This is the third installment of a series about sexual assault and comics. You can find the previous posts here:
Introduction
Rape in the Gutters
Writing Sexual Violence, Part 1
On Monday, I brought up some questions writers should consider if they plan to write a story involving sexual assault. Today, I’m going to give some more specific advice about how to write about sexual assault and sexual assault survivors accurately and respectfully.
An awful lot of the popular beliefs about sexual assault are wildly inaccurate. What you assume might be true of a survivoror a perpetratormay well be a culturally constructed myth.
Let’s take a look at a typical concept of sexual assault:
The victim is an attractive woman in her late teens to mid twenties. She is dressed attractively if not outright provocatively; she is alone in a risky neighborhood / bar, late at night. She may or may not be intoxicated.
The perpetrator is a man in his mid-to-late thirties. He lacks basic social skills and empathy for other people. He is somewhat disheveled and appears disreputable. He may attempt to make overtures at the victim shortly before outright assaulting her, but they have not encountered each other before that unless he has been stalking her. If the victim attempts to struggle, he will physically overpower her, usually without the aid of a weapon.
The assault itself will be violent. The victim’s body will be visibly bruised, and her clothing will be torn. In the aftermath of the assault, the victim will be either hysterical or catatonic.
If it’s a superhero comic, the rape will likely propel the victim into a career as a superhero. At some point, she will be forced to face her assailant, either literally or metaphorically, to come to terms with her previously repressed emotions / memories regarding the assault.
It’s an exaggeration, but not by much. It’s also informed entirely by cultural myths about rape. Let’s pick them apart and see how they work:
The victim is an attractive woman in her late teens to mid twenties.
We assume that the victim must be sexually desirable and physically vulnerable, which translates to a physically attractive and fairly young woman. Actually, people of all ages and genders are survivors of sexual assault, and physical attractiveness has very little to do with whom rapists target.
Rape is a crime of violence, not sexuality.
She is dressed attractively if not outright provocatively
Again, this stems from the assumption that sexual arousal is the driving force behind sexual assault. It also implies that the victim was assaulted at least partially because of her choice of clothing.
The majority of women who are assaulted are dressed normally at the time. Sexual assault has nothing to do with the victim’s behavior or choices.
she is alone in a risky neighborhood / bar, late at night
This implies again that the victim is at least partially responsible for her own assault; it also reinforces socioeconomic stereotypes, since the rape is assumed to have taken place in a badtransl: lower-classneighborhood.
Most perpetrators are of the same socioeconomic class as their victims, and most rapes occur in familiar places, within the victim’s routine.
She may or may not be intoxicated.
And again, we have some implication that the victim’s own irresponsible behavior has put her at risk.
This also implies a correlation between alcohol use and sexual assault. While the two are closely related in some environmentson college campuses, for example, the majority of rapes occur when one or both parties is chemically impaireddrinking neither exonerates perpetrators from responsibility for their actions nor makes victims culpable for what is done to them.
The perpetrator is a man in his mid-to-late thirties.
Most, but not all perpetrators are male. Furthermore, they are all ages. Again, perpetrators tend to fall into the same demographic groups as their victims, so it’s likelyalthough not universalthat the perpetrator and the victim will be relatively close in age (obviously, this doesn’t hold true for child abuse).
He lacks basic social skills and empathy for other people.
Most perpetrators are generally able to function normally in society. Some are married; many are conventionally attractive. Many regularly engage in consensual sex.
He is somewhat disheveled and appears disreputable.
This image of the perpetrator also feeds into socioeconomic assumptions about criminals. Again, perpetrators tend to target victims in their own socioeconomic classes, which cover a wide spectrum.
He may attempt to make overtures at the victim shortly before outright assaulting her
Based on the assumption that rapists are unable to attract consensual sexual partners because they are socially awkward, etc. See above.
but they have not encountered each other before that unless he has been stalking her
The majority of perpetrators are acquainted with their victims before the assault. Many are friends; some are family or intimate partners.
If the victim attempts to struggle, he will physically overpower her, usually without the aid of a weapon.
Okaythat’s actually pretty accurate. The majority of rapes don’t involve weapons.
The assault itself will be violent.
While sexual assault is an inherently violent act, perpetrators also use verbal coercion and target victims who are asleep, intoxicated, or otherwise impaired.
The victim’s body will be visibly bruised, and her clothing will be torn.
Even violent physical assaults can leave very little evidence. Clothing is surprisingly difficult to tear, and any assailant powerful enough to physically force himself or herself on another person can generally do so without causing them visible injuries.
In the aftermath of the assault, the victim will be either hysterical or catatonic.
I’m gonna rant on this one a bit, because it’s one of my favorite pet peeves. THERE IS NO ‘STANDARD’ OR RIGHT REACTION TO TRAUMA. Yeah, I’ve seen the stereotypical catatonic-in-fetal-position scene, but I’ve also seen survivors of really brutal assaults crack jokes in the ER. Different people cope with trauma in different ways, and it pisses me off endlessly when a survivor’s credibility is questioned because she or he didn’t react in the ‘right’ way to being raped.
If it’s a superhero comic, the rape will likely propel the victim into a career as a superhero. At some point, she will be forced to face her assailant, either literally or metaphorically, to come to terms with her previously repressed emotions / memories regarding the assault.
Obviously, this is where statistics cease to apply. This scenario is offensive not because it’s inaccurate, but because it’s so bloody overused.
That’s all for now. Next week, I’m going to look at a specific comicConan #12and the reactions it elicited.
In the meantime, you can discuss this column here.
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