Turn rape into love?

[JohnSm123]

Is there a plausible way to turn a rape story into a love story? I heard something similar was done in an old TV series (General Hospital, the names were Luke and Laura), but I have never watched it, so I don't know how exactly it played out.

I once read a story where a son raped his mother, and then his mother decided she liked it and they became a happy couple just like that.

What about you? Do you have any ideas as to how to write a plausible "rape turns to love" story? Or is it too sick too pull off?

 

[Djmac1031]

The short answer is NO.

But then sex fantasies are rarely "plausible."

 

[KeithD]

Just about anything can be successfully done in fiction. If I was writing this up, I'd probably have the rape victim attracted to the raper before the rape and the story would be centered on the afterward--how they worked themselves into a loving/accepting relationship after that. The question then would be whether the story could be accepted at Lit. Maybe so, as it follows "wanted it in the end" requirement.

 

[Winter_Fare]

Is there a plausible way to turn a rape story into a love story? I heard something similar was done in an old TV series (General Hospital, the names were Luke and Laura), but I have never watched it, so I don't know how exactly it played out.

I once read a story where a son raped his mother, and then his mother decided she liked it and they became a happy couple just like that.

What about you? Do you have any ideas as to how to write a plausible "rape turns to love" story? Or is it too sick too pull off?

Yes, I believe so. Trauma bonding is real, people can take abuse as affection if that has become their normal. It's not exactly a happily ever after scenario, but love and hate are different sides of the same coin.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

The Kinseys apparently say that many women (over 60% by some counts) have or have had some sort of fantasy about being forced into sex. If that is so, then presumably there is a ‘market’ for such tales and not only among certain men.

Given that rape is, IRL and outside of fantasy, an abhorrent thing, the trick I suppose is to make it credible without seeming to advocate it. Therein lies the challenge and I suspect that nobody approaching the topic will ever please everyone but rather will inevitably upset, hurt and infuriate a fair number of very reasonable individuals.

That’s not what you were asking, I know, but there really isn’t a good answer. Going back a long time, I suspect that there wasn’t much difference between the first night of a forced marriage and simple rape, yet writings of the time suggest that love could develop and often did. Rape followed (eventually) by love is certainly possible, then. Likely? No, especially not now.

Not my cup of tea and I’m now bowing away from such in any case. Good luck to you - and to your readers.

 

[NotWise]

You can write the story to be plausible. I think I did in "Quarter to Midnight," which contains some of my favorite scenes. You might have to walk a tightrope between characters too unlikable for the readers to care about and too unbelievable for readers to care about.

 

[gunhilltrain]

Yep, everyone here is as mentally sound as a serene, pastoral lake in Patagonia, Chile.

It could also be seen as a version of Lake Wobegon, where all the writers are completely reasonable, rational even.

 

[SimonDoom]

I agree completely with what TarnishedPenny said. The short answer is "yes"-- in terms of fiction, there's a way of making this work. But it won't work for every reader. Some people will not accept the premise. That's OK.

There are innumerable ways to approach this. I'm sure many readers will consider most or all of them unrealistic, but that isn't important.

Suppose the main woman character is a public defender. She's raped and the culprit gets away. She has complicated feelings about what happened to her. Later she gets assigned the representation of a rape defendant--and she realizes it's the man who raped her. He figures it out, too, and expresses remorse. They go on to have a weird, complicated relationship. Implausible? Sure, but so are many relationships that happen in real life. It's all a matter of how it's handled.

 

[SimonDoom]

It could also be seen as a version of Lake Wobegon, where all the writers are completely reasonable, rational even.

I thought Lake Wobegon was where everybody was above average.

 

[gunhilltrain]

The Kinseys apparently say that many women (over 60% by some counts) have or have had some sort of fantasy about being forced into sex. If that is so, then presumably there is a ‘market’ for such tales and not only among certain men.

Given that rape is, IRL and outside of fantasy, an abhorrent thing, the trick I suppose is to make it credible without seeming to advocate it. Therein lies the challenge and I suspect that nobody approaching the topic will ever please everyone but rather will inevitably upset, hurt and infuriate a fair number of very reasonable individuals.

That’s not what you were asking, I know, but there really isn’t a good answer. Going back a long time, I suspect that there wasn’t much difference between the first night of a forced marriage and simple rape, yet writings of the time suggest that love could develop and often did. Rape followed (eventually) by love is certainly possible, then. Likely? No, especially not now.

Not my cup of tea and I’m now bowing away from such in any case. Good luck to you - and to your readers.

I think Kinsey would make a distinction between fantasy and reality. About the only way one could write a plausible version of that (assuming it's happening in the "real world") is if it's a completely faked role play where the participants (who are surely already lovers) agree ahead of time to the basic plot outline with maybe a bit of improvisation allowed. It's basically conventional sex with some goofy acting added. Likely that does happen, although I'm don't know of such cases myself.

