Of Ferrets, Rape and Pregnancy

[jeriendhal]

So theferret has an essay about the futility of banning books where he mentioned his Home on the Strange Strip strip (NSFW!) about the two plots female characters are always involved in, Rape and Pregnancy.  The Home on the Strange strip blames lazy/underpaid  sci-fi script writers, but it did prompt me to see if my own house was in order concerning it.
 

 
Sticking with my commercial works currently available through Smashwords and Amazon and throwing the the Bechdel Test for good measure.
 
 
Captive of the Red Vixen
 
Significant Female Characters: The Red Vixen, a vivacious  space pirate.

Lady Melanie, a compassionate noblevixen,

Salli, Rolas' sister and a survivor of an abusive marriage.
 
No onscreen rape, but sure as hell heavily implied for Salli courtesy of her husband. Rather fortunately she didn't have a child by him and is divorced by the time the story begins.  Rather unfortunately I have her unrealistically on the fast track to full mental health once she finally gets proper therapy, given the level of damage shown earlier.
 
Rolas gets relatively heavy sexual objectivication though, courtesy of the Red Vixen treating him like her personal cabin boy and parading him at one point half-dressed and wearing a shock collar while she meets with business associates.
 
Bechdel Test: Onscreen fail. Salli has several private conversations with her female therapists and with Melanie, but the Limited Third Person POV character is Rolas throughout the book.


Demon Eyes

Significant Female Characters:
 
 Kiel: Lady knight to the local lord.

Bard Leena: a blind bard.

Pregnancy isn't mentioned, but Leena is metaphorically raped when she's blinded in her backstory.

Bechdel Test: Pass! They interact! They talk! About each other! Whoda thunk?

 
The Dragon's Companion
 
Significant Female Characters: Teal, a bard held prisoner for at least a decade by a dragon.

Gwynhyfar, a Cymric noblewoman captured by a human enemy.
 
Neither are raped or get pregnant in the book. Gwynhyfar isn't onstage long enough for anything to happen despite her situation and the Dragon wouldn't bother doing that to Teal.  Teal's mental abuse can't be ignored however, given she spends over a decade as his prisoner and then his barely willing lackey.  It leaves her emotionally closed off and angry at the world in general and the Dragon in particular.
 
Bechdel Test: Fail. Teal and her reactions to the Dragon are pretty much the center of the story.
 
 
Unexpected Diversions

Significant Female Characters: Maria, ex-Beast Kin & slave who finagled her own freedom, became an acolyte of Death, bought a handsome elfboi slave to use and... who desperately wants to get pregnant.

Andrea: Master leatherworker with a kinky bent and ex-slave of Tez.

Well, neither of them get raped or pregnant onscreen, but they both have kids eventually and Maria's desire to overcome her natural Beast Kin sterility and create her own legacy gets the plot of the original story rolling and stays at least in the background of all the tales involving her.

Bechdel Test: Fail again. Tez, professional Gary Stu and attention whore that he is, almost always is on the mind of the females in the stories, even if he isn't the viewpoint character.


Triumvirate (upcoming)

Significant Female Characters:

Obafemi: De-facto leader of the triumvirate that recruits Nafir.

Chizoba: Mild mannered wazagan third of Nafir's triumvirate.

No rape, no pregnancy. Obafemi gets metaphorically raped when she gets mind controlled and burned by the baddie's control collar, however.

Bechdel Test Male POV character, fail again.

Comments

[aldersprig.livejournal.com]

*wince* Well, my webserial is rather based around rape and pregnancy.

To be fair, it happens to the guys too.

(no castration yet)

[seawasp]

Lessee:
Digital Knight: No Bechdel pass -- single male PoV. No rape, no pregnancies (Syl will be pregnant later on, though, but it's not a major plot point in itself)

Mountain Magic: Also male PoV character so no Bechdel. No rape or pregnancy though.

Boundary: Several PoVs including at least two women. No rape or pregnancy. I can't recall offhand if there's a woman-woman discussion without any male characters involved or the subject, so I can't say it's Bechdel cleared.

Threshold: Several PoVs including three women. Again, I don't remember offhand if there's a discussion not-about-man and involving only women, so I can't say about Bechdel. No rape or pregnancy.

Portal (forthcoming): Several PoVs including three women. I know for a fact there's at least one only-women talking scene, and it's not about men. No rape or pregnancy.

Grand Central Arena: Two male, one female PoV. There is in fact one female-only discussion, at least, not about men. And no rape or pregnancy (yeah, you TRY that on Ariane Austin, I dare you.)

Phoenix Rising (forthcoming): One female, one male, one Toad PoV. At least two Bechdel-qualifying scenes. No rape or pregnancy in this one (there is an attempted rape in the third projected volume, but it fails miserably -- or triumphantly, depending on your PoV.

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

To be dreadfully honest I'm leaving out Prisoners of War which is completely rapetastic and passes the Bechtel Test.

Of course the rape is in the context of Rape is Okay When It's Female on Male and is in theory erotic. (but tell that to Rolas' Steampunk alt.)

[aldersprig.livejournal.com]

I... am sadly lacking any on-screen female-on-male... no, that's not true. There's the B-side erotic e-book with female on male rape for Addergoole.

(dragon-on-... well, it's spoilers, if you even intend to read. :-)