Honestly, I don't WANT to read about the threat of rape when I read UF. I want unreal threats in the real world. I want a fear of becoming a ravening beast under the full moon, a fear of having blood drained by the living dead, fear of freaky magic, fear of over-the-top torture that is so far removed from the real world that it seems supernatural in itself even though it could still technically happen in this world. I don't want the threat of rape. I am scared enough of that in real life, just by virtue of going about my daily business while being female*. Rape in a fantasy book completely takes away part of the escape element for me, and says 'even in this awesome fantasy world, you being a woman still makes you a target just by virtue of that alone, and out of all the bad things that can happen to you with zombies and fae and skinwalkers, rape is still the most likely.' Screw that. I know keeping real-world elements is what makes it urban fantasy in the first place, but why can't that be things like taxes, which happen to EVERYONE and yet seem to be so much more rarely mentioned?
*Not that rape can't/doesn't happen to men as well, but the fact it's a social problem that happens so overwhelmingly to women that for most men it's more 'something I intellectually know can happen to me but don't think about' whereas for women it tends to be 'something that I *have* to think about whenever I leave my house alone, go somewhere 'bad' at night, am at a party with uncovered drinks, etc.'
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2013-02-06 08:52 pm (UTC)*Not that rape can't/doesn't happen to men as well, but the fact it's a social problem that happens so overwhelmingly to women that for most men it's more 'something I intellectually know can happen to me but don't think about' whereas for women it tends to be 'something that I *have* to think about whenever I leave my house alone, go somewhere 'bad' at night, am at a party with uncovered drinks, etc.'