The Ethics and Eroticism of Non-Consensual Sex in Fiction

Both Kitty Thomas and Pillow Talker wrote posts on this topic. And a long and frustrating twitter discussion then led to a chat session with various other people.

Kitty Thomas’ post: “The Short Skirt Defense” is here. Pillow Talker’s: “My Reply to Kitty Thomas” is here.

There are very few erotica publishers who will publish stories containing representations of forced or non-consensual sex, and fewer still if it is accompanied with any level of violence. I’m lucky to be published by Republica Press, who is the only one I know of willing to put their name behind erotica that includes this theme.

But most publishers reject it. Their reasons, they say, are legal. But, frankly, I’m not convinced. There has yet to be a single case of prosecution for the publishing of any story or novel that portrays eroticized non-consensual sex. My sense is that it’s not so much an issue of legality, as one of discomfort. Meanwhile, these are publishers who purportedly cater to women’s sexual fantasies. Obviously they only want to cater to the socially comfortable ones.

Let’s face it: rape fantasy is a difficult topic. So I’d like to try and tackle the subject as unemotionally as possible. We do have some numbers.

In 2009, Bivona and Critelli, at the Department of Psychology, University of North Texas, published a study in the Journal of Sexual Research. Their sample size was more than adequate for statistical purposes – 355 females. 62% reported having rape fantasies. So, there is clearly an uncomfortable truth that erotica publishers don’t want to face: a LOT of women fantasize about this. (Jenny Bivona, and Joseph Critelli, “The Nature of Women’s Rape Fantasies: An Analysis of Prevalence, Frequency, and Contents,” The Journal of Sex Research 46.1 (2009)

Even studying the subject has been difficult, because within the field of psychology, there are two rather diverse explanations for why women have them:

The level of confusion on this topic can be illustrated by noting that the two leading explanations of rape fantasy stand in direct contradiction to each other. One states that rape fantasies allow women with high sex guilt to avoid the blame and anxiety that would accompany a consensual sexual fantasy. Because the fantasy involves force, she cannot be blamed for its sexual content (Moreault & Follingstad, 1978). The other leading explanation is that rape fantasies are just the natural expression of an open, accepting, and guilt-free approach to sexuality (Pelletier & Herold, 1988). (Bivona & Critelli, 2009)

What is clear is that we’re not comfortable acknowledging that we do have these fantasies, either individually, or as a society. I think history plays a major role in this. Any woman born into the age of feminism and sex positivism feels a great pressure to reject any kind of positive representation of male domination or female subjugation.

Here’s the problem: our subconscious and our deepest desires aren’t always politically correct. I certainly wish mine were. I have no idea why I have nonconsensual sexual fantasies, but at some point I got tired of feeling like a traitor to my sex for having them. And I find – using the same auspices of promoting a woman’s freedom to express herself sexually in any way she pleases – I’m going to stick to my guns: I have the right to have these fantasies, to enjoy them and to own them. This – as I see it – is the crux of the matter. I manufacture this fantasy. I own it. It’s not imposed on me by males or informed by male desire. It is self-generated.

Most people don’t have an ethical problem with this. Their problem is that I write and publish these fantasies, bound up in fictional stories, for public consumption. And the most often repeated objection to this is as follows: a potential rapist, reading my story or someone else’s, may take it as encouragement or permission to act out their desires. They might point to my story and say. “See? She wants it.” There is no way to argue against this. In fact, I’m willing to concede that, indeed, a rapist MAY stumble across my story and use it as an excuse. The question is: will my story be the trigger? Without it would they remain a non-rapist?

I could go into details about how fictionalized rape fantasy or non-con seldom resembles anything close to a real rape. And, in fact, I find the term ‘rape fantasy’ something of a misnomer, but I think that may be a topic for another post. Even accepting the idea that erotica containing non-con might seem close enough to reality to be seem by a rapist as an instruction manual, would they use it as one? And, conversely, would potential rapists who are NOT exposed to this erotica be less likely to perpetrate their crime?

This is where we do have some data. Rape has been present with us since the dawn of time. Even in Western countries, where literacy is high, for most of history, the vast majority of the population couldn’t read – and yet they raped.

