Oh no, I've "non-consensually" read something I didn't like!
Beware those who use emotionally charged terms like "consent" and "rape" to shield themselves from rebuttal.
I saw the most absurd notion in a writer’s group the other day, one that asserted that a reader’s consent is being violated when their expectations of a book are not met. And while this particular comment was aimed at sexual content in fantasy and science fiction (oh no, “our” genre has been hijacked!), the use of emotionally charged terms like “consent” and “rape” tells you how invested some people are in censorship and other punitive measures.
I’ve read plenty of stuff that upset me, including stories that included actual rape and sexual assault rather than “rape fantasy,” a term that’s casually thrown around as a catch-all for “something that makes me uncomfortable.” For the record and in no uncertain terms, women DO NOT —LIKE EVER— fantasize about being raped. Rape is a crime so vile that it should never be thrown around to mean anything other than the vile crime it is. The fact that some people are so desperate for attention that they will use the term willy-nilly disgusts me. They want to nail themselves to some metaphorical cross. It’s on the same level as the clowns in DC who want us to believe that the “assault on the capitol” on January 6th was the same as the storming of the beaches at Normandy.
But I don’t want to make this a post about “rape” or “rape fantasy.” I want to make it a post about the actual issues:
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