without trying to access/rile-up the statistics and theories from various women's studies courses that I have locked up in some corner of my brain (I don't have enough coffee to fuel the brain power needed)... let me say, rape!fic annoys the hell out of me. Actually, no, many things in fics merely annoy me (grammar, writing style, characterizations...), but rape!fic most often makes me mad and disappointed and vaguely nauseous.
Most of the time it is nicely avoidable if you stick to certain standards or if the writer is cognizant enough to put it in a disclaimer. Most of the time, you just quit reading because you can tell that it is handled with inexperience and and a lack of realism. I'd say it's the power play and the hurt/comfort that draws in some kind of morbid curiosity in the writers - but the stories often come off callous, sophomoric, and pointless.
In a very few cases that I've come across is it dealt with care, or the author is clearly trying to work something out. And, maybe by using characters they are familiar with, it feels a safer forum to analyze and decipher psychologically. However, I don't feel that femslash fanficiton is a a very good fit and/or forum for it.
Most of the readers seeking out femslash are looking for entertainment, for fandom celebrating or commiseration, or they are looking to see what a storyline/genre/character/fandom has sparked in others' imaginations.
So, whittling down here - rape!fic where it has no point other than morbid titillation or a cheap course for hurt/comfort - irritates me and makes me ready to rant.
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Date: 2009-06-01 06:29 pm (UTC)Most of the time it is nicely avoidable if you stick to certain standards or if the writer is cognizant enough to put it in a disclaimer. Most of the time, you just quit reading because you can tell that it is handled with inexperience and and a lack of realism. I'd say it's the power play and the hurt/comfort that draws in some kind of morbid curiosity in the writers - but the stories often come off callous, sophomoric, and pointless.
In a very few cases that I've come across is it dealt with care, or the author is clearly trying to work something out. And, maybe by using characters they are familiar with, it feels a safer forum to analyze and decipher psychologically. However, I don't feel that femslash fanficiton is a a very good fit and/or forum for it.
Most of the readers seeking out femslash are looking for entertainment, for fandom celebrating or commiseration, or they are looking to see what a storyline/genre/character/fandom has sparked in others' imaginations.
So, whittling down here - rape!fic where it has no point other than morbid titillation or a cheap course for hurt/comfort - irritates me and makes me ready to rant.