Even now, countries like Japan, with some of the most explicit and easily accessible examples of both textual and graphic non-con erotica and pornography, have some of the lowest incidences of rape.

Conversely, according to Wikipedia and other sources, the Democratic Republic of the Congo has the world’s highest incidence of rape, and one of the world’s lowest literacy rates. Clearly these rapists are not reading erotica. They’re not reading anything.

Global statistics on rape are very hard to get and even more difficult to validate, but according to “Worldwide Sexual Assault Statistics” from George Mason University, Japan has the lowest, at 6.6% and Peru has one of the highest rates at 46.7%. I might be wrong, but I don’t think Peru is a large consumer of non-con themed erotica either.

Clearly the availability or consumption of fictional material containing this type of erotica is not a statistically significant factor in the incidence of sexual assault. I won’t go so far as to say that its availability is corelational with a lower incidence of rape, but I won’t discount it. The very fact that the material is out there and available means that it is a subject that society can have an open discussion about. People’s positions can be voiced and made clear. We can underscore the distinction between fantasy and reality – but not if the fantasy is so taboo and hidden that we can’t discuss it.

These statistics on sexual assault are quite well known and publicly available and yet still the myth that fictional representations of rape encourage rapists continues. Arien Muzacz’s paper, “Through a Glass Darkly: Deviance in Sexual Fantasy“, in the Journal of Human Sexuality, explores some of the methodological flaws in studies of sex offenders that, he feels, actually skew the data to the point where pornography and ‘deviant sexual fantasy’ are made to appear as a far more significant factor than, in fact, they are.

The incidence of ‘deviant sexual fantasy’ is not significantly higher in sex offenders than it is in the rest of the population. The problem isn’t sexual fantasy, or even having those fantasies supported with external fantasy literature. The problem seems to be more one of poor impulse control.

For the above reasons, I don’t accept that my writing is going to negatively impact the safety of women in any significant way.

But even if it did, we still come to a question of culpability. One may fantasize about all sorts of things – rape, incest, bestiality, or even murder. But that is not the same as acting upon those fantasies and turning them into reality. Most people have gotten mad enough at another person to fantasize about killing them, but few act on that impulse. It doesn’t seem believable to me that a sane person, in the grip of a murderous fantasy, is going to change their mind and commit the crime because they’ve recently read a juicy murder mystery. If that were the case, the murder rate among middle-aged English women would be astronomical.

This is where my argument gets a little more emotional. I don’t want to go into a long philosophical discussion on the subject of free will. Clearly both nature and nurture play a part in our behaviour. However, I think that the idea of free will is a place where we, as a society, must take a leap of faith. Either we do have free will, and make decisions and carry the responsibilities for the things we do, or the world is chaos and no one can be held accountable for anything.

If common law, which operates on the basis of individual responsibility, is the dominant system of accountability we have, and has worked relatively well for us, I am not going to suddenly ignore it when it comes to the reading of erotica.

Rape is illegal. A person who rapes has broken the law and is held personally responsible for their actions. Neither the heat of war, alcoholic intoxication or the influence of drugs is accepted as an excuse for diminished capacity under the law in the consideration of their guilt or innocence. If these factors are not taken into account, I refuse to accept that consumption of one of my stories might be.

The other argument against the publication of erotica that contains non-consensual sex is that it may offend or traumatize the reader, especially readers who have been victims of rape. I have every sympathy for them, and it is for this reason that I make sure all my stories containing non-con are clearly labeled. If it is going to offend you or upset you, don’t read it. But I am not willing NOT to write a story just because it may offend someone. I believe people should practice critical consumption and stay away from the things they don’t like.

Please feel free to discuss the above points, or disagree with me. But please make sure your arguments are based on logic and fact, and not on gut-level emotional reaction. It’s not that those reactions aren’t valid – you feel what you feel. It’s just that it is almost impossible to incorporate those feelings and give them the appropriate weight in a rational debate.

(Kitty Thomas has written the fabulous and very hot novel ‘Comfort Food‘available at Amazon. Pillow Talker is a blogger and writer who has written a number of erotic stories containing non-con at Fantasy Revealed)