All Entries Tagged With: "k. tempest bradford"

Strong words of advice from K. Tempest Bradford

K. Tempest Bradford is guest blogging at Jeff Vandermeer’s blog, which is where I found this gem of a blog post. I love it when someone puts into words stuff that I feel but never bothered to write down. #1 is a particular sore point – you don’t need rape to cause your protag to change/get stronger/break down.

Consider this: if a man was intimidated by another man and decided to strike out and somehow de-empower his rival, he wouldn’t think “I’ll get him drunk and take advantage of him!” If a man found out a secret about another man and wanted to use that to his advantage, he wouldn’t say, “Have sex with me or I’ll tell your secret to the world.” If a man gets pissed off at another man, he doesn’t beat him up and rape him, he just beats him up.

As she says, it does happen in the real world, and it can have a place in stories – but it has to be done right. If it’s just a “let’s shock the reader” or “what is the worst thing I can do to my character?” then it’s bull and needs to be edited.