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hsavinienSo I wrote a story a little bit ago, "Jellyfish are Irrelevant to the Study of John" which is very specific about consent (e.g. that it is good and doesn't become unnecessary even within an established relationship) and posted it both here on my LJ and on my Ao3 account. One of the tags I used on Ao3 was "Explicit Consent". I was poking through the other entries (of which there are not many) for that tag and a fair number of the other stories tagged with that are also tagged for rape/noncon. I guess it makes sense if the story arc involves someone recovering from rape and involved in a sexual relationship with someone else. It just...bothered me for some reason, both that there weren't more stories tagged and that there was so much overlap.
Consent is always important. Doesn't matter if it's a one-night stand, a seventy-year relationship, or anything in between. I know there are more stories on the Archive that contain explicit discussion of and negotiation of consent; I've read them. Why aren't they tagged? Should I suggest tagging them as such? Is that a thing people do?
It's also making me think about the way that I write consent. I do not write rape/noncon at all, ever. (It is triggering to me.) Everybody who has sex in my stories is doing it because they want to, it's fun, they like/love the person/people they're with, and currently want to get off with them. But I don't always specifically spell it out. Most of the characters I write are self-aware enough and empathetic enough that it's not a discussion they need to have all the time and I don't write a lot of first times (if/when I manage to write a follow-up to my Gokujou Seitokai fic, that will be an exception). First time stuff is messy and emotionally wrought. (Mine were and I was definitely in a consensual situation.) Most of the time I sort of slip the consent in around the edges; they talk about it without being explicit.
Maybe I should walk some characters through the Scarleteen checklist...
Consent is always important. Doesn't matter if it's a one-night stand, a seventy-year relationship, or anything in between. I know there are more stories on the Archive that contain explicit discussion of and negotiation of consent; I've read them. Why aren't they tagged? Should I suggest tagging them as such? Is that a thing people do?
It's also making me think about the way that I write consent. I do not write rape/noncon at all, ever. (It is triggering to me.) Everybody who has sex in my stories is doing it because they want to, it's fun, they like/love the person/people they're with, and currently want to get off with them. But I don't always specifically spell it out. Most of the characters I write are self-aware enough and empathetic enough that it's not a discussion they need to have all the time and I don't write a lot of first times (if/when I manage to write a follow-up to my Gokujou Seitokai fic, that will be an exception). First time stuff is messy and emotionally wrought. (Mine were and I was definitely in a consensual situation.) Most of the time I sort of slip the consent in around the edges; they talk about it without being explicit.
Maybe I should walk some characters through the Scarleteen checklist...
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Date: 2013-06-03 05:22 pm (UTC)The story I ended up with is not the story idea it started out as in my head, which involved more serious assumptions of consent on Sherlock's part. Because how many people actually get explicit instruction on how consent works? How would he know what was okay? Sherlock in my head (which I think matches the show's interpretation pretty well) is not good at decoding the interpersonal checks and balances that most people take for granted. He's good at observing people acting upon them and can thus replicate pretty well, but... What opportunity would he have had to observe the growth of a relationship from first bloom to being comfortable with unasked touching? So yeah. This was the toned down version inspired by me bugging my SO while she was reading in bed (though I'm not as annoying or persistent as Sherlock).
The idea that explicit consent is essentially being set up as a response to rape, and the opposite extreme of rape, as opposed to something standard and expected isâ¦not ideal representation.
Yeah, this exactly. Additionally, most of the fics that were not "rape"-tagged were BDSM things. Which, obviously it's something that people in BDSM situations think and talk about more often, but other people should too...
In their minds, theyâve just written a standard sex scene.
There is that. Unfortunately, I fear that's far from the case. I worry that there's still not enough education on how consent works to assume that everyone has solid ideas about what it means.