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Random thoughts on our impending doom and everyday life, courtesy of a Romance Writer who occasionally feels the need to talk like a Sailor.

Tuesday 27 November 2012

It’s not easy being a Hero... or, a look at Forced Seduction.



WARNING: This post discusses forced seduction fantasies in romance books. If the topic upsets you then please don't read it.

Heroes have a tough time of it in Romacelandia. I mean, what do women want? There’s a question for the ages. While the Alpha Male is a perennial favourite there are degrees of acceptability when it comes to primeval behaviour. In ‘Beautiful Disaster’ by Jamie McGuire (a great New Adult read by the way), the hero, Travis, is prone to bouts of insane jealousy and other extreme behaviour. He’s not only been sucker-punched by love but had a messy childhood. His feelings for Abby dominate his world. Generally he gets away with the dash of crazy and lack of control because he knows the fine art of the grovel and by the end of the book he's learnt better. Never underestimate the power of a good grovel. A real man knows when it’s time to appease his woman. I would posit that a hero who cannot reflect upon his dickheadish past doings, apologise and at least try to learn from them is no hero at all (same goes for heroines). A hero must ALWAYS be redeemable or he is not a hero. This point is crucial.

It’s a common fantasy to have a steamy hot male fall so in love with you that all else in his world is reduced to meh. So overcome with your allure is he that possession is the only cure. His love for you is so great that he is out of control. In the real world we call this stalking and kidnapping. It’s scary and illegal. But in romance books we explore this fantasy with Forced Seduction. The hero in some manner forces himself on the heroine, be it kisses or more. With most publishers these days the heroine MUST clearly give consent before penetration. I think we can all agree this is a very good thing. It allows us to explore the fantasy safely. In other words... Oh you beast stop kissing me. Leave my neck alone. Yuck, I don’t even like having my collar bone licked. Don’t you dare touch my boobies! Roughian! Desist I say! Damn it, you've get me all wet. All right then, let’s do it.

Let me make this perfectly clear before we go a step further: 

  Rape as titillation is wrong. Sexual fantasies are complex and we need to be able to safely explore them. But if a real person in real life says no, then that is that. Got it?

In days of yore, circa the 70’s and 80’s, rape was big in romance. Think 'The Flame and the Flower' by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss. Good girls weren’t supposed to have sex, let alone enjoy it. It was an effective manner of circumventing these prejudices; think what you will it definitely had its fans. These days, capture fantasies and forced seductions are a little different, courtesy of the rise of BDSM, women’s equality and a whole other bundle of reasons for which I am grateful. When people pick up a romance book, however, they know through long experience that there is a happy ending and that the hero is redeemable. In real life you don’t get those types of guarantees, which is why it can be safer to explore these dynamics in this way.

In romance books, we’re often exploring extreme situations. Sometimes we wander into grey areas. In BDSM people have a safe word to call an immediate halt to all activities. In ‘The Siren’ by Tiffany Reisz (an excellent book I highly recommend) the heroine is in love with a sadist. Sadists like to inflict pain. Coming home with a fat lip, welts and bruises is the norm for this girl. But if she utters her safeword, he will respect it. We are shown this. It allows an awful lot of racy power dynamics to occur while still being explicit that the girl in question has an irremovable right to deny consent. Our hero is redeemed because despite his penchant for violence at the end of the day, he respects her wishes. Mind you, a lot of readers online seem to dislike the character intensely.

In Skin, the sequel to Flesh, Nick keeps Roslyn chained to the bed. It’s a long chain. She can wander around the cabin but go no further. Her liberty is most definitely been infringed upon. She hasn’t agreed to this. What our hero is doing is both wrong and illegal. But this is set Post-Zombie-Apocalypse. There are no police, nor anyone else to come to her rescue. It's odd, I hadn't actually thought of it as a forced seduction until a Crit Partner named it as one. Blazingly obvious however that it is. To try and redeem a man who would go to such extreme lengths to be with a woman was a big challenge for me. It was important to show that Nick would never hurt her and would ultimately always respect her wishes. Roll on 1st February 2013.

8 comments:

  1. "Never underestimate the power of a good grovel." Nice. Where's my t-shirt? You realize, of course, that because YOU are the author of said Flesh sequel, that I'm going to have to stray from my comfort zone and read your tome of dubious consent. Damn you! But I'm fairly certain that it's going to be f'n hot.

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    1. Thank you, Angela! I do so hope you enjoy my tome of dubious consent. :) And seriously, they should pulls guys aside in High School and teach them the grovel. I think it would save so many relationships down the track.

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  2. You know I love you, but I really don't love anything involving force in relationships. Kink I get, but I don't find pain any kind of turn-on and I don't really get domination fantasies. i have as many fantasies as the next person but force doesn't feature. Ever. I really prefer my heroes not to have to be redeemed because they were good guys from the start. I have read some that I didn't mind, but all of those were sci-fi or otherwise very unusual circumstances. I suppose post-apocalyptic counts. If there is any suggestion of force in regular contemporary settings it is just too close to dickheadness for me to enjoy. If I wouldn't like him in real life, I find it hard to like him on the page. I know that a lot of romance readers aren't like that, or there wouldn't be so many so-called 'alpha heroes' (which too often read as 'dickhead' to me) in the books! So I guess I'll be reading this with one eye closed and hoping you can redeem him for me! But maybe next time, could we have someone more like Dan? I liked Dan!

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    1. I love you too. And that's fine, Im, each to their own. It's a touchy subject. Dominant/submissive fantasies are very interesting but they're not for everyone. I'll be interested to see what you think of the motivations in Skin. And I like Dan too. He was an Alpha who'd long since learnt to grovel. :)

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  3. "A real man knows when it's time to appease his woman"... seriously - why don't they have High School class on this? All I get is scratchy crap all day long... and that's just in my job.... so taking the kink out of it, I would have happily stayed in my job for years if I could just have one tiny little edge of an appeasment.... But hey... maybe I'll find a little more on the other side of the world. Do they actually teach grovelling in Australia? Or will I need to bring a sturdy British-made wip with me?
    I liked Dan too... a lot.... :) xxx

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    1. YOU MUST BRING YOUR STURDY BRITISH-MADE WHIP. Always. If for no other reason than you'll look fantastically cool. I hear ya. On the pages at least I can make them behave, in real life... boy oh boy. In the words (roughly) of Dan 'sometimes you just have to sorry, even if you don't mean it'.

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  4. In real life an overly dominant male pisses me off (prob why hubster gets the evil eye from time to time) but in reading/fantasy life, I totally love it. Probably why I still don't mind a good bodice ripper or two LOL. WHat's wrong with a bit of chain when it's for heroine's own good? BWG

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    1. Exactly. When it's just a fantasy being explored then all good. Thanks, Mel.

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