Authors- how do you deal with objectification?

[Cagivagurl]

I agree, and I think it's up to us women to RAISE the BAR, I love erotic, passionate, emotional, loving stories. I say we keep writing from our perspective by utilizing our sexual energy in a respectful and passionate manner, we teach others how to treat us, and the objective degrading aspect needs to be turned into something beautiful and sacred.

Beautifully put...
Loved it

 

[FeralSmile]

With all due respect, I hear what you're saying and all of the emotion behind it, but it's really not an author's fault that their depiction went and twisted the screw in someone else's head to inspire them to do some horrific action. We literally cannot be accountable for potentially everyone's mind, much less their actions. If anything I hope my saying that lifts some potential residual guilt off of your shoulders as a writer. It simply wouldn't be your fault if this happened, unless you directly incited it by telling a specific person to do a specific thing to another real person in real life from within the story. Even the people who write NC/R are not even attempting to do this incitement. If they were I'd be shocked.

That's reasonable and valid. I do think though that normalizing violence is problematic, even if we're not directly inciting violent actions. I don't like the idea that someone would be turned on by something I wrote, and would fantasize about it, and that appreciation and fantasy would contribute - even a little - to a subsequent act of violence. That's one of the reasons I don't write anything that sexualizes or glorifies violence. Of course I don't know the mental or emotional state of future readers, and I'm not culpable for their choices, but... I don't want to contribute to an environment where violence is seen as ok. I don't want to be part of rape culture.

And yes, violence is ubiquitous in most of our media. Our books and movies and TV shows and popular music include a lot of violence, and that's been true as long as those art forms have existed. But it's also true that violence itself has existed that whole time, too, so it's hard to argue that art has never influenced people to act in violent ways. We can argue first causes and whether art reflects life or influences it or (as I suspect) both, but at the end of the day, we choose what we write about, what ideas we're normalizing, what we're putting out into the world. So I feel ethically bound not to make violence look cool or sexy or fun. I believe in enthusiastic consent and nonviolence in real life, so that's what I put into my stories.

 

[policywank]

I beg to differ....
What is written as erotica, often crosses boundaries. I'm not talking about romance stories, with some titilating sex thrown in that moves it from the romance genre, into erotica. It's fun, it's sexy and is enjoyed by many....
All good so far.
Where it gets trickier for me is when we walk a little further down the road of erotic literature. Where we start to unlock doors and move into areas that are shall we say. Kinky...
My concerns are the violent non con stories, where we portray people who have been forced to under take a sexual experience, not because they chose it. Where it was forced upon them. Where vilolence and physical...
A good writer, depicts the story as something very erotic and sexual. It gets twisted into a romance. The brutality twisted like in a hollywood movie.
For most people, we understand it is art...
For those people who live within our society who cannot differentiate art from reality. See's it as a road map to their dark fantasy's. It pushes them over the little hurdle that has up until that moment been a step too far.
Now, after reading a story in which the unacceptable acts appear normal. That triggers them into actually doing it...
Somebody's life could be changed forever. Their life destroyed, never able to live a normal life.
The thing that triggered the persons slide into undertaking the crime, was reading that story.
Maybe I wrote it.... That scares me, that I could be the match that starts that fire.
So yes, it scares me, and when you read some interviews with killers, murderers, rapists abusers. They were unable to separate life from fantasy. It may have been movies, literature, porn, anything that depicts a horriful crime as something acceptable....
This is my opinion. I am not blaming or shaming anybody. A question was asked, and I am offering nothing but how I see it.

Cagivagurl

It is for these and similar reasons that I do not write about violence or non-consent. And while I do explore issues of fidelity, domination and submission I seek to ensure that my characters are informed and consenting even if conflicted and confused at times

However, I am also wary of any sort of censorship. There are limits but we need to be careful in applying them lest we create a whole different set of issues.

 

[LonRivers]

Keep in mind what you consider "Objectification" of a man or a woman. Objectification of another person is treating them like property or something unworthy of your love or care. You dehumanize them. You see them as nothing more than an object or a way to sexually satisfy yourself, and that is it. Don't Harvey Weinstein your characters.

Give your characters "Worth" and keep them strong and independent. Don't objectify. If you do, make sure that it is needed to further the story.

 

[AchtungNight]

Keep in mind what you consider "Objectification" of a man or a woman. Objectification of another person is treating them like property or something unworthy of your love or care. You dehumanize them. You see them as nothing more than an object or a way to sexually satisfy yourself, and that is it. Don't Harvey Weinstein your characters.

Give your characters "Worth" and keep them strong and independent. Don't objectify. If you do, make sure that it is needed to further the story.

Agreed. If you reduce a character to an object that is a bad thing.

 

[LonRivers]

Agreed. If you reduce a character to an object that is a bad thing.

Exactly! Keep your character strong. If you break a character it should be for a reason. It could be a revenge story or they have to learn a lesson from what happened to them. Build them back up to being the focus of your story. The only reason to break a character (and keep them submissive and controlled) in my opinion is for a BDSM story where they are treated as playthings for their Master or Mistress, but in that case they are probably enjoying it.