the backstory or character-breaking crisis du jour. There are plenty of other traumatic experiences that women can have.

5. Men get raped too. It's actually quite common in warfare and torture situations, yet rape of adult men seems to get omitted a lot from stories where female rape is justified by authors for its realism.

6. If a character who is meant to be sympathetic in any way, shape or form rapes or is accessory to a rape, then he/she will cease to be sympathetic in any way, shape or form to a large number of readers.

7. There is a very fine line between presenting it as the heinous crime that it is and presenting it in a way that might be titillating or erotic to some readers.


Sorry. This is kinda long, but there have been a number of threads on this issue over the past couple years, and I think it generally comes down to the same thing. It's a real thing and should not be off limits in literature, but it tends to be overused and is often portrayed insensitively or badly.

Jamesaritchie said:

I didn't watch it, so I may be wrong, but powerful or not, it does seem to trivialize the process.

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Better to watch it than to judge it based upon my brief and inadequate synopsis.

Can we mention how little female on male and male on male rape these writers are writing for something that isn't supposed to simply be a plot device? I find it more than annoying, it's infuriating to me. Especially when they claim it is for realisms sake, and put a man in a situation where he is likely to be raped but isnt because conviently there's a woman to take the fall.

That isn't the way history works, one of the most basic ways to break an enemy combatant if you didn't kill him was and is to rape him. It's a basic principle of war to break the will of the enemy, and what better way than to attack soldiers and everyone they defend in such a way whenever it is a viable option?

I scoured YouTube searching for clips from Lewis Lovhaug's, aka Linkara, review of "Identity Crisis," looking in particular for the part where he does a good takedown of the rape as a plot device trope. I'm really kicking myself that I can't find it because it's really good. He points out that it's so often used not because the writers want to explore the trauma and issues associated with rape, but because it's seen as something that happens to women, so if you want to have something bad happen to a female character, you have them raped. "Identity Crisis" was particularly bad in that we only see how the rape affects the other heroes, not in how it affects the victim (in this case, Sue Dibny). It came across as the writers wanting to be all edgy and shocking without actually putting forth any effort.

In my opinion, it is precisely because rape is such a horrible thing that it is a legitimate catalyst for a plot. It answers the question "What would you do if . . . ?"

What would you do if someone somehow destroyed your life?
What would you do if someone stole all your money?
What would you do if someone molested your child?
What would you do if someone murdered someone you love?
What would you do if someone raped someone you love?

Ask yourself what actions you might take (or want to take) in any of those cases and then give those actions to the characters in a story.

Lillith1991 said:

That isn't the way history works, one of the most basic ways to break an enemy combatant if you didn't kill him was and is to rape him. It's a basic principle of war to break the will of the enemy, and what better way than to attack soldiers and everyone they defend in such a way whenever it is a viable option?

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Roxxsmom said:

5. Men get raped too. It's actually quite common in warfare and torture situations, yet rape of adult men seems to get omitted a lot from stories where female rape is justified by authors for its realism.

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Yeah. This is another problem I have with GoT. (The TV series, to be clear. I haven't read the books.)

Statistics show us that, currently, men in the United States military face sexual assault than women. Why? Because there are more men in the military. And yet in this hyper-violent setting that's touted as dark and realistic and cruel, in this setting with far more male characters than female, there's no male rape victims.

Cersei? Raped. Daenrys? Raped, objectified, and threatened with rape. Gilly? Raped and impregnated by her father. Sansa? Attempted gang rape, and later threatened with rape multiple times. Brienne? Implied she's going to be raped, then humiliated instead because apparently she's too mannish.

And... where are the threats against men? Where's the long, drawn-out humiliation? Where's the on-screen assault, the whimpered "no"? Nope, those are reserved for women. The hated Kingkiller is captured and his captors want to humiliate him, so they tie him to a post and don't wash him for a month? If that were a female character, I seriously doubt she would have escaped untouched.

Realism, my foot.

Don't get me wrong, I think the solution here is "let's stop raping every other female character," not "let's rape more male characters." But I hate people who defend the sexual violence in GoT as "realistic."

Emermouse said:

He points out that it's so often used not because the writers want to explore the trauma and issues associated with rape, but because it's seen as something that happens to women, so if you want to have something bad happen to a female character, you have them raped. "Identity Crisis" was particularly bad in that we only see how the rape affects the other heroes, not in how it affects the victim (in this case, Sue Dibny). It came across as the writers wanting to be all edgy and shocking without actually putting forth any effort.

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I agree with this 100%, and this is why rape is a topic that I feel like approaching, as a writer, only if I am prepared to put in the work to do it properly, dealing with the consequences and the fallout. All too often it's used as a throwaway "bad thing" or, like you say, something that obviously is the only thing that could possibly threaten a woman -- and only women! -- in peril. (You know that saying about how, when you're holding a hammer, everything starts looking like a nail ...?) I don't think it should be off the table as a writing option; nothing should be completely off the table, and there are circumstances where it'd be actually less realistic if it didn't at least come up as an option. But it's so overused as a dramatic trope, and used in such shallow ways that are often more about the rape's impact on other people than on the victim ... I feel that if I am going to use it, I need to think hard about whether it's necessary and whether it's the best choice in the particular dramatic context I'm thinking about using it in.

I believe that rape should be considered as a plot point. I believe that if a rape scene or if rape as a storyline fails to strike a reader in a thought-provoking way, then perhaps the writer was not successful in getting their message across. Of course, it is a provocative topic, so it's also not beyond reason that despite how well or poorly it plays in any story, the reader may just be turned off. Writers can't help that. Although, I don't think there's ever a time when a rape scene or rape as a plot point is accomplished the right way. Rape will always strike a nerve with people, regardless of how it's portrayed.

Once a writer begins to use rape in their story, then you have to worry about accurately portraying either the rapist or the victim, as well as the immediate community involved. And I think getting into either mindset is hard for people. Then, you go into the actual description of the scene(s), thus pairing the already awkward act of writing sex with the even more gut-wrenching feelings of violation, of powerlessness. It's tough!

I've written erotica that explores nonconsensual sex, dubious consent and rape fantasies. I pushed my boundaries with it, some of my stories are digestible while others are just pure trash. But, as a writer I grew up believing that it's my duty to go there, to push those limits. Additionally, it gives me space to reevaluate my own feelings about rape. I don't write that type of erotica anymore; but, I do explore themes related to consent in other stories I'm publishing next year.

To me, rape is not a black and white issue. And I don't like it when it's framed as such in movies or literature, where it becomes so moralistic that I feel like I'm a young girl who has to look over my shoulder all the goddamned time. As for the romantic rape, bleh. Most days it's just done in such a corny way that it's like why does the woman need to be raped to begin with? Or why couldn't it be a woman who is into rough sex and consents to the rough play? Ugh.