A disturbing trend in fantasy fiction is authors (many of whom are male) having their female protagonists having to endure violent and demeaning sexual assault as a prerequisite to them becoming motivated and powerful heroines. These female characters, after being violently raped and emotionally abused, rise from their emotional ashes (like the mythical bird) and become bad asses who avenge themselves and sometimes others. This happens with Anne Bishop’s Jaenelle in her The Black Jewels trilogy (1998, 1999, 2000), Charles de Lint’s Jilly in The Onion Girl (2001) and Widdershins (2006) (both from his Newford series), Paolo Bacigalupi’s Emiko in The Windup Girl (2009), and Wm. Paul Young’s Eve in Eve (2015). However, real victims of rape and sexual assault hardly find the experience one that transforms them into superheroes or heroines. Victims of rape and sexual assault are left traumatized and struggling with, often, paralyzing shame and guilt. The suggestion that rape/sexual assault leads to a phoenix-like transformation of a victim into a heroine normalizes rape in a twisted fashion. Without their brutal rapes/sexual assaults that lead to the phoenix moment, these characters would remain helpless victims. In this logic, they need brutal rape to transform into their best selves. It is time fantasy and/or realistic fiction stopped normalizing rape/sexual assault in any fashion. Rape and sexual assault do not lead to positive transformative experiences for girls and women. Fantasy is escape literature, yes. But rape/sexual assault isn’t and shouldn’t be entertainment; rape/sexual assault is heinous and needs to be depicted as such every time.
About the presenterKathleen Murphey
Kathleen Murphey is an Associate Professor in Community College of Philadelphia’s English Department. She presents regularly at MAPACA conferences. In addition to academic writing, Dr. Murphey has been doing some creative writing. Some of work has been published through The Voices Project (http://www.thevoicesproject.org/) and Writing in a Woman’s Voice (http://writinginawomansvoice.blogspo...). More information about her work can be found at www.kathleenmurphey.com.