This
title is not a joke. This post is without pictures for a reason. If discussion of rape in fiction, or in
general, upsets you due to personal reasons, I do not blame you for
an instant and would much rather you skip this chapter than find
yourself in an uncomfortable situation. This chapter will be as
snarkless as I can make it because when it comes to this subject, I.
Do. Not. Play.*
Barring
murder, which is a crime that really won’t go unreported for long,
rape is probably number two on our list of heinous things that human
beings can, and sadly will, do to one another. Rape statistics,
though, can be wildly misleading depending on the country one is in.
Inconsistent definitions of rape can take 0.2 reported instances per
100,000 people in Azerbaijan to a whopping 132.4 per 100,000
reporting rape in South Africa (oddly, one of the countries with very
progressive laws regarding rape in several circumstances which came
about due to local superstitions claiming that having unprotected sex
with a virgin will cure AIDS which caused grown-ass men to rape
BABIES, sick motherfuckers).
It
is a supremely under-reported crime and this is what makes people
think that it isn’t actually a problem. Statistics can’t even
really be considered accurate because there are SO many reasons why it
will go unreported. Fear of retaliation. Not wanting to get the
offender in trouble (Wait, what?). Unsure if a crime was actually
committed or if the local laws will consider it rape (many countries
will only recognize “male-female” rape and almost NO studies have
been performed in regards to “female-female” or “male-male”).
Not wanting others to know because of shame and stigma. A lack of
trust in local law enforcement. Not knowing HOW to report the crime.
And,
as a big detractor. in many countries, a person who reports rape but
cannot prove it will suffer criminal penalties themselves (alongside
those countries where extramarital sex has its own set of
punishments, thanks, self-righteous Abrahamic religions). In Africa,
several countries have laws that institute the death penalty for
consensual sodomy so if a victim cannot prove, without a shadow of a
doubt, that they were raped and not a willing participant, guess
who’s on the chopping block?
The
statistics I found in regards to the US
(https://www.ncjrs.gov/app/publications/abstract.aspx?ID=240972)
can also vary based on the circumstances of the incident. Was the
victim forcibly raped? Was the victim drugged against their will?
Was the victim otherwise inebriated or incapacitated? Was the act
violent or coerced? Those statistics tell us that nearly 20% of
women in the US (and 11.5 percent of women in college) have been
raped based on surveys and only 16% of those crimes were reported to
law enforcement.
Keep
in mind that I am deliberately mostly
sticking
to figures regarding women, here. This is because there is one trope
used in several kinds of fiction that disturbs me on a number of
levels. The child born of rape.
We
all know that rape is often written into a fictional work as a
power-play. It’s mostly (read “99.9999999% of the time)
unnecessary but can provide tension and a cause for a rape-revenge
scenario. In works by female artists, it’s used as
a cathartic move. In works by men, it can be either sympathetic,
created out of solidarity toward women, or just a sick fantasy.
(Seriously,
this is the one kink I will actively shame someone for. Yes, I get
that it’s impossible to rape someone who refuses to withhold
permission but there are going to be those times when you say no and
if people don’t expect it, there’s gonna be a problem.) A
lot of times, particularly in bad Mary Sue fanfiction and despite
what some politicians would have you believe regarding the human
female’s ability to “shut down” a pregnancy, that fantasy
extends to a child born of a violent and unnecessary union.
As
a sub-trope, though, the child of rape can bring us to some
interesting places. Most
often because the child of rape is largely portrayed as the
evilest evil thing that ever eviled evilly.
We
all know that marital rape is actually a new concept and even serial
killers don’t always have horrible childhoods so we know that "rape children are evil"
REALLY isn’t true. Thing is, though, it does provide a
thought-provoking facet to an otherwise two-dimensional character’s
life, whether
the victim or the child. In
Night
of the Demon,
a girl is raped by Bigfoot and bears his child. Even the Final Girl
isn’t immune, as seen in The
Prey.
In
terms of just the children, though, on
the heroic
side, we have those characters that are wholesome and good despite
their parentage. Of course, on that same side, we have the character
that wants to white knight for their wronged mother and slaughter the
son of a bitch that hurt her. And, on the other hand, we’ve got the
villains.
Oh,
yes, the villains.
The
ones who kill for fun. The ones whose parents treated them as if
they were a curse. The neglected and abused children who, through no
fault of their own, get back-handedly blamed for the crime committed
against their mother and grow up believing that they are monsters so they act like it.
We
all know that Freddy Krueger (A
Nightmare on Elm St)
was called “The bastard son of 100 maniacs”. The
deformed murderer in Dario Argento’s Phenomena
is a product of such a union. The killer from Cherry
Falls
was the child of a woman that the local police chief (and father of
our Final Girl) and his jock buddies decided to “have a little fun
with”. Eleanor from Byzantium,
while not technically a villain, is still a vampire. In
rare cases, because fiction usually assumes that a rapist is male, the child is the result of the mother raping the father,
such as La
Morte D’Arthur
where Mordred is the result of Arthur being tricked into getting
Morgan Le Fey pregnant and in Black
Christmas
where jaundiced and yellow-eyed
Agnes
was
conceived in much the same way.
It
may not be right to almost celebrate rape with the enjoyment of these
characters but their origin does give you something to think about no
matter how bad the rest of the movie is. Would they be different if
their parentage was legitimate? What if they ended up being adopted
and lovingly cared for? Are characters like this written as a subtle
means of promoting a pro-choice message? Why did the creator imagine
them with this particular origin?
I
mean, I get it but of all of the different means of becoming a
villain, why is rape kind of a go-to? Why does an innocent child
have to be written with that stigma. Is the pathos worth it? If the
writing is well-handled and the actor doesn’t go off the rails with
it, sure. As long as it’s not a cheap shot to the nuts, go for it.
If the rape itself is treated with the respect an actual crime is
due then, by all means, give us the goods.
Just
don’t sell us on a crappy character with this background being shitty based solely on the shittiness of their conception.
*If you are a victim of sexual assault and need someone to talk to,
please call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673 or
use their online chat at https://ohl.rainn.org/online/.
Hell,
I can be reached on Facebook and Twitter if necessary.*
