

One of the reasons that creators of media like to include rape in their work is specifically because it elicits strong feelings, even when divorced from all context and consequences. In short, anyone can write a rape scene-but should they? Chances are, the answer is no.įrom reinforcing falsehoods about sexual violence to the objectification of women, here's why that rape storyline is probably a bad idea, and a pretty uncreative one too.Īdding yet another manipulative rape scene is not just one of the most offensive things a writer can do, it is also one of the most boring. Indeed, one of the most baffling things about so many rape scenes in popular culture is that the people who scripted them felt qualified to do so, despite seemingly knowing nothing about rape except that it exists and it is bad.
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Half the time, people can't even seem to figure out how to define rape, let alone portray it in responsible ways.

It's also become the center of a fierce debate about when portraying rape in fiction is unnecessary, manipulative, and even harmful-especially when it feeds into real-life misconceptions about sexual assault that are often used to deprive rape survivors of legitimacy or justice. Over the last several decades, rape has evolved from a topic that was neither depicted in pop culture nor talked about publicly, to a frequent, even overused plot point in movies and TV shows. By now it's almost a ritual: A movie or TV show-probably Game of Thrones-depicts a woman getting raped, is greeted by furious criticism on the Internet, which slowly dies down until the next rape, when the cycle begins anew.
