Houston, we have a problem.
Okay. So I'm watching
Law & Order SVU, which is one of my favorite shows. I've watched all the episodes.
ALL OF THEM.
And I'm enjoying the new actors this season. Got nothing against the show.
This week's episode -
Twenty-Five Acts - was about the rape of an author of a 50-Shades-of-Grey-style BDSM romance.
Now here's my problem - the show went with the premise that the below are truths:
1) Because the author
wrote about certain sexual acts, the jury would think she
wanted those acts done to her.
2) Because what you
write is your personal fantasy.
3) And she couldn't have just researched it. Those sexual acts had to have been
inspired by a real man/relationship.
WTF???
Now, I've written a BDSM romance.
On an alien planet.
I've never done any of the BDSM sexual acts in the story.
Neither have I been to an alien planet.
Nor are either of those things my personal fantasy. I'm really not interested in interstellar travel until we get to the space-cruise-ship level. Until then, there's plenty of places on Earth for me to explore.
And the inspired by a real person thing? Oh sure, I'm quite positive I was inspired by real men -
who do not know I exist.
It's called
imagination.
Coupled with
research.
As with the fictitious book in the
Law & Order episode (based on
50 Shades of Grey - itself originally a fan-fiction
Twilight tale), this isn't a kiss-and-tell memoir, it's
fiction, for pity's sake!
FICTION.
Other types of fiction don't get treated like this.
Nobody asks
Stephen King how many hotel ghosts have driven him
insane. Or
James Patterson how many people he's
murdered. Or
Tess Gerritsen if she's secretly a
serial killer.
Nobody assumes these three have bloody fantasies. Or that they're
asking to be possessed/murdered/crime victims.
And certainly nobody believes they've actually
done any of the things they've written.
So why do people take for granted that it's
imagination and
research when it's
violence, and
lifestyle when it's
sex?
Why is writing about consensual sex between two adults shameful and writing about body horror and physical atrocities perfectly acceptable?
I don't know the answer. So I'm asking you.
