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Rape as Drama, Because Nothing Else Counts

Those who know me realize that, in my fiction, I have a fascination with rape. I've spent the longest time picking apart my reasons, and have discerned that Rape as Drama's appeal can be traced back to the validation it provides a character.

Literary Gold, If Used Correctly

You can read up on Rape as Drama at TVTropes, but here's the important bit:

In many works, as in Real Life, rape is an appalling crime that brutalizes the victim and can destroy lives. While some other works play rape for sexual fantasies or laughs, these treat it soberly, for a dramatic purpose.

In case you didn't guess, this book directly inspired Anna in the Sai series.

You've probably already thought of several examples. I think of Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak and Tanith Lee's White as Snow, both of which I read at an early age and might have brought on my fascination. The former is beautiful and realistic, while the latter is sort of trashy and maudlin (it includes gay dwarf rape). I also recommend The Woman, albeit not because of the title character.

(On a side note, I really did try to find examples of male victims of rape in fiction, but besides being outside my usual realm of interest, it's a near-unexplored subject outside of gay romance novels. Should I come upon any examples in the future, I might revisit this topic from that point of view.)

I love dramatic fiction, especially when a character faces truly unfair and hurtful circumstances and triumphs over them. That's a rush. I have trouble writing this type of fiction because I try to cut to that ending, which makes it much less powerful. I admire authors who can hold off for 50,000 words, through injustice and cruelty, before finally letting the main character(s) have the last word.

Rape as Drama: The Search for Validation

Almost always, that last word involves validation. In a nutshell, validation is when you're not sure if a bad situation was your fault or not, but a third party, preferably disinterested, assures you that you're (at least partly) in the right.

Granted, it's a sign of low self-worth and an unhealthy need for the approval of others, but while an ideal general population would be able to shrug off such things, I leak a little of my idealism every day. (Alternatively, the ability to actively change your own way of thinking through willpower might be reserved for the phenomenally weak- and strong-minded, in which case I can take comfort in at least being moderate.)

Got an evil wizard stomping your village? Your victory means that right makes might. The entire book is based around a mean manager bullying an inferior? The former's comeuppance proves that the latter did nothing to deserve such treatment. If the author is God, the hero's victory is divine judgment.

In the Rape as Drama model, there's some slight room for doubt, especially in the victim's mind, about whether he or she is partly at fault. Were her clothes too revealing? Should he have been more careful? What if the police don't believe him? These are questions that spin and spin inside his or her head.

The rapist getting convicted or otherwise suffering at the hands of a neutral third party is the world saying, "You did nothing to deserve this and are now allowed to return to normal life." And if the author has done a good job, we're cheering right along with the victim.

The Pain of Things That Aren't Rape

Here's where I come to my problem with how the concept is utilized: Rape is not the only traumatic experience a person can endure. There's even a famous list: the Holmes and Rahe stress scale. From the tropes page:

• Imprisonment
• Divorce
• Injury/illness
• Losing a job
• Pregnancy
• Marriage

In fact, in what I think was an oversight, rape and sexual assault/abuse aren't included at all.

Note that a lot of these don't illicit much sympathy. "Oh, you're getting married? Boring. Pregnancy is stressful but not as dramatic as rape. Injuries heal, right? And divorce and imprisonment are probably your own fault."

No one would say that rape is boring or mundane or petty or the victim's fault, because that's a mega-dick thing to say. And it's taken years of societal movement to even get to that point. But notice how other major life events, sometimes just as grievous as sexual assault, often aren't viewed as 'dramatic enough'. There has to be nakedness and sex and screaming involved before some part of our brains realizes we're on hallowed ground. There have been comedy movies based around all the above life events, but none around rape.

I'm not arguing that we re-trivialize rape; it's almost right at where it should be in terms of society's treatment. But we need to build sympathy for those stuck in these other situations. While we're at it, let's note a fine line: Sometimes, things happen that hurt a person more than is apparently coherent. If my boss yells at me, it's like my apartment building burned down. Meanwhile, if my apartment building burned down, I might just decide to sit back and wait for my insurance money.

I say this is a fine line because it's easy to mis-handle this sort of opportunity. A character getting down in the dumps about something seemingly mundane might come across as whiny, attention-seeking, and melodramatic. Inversely, someone calmly facing a staggeringly awful situation might appear sociopathic or villainous, as if I burned my apartment building down myself. Wait--

Twisting these situations and your characters' reactions to be as varied as those in real life . . . It's a challenge. One wrong line of dialog can shift the reader's sympathy into dislike, or worse, boredom. What's the measure? When the character's traumatic past is revealed, the reader mustn't roll their eyes and mutter, "So?" Or, as I react to wedding dramas, "Great, more White People Problems."

If the trauma as set up in the narrative (i.e. doesn't come out of left field) and the affected character has been established as likeable and sympathetic, hurt or its revelation should cause the reader to press a hand to their mouth as they read, silently wishing their beloved character's suffering will disappear, preferably with triumphant fireworks.

If that trauma happens to be rape, I hope you're happy with going the easy route. Next time, take a chance and have the main character's wife leave them, or they break their foot, or someone is rude to them.

A Note About Sai

In my most recent revision of the Sai series, I'm still keeping Anna's rape backstory. I've considered other options (among them kidnapping, work and parental abuse, and homelessness), but the lead-up and how it affects her character still makes sense to me. However, I've resolved to try more challenging traumas in future books.

About Fiona Canteberry

A novelist and office worker from northwest Arkansas, Fiona's range of topics include writing, tropes, and self-improvement. She goes by 'FekketCantenel' online.