Carol, what if a rape threat is not real? In my novel Almost Adept, in the first scene, a guy attempts to force himself on a girl. But... the girl is a powerful mage and she knows she is not in danger, even if he doesn't. She can get rid of him any time she chooses, and she does, when he refuses to listen to her demand to let her go. Would you object to such a scene too?
I think the last book I can remember reading that *didn't* toy with the rape threat trope was a nonfic.
Sigh.
@Olga-- I haven't read the book, partially because I'm freaking loudmouthed and opinionated and because of that, tend to try to keep my world of fiction writers and fiction reads separate. So since I don't know the context, take this with a grain of salt. But one of the major problems, to my mind, is that many usages trivialise rape. They treat it as a plot device, as a way to throw two characters together (rape threat/save trope), as a cheap way of creating shock or threat, as a way of making that "tough" female character vulnerable or as a trick to "prove" her bravery. In my opinion, rape, like death, is not something to be taken lightly, to be used for another purpose, to be diminished into a plot device. Unfortunately, it often is.
In my case, it wasn't really a threat. It was a plot device, yes, but for the opposite reason than most. I needed her to do something outrageous, so crazy that she would have to leave home, to flee. Her reaction to the attempted rape (which is a serious enough offense to get her sufficiently riled) provided me with that: she was so mad at the guy she turned him into a sheep. Of course, she had to disappear afterwards to escape retribution.
Olga, it is hard to comment when I haven't read your work, but I did elaborate my feelings on the next post, which specifically spun off from the book I was reading and the sense that it is a default plot device. Sexist as it may seen, I'm much more ambivalent when women use it, because then it might be coming from a common-women-experience kind of view. Or when women are the main characters in a the story, and don't just appear as plot devices. From what you say, it sounds like a scene that occurs to a woman, and becomes a catalyst for change in a book where the woman is the lead character. That is a little less problematic, especially given women might face that same situation and be asking themselves, what would I do?
She is the protagonist. And yes, the scene propels her into a whole new story. When I wrote that scene I was proud of my heroine's inventiveness in dealing with a bad guy. I didn't think I might offend anyone.
Sigh.
@Olga-- I haven't read the book, partially because I'm freaking loudmouthed and opinionated and because of that, tend to try to keep my world of fiction writers and fiction reads separate. So since I don't know the context, take this with a grain of salt. But one of the major problems, to my mind, is that many usages trivialise rape. They treat it as a plot device, as a way to throw two characters together (rape threat/save trope), as a cheap way of creating shock or threat, as a way of making that "tough" female character vulnerable or as a trick to "prove" her bravery. In my opinion, rape, like death, is not something to be taken lightly, to be used for another purpose, to be diminished into a plot device. Unfortunately, it often is.