melannen | (no subject)

I was prepping a laundry load of newly thrifted fabric and recently finished sewing projects, and decided to throw in my pincushion, as it was getting kind of grungy.

This pincushion is the one I made as my first project in 6th grade Home Ec, by sewing together two small squares of cloth and then stuffing them. I've been using it for twenty years.

After pulling all the pins out, and then all the visible needles, and then squeezing it for awhile to get all the hidden needles, I threw my hands up, took out the stuffing, and went through it that way.

There were forty-five needles hidden in it.*

...has anyone yet invented a pincushion that doesn't eat needles?

Anyway, I am still working on Kushiel. This week's FMK poll is still neck-and-neck, so your vote could turn it! You have until I get back from the St. Pat's dinner in an hour or two. I took the first three weeks' K books to the thrift store today (where I bought the fabric that is being washed. And two more books shhh) so I can't chicken out, augh. I am now finding myself wanting to buy books just because they will fill out a good set for an FMK poll. No, melannen! Bad! Bad!

In preparation for writing my thoughts on Kushiel, here is a poll for you about evolving terminology in reviews:

Poll #18094 Rape vs. rapeyness

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 71

View Respondents

If I describe a creative work as "rapey", I mean that it:

View Answers

has at least one rape in it
7 (9.9%)

has a lot of rape in it
13 (18.3%)

has unnecessary amounts of rape in it
31 (43.7%)

may or may not explicitly include rape, but has a lot of dubcon/noncon sort of situations or references
42 (59.2%)

may or may not explicitly include rape, but a general aura of rapiness hangs over it
42 (59.2%)

may or may not explicitly include rape, but uncritically includes many lovely exemplars of rape culture, such as victim-blaming or 'he couldn't help it he's an alpha male'.
56 (78.9%)

I will give you my answer in comments
5 (7.0%)

I would never use that word and don't find it a useful descriptor
2 (2.8%)

*I did not intend that as a metaphor for rape culture, and yet there it is.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I prefer the term "an example of rape culture", followed by the example, a definition of rape culture, and an explanation of why this is not a good thing. However, if I had to use the term "rapey", I would say "may or may not explicitly include rape in the first, second or third degrees** or non-consensual sexual contact, but uncritically includes things like dubious consent, victim-blaming for things like molestation, sexual harassment and sexual abuse, absolving rapists/sexual abusers/sexual harassers/molesters of responsibility for their actions, objectifying people, and normalization of all of the above."

** Rape in the first degree: rape involving physical force, including the use of weaponry or the threat to use such weaponry; kidnapping; the infliction of physical injury on the victim, including rendering the victim unconscious; or illegally entering the building where the victim is.

Rape in the second degree: rape that involves force or forcible compulsion (duress) but no weapons or threats to use weapons; rape that happens when the victim is incapable of consent because they are physically helpless (comatose or paralyzed, for instance) or mentally incapacitated (drunk, high, asleep, catatonic, etc.); rape that happens when the victim has a developmental disability and the rapist has supervisory authority over them (teacher, social worker, etc.), was providing transportation, within the course of his or her employment, to the victim at the time of the rape, or is a health care provider, the victim is a client or patient, and the sexual intercourse occurs during a treatment session, consultation, interview, or examination.

Rape in the third degree: rape where the victim does not explicitly consent and their lack of consent is clear through their words, actions and behavior, or where the rapist threatens substantial harm to property to compel the victim.

These are all Washington state laws. I spent a LOT of time analyzing the Fifty Shades series. Christian Grey is guilty of all three at one point or another.

Those aren't the same definitions I learned for my state, but yeah, sounds about right. (Which one of those would apply to "illegally sold as a slave to a man who expects you to warm his bed but never actually makes the threats implicit in the slavery status explicit as long as you go with it"? I guess the "sold as a slave" makes it fall under "kidnapping" automatically? Asking for a friend in a book.)

I certainly wouldn't use it in a professional sort of review or for a mixed audience, but for an audience like my DW readers or in a comment thread where people can be expected to know that rape culture is a thing, I do find it a useful term of art.

Edited 2017-03-17 23:41 (UTC)

Which one of those would apply to "illegally sold as a slave to a man who expects you to warm his bed but never actually makes the threats implicit in the slavery status explicit as long as you go with it"?

Well, "illegally sold as a slave" does encompass kidnapping. And unless you're talking about a BDSM slave who has a contract and limits and who can walk out of the situation with zero repercussions, which we're obviously not, given the whole "illegally sold" thing...well, a REAL slave, by definition, can't consent to sex with their owner. Even if a real slave rebels, the owner can always do something worse to them or to someone they care about as punishment, and the slave knows it. That sounds a lot like forcible compulsion--or duress--to me.

So I'd say that the situation of your friend in a book is rape in both the first and the second degrees. (PLEASE tell me that this isn't the protagonist you're talking about.)

*pokes nose in*

It, erm. Protagonist is the one being sold-as (and it is full-blown Actual Slave, not BDSM-flavor). The situation is presented, to my reading anyway, as "this is really fucking not okay, but what choice do i have". Which is better than the alternatives, perhaps, but still a thing.

Ah, yeah, what

batrachian said. (Actually she's been a sex slave the entire book so far, but just before where I left off she went from being the kinder, gentler sort of sex slave where they have to listen to your safeword or they don't get to contract you anymore to being sold outright to the Northern Barbarian Chieftain. So. yeah. By Washington State rules I don't think she's ever had consensual sex in her life, but then they don't have legal indentured servitude there.)