I'll take your word on it, but what cultures have forced marriages?

 

[gunhilltrain]

I thought Lake Wobegon was where everybody was above average.

Okay, I'll modify that to be a place where all the writers have above average reasoning abilities.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

I don't think so.

First, there is the commonly accepted definition of rape being an act of physical violence. A victim of that violence might come to accept the perpetrator but would the perpetrator accept the victim as anything but someone to use, and if so, would the victim's love ever be reciprocated?

Differentiate the act of rape from non-consensual sex, whether forced or through other types of control or coercion. Here I could see the two individuals eventually developing stronger feelings for one another.

 

[Winter_Fare]

It doesn't have to be dark. I lean that way in my own writing, but reading wise I've found authors with a lighter touch:
https://literotica.com/s/i-own-you-5

 

[gunhilltrain]

Stockholm syndrome?

Except, it most such cases the victims did not have sex with their captors. Do you know of a case in which they did.

Then there is Patty Heart. The problem there is that Hearst is never going to talk about what really happened and most of the SLA members who witnessed it died in shoot-outs. Bill and Emily Harris, who got involved later, claimed that Hearst did go along with the SLA program willingly in the end. It seems clear that she was held captive at the beginning. However, there is no irrefutable evidence that she was ever raped, although we may never know for sure.

 

[Unblemished]

Stockholm syndrome?

The problem there is that Stockholm Syndrome might not actually be real. It’s never gotten into the DSM because the research is flimsy, it’s extremely hard to study and, most damningly, the Stockholm case which coined the term was a gigantic police fuckup from start to finish where the police put the victims lives at risk more than the perpetrators did. The victims had genuine reasons to defend their kidnappers in that case.

(I read a sci-fi once where a character used Stockholm Syndrome as an analogy for why the FMC fell for the MMC; rather than being her abuser, she was an outsider in an alien, frightening world and as a fellow anomaly he was the only thing even remotely familiar and comforting. Ironically, she was deliberately manipulating and catfishing him at the same time. That one turned out to be very wholesome, but then there was no actual abuse or rape involved. Quite the opposite really)

To move from SS to rape I personally wouldn’t find it comfortable unless there was enough fantasy poured over the proceedings to completely detach it from what real rape is. “Only those who defeat me in battle may lie with me!” blah blah Red Sonja blah. Not saying you can’t make a story out of it, but I’m too out of my comfort zone there to think of how.

 

[gunhilltrain]

Is there a plausible way to turn a rape story into a love story? I heard something similar was done in an old TV series (General Hospital, the names were Luke and Laura), but I have never watched it, so I don't know how exactly it played out.

I once read a story where a son raped his mother, and then his mother decided she liked it and they became a happy couple just like that.

What about you? Do you have any ideas as to how to write a plausible "rape turns to love" story? Or is it too sick too pull off?

John, one of the problems with your post is that you are coming up with stories you "think" you've heard but you haven't provided an evidence for them. You haven't even seen this episode of General Hospital, but you "heard something similar" was done there. Can you dig up the plot somewhere online? And it would help if would tell us the publication where you read this mother-son rape story. And if you can't remember, well - that is not our problem.

 

[gunhilltrain]

The short answer is NO.

But then sex fantasies are rarely "plausible."

Well, Dj, if you want to see "implausible" ideas, read what the guys (there are a few women too) come up with in Story Ideas. A few eventually do get written as stories, but mostly they try to one-up each other to create the most unlikely situation they can. It's the Lit equivalent of sitting around the campfire telling tall tales. It can be fun at times, until you want to gag.

 

[Djmac1031]

Well, Dj, if you want to see "implausible" ideas, read what the guys (there are a few women too) come up with in Story Ideas. A few eventually do get written as stories, but mostly they try to one-up each other to create the most unlikely situation they can. It's the Lit equivalent of sitting around the campfire telling tall tales. It can be fun at times, until you want to gag.

Just to be clear, I in no way wish to imply "implausible" stories can't be entertaining.

And I'm fully aware of how "implausible" many of my own stories are.

I also don't wanna go into a whole thing on the merits of Non Con stories. Been done to death.

Just saying if the OP plans on writing a story about a rape victim falling in love with her rapist, he shouldn't knock himself out about making it "plausible."

 

[joy_of_cooking]

read a sci-fi once

Sounds interesting. Got a link?

 

[Carnevil9]

It was done in The Fountainhead, although the rape episode was only a very small part of the story.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

I'll take your word on it, but what cultures have forced marriages?

Well, let’s start by asking what ‘forced’ means. Yes, I originally used the term, but I mention it now because I think everybody will have their own definition.

BobbyBrandt for instance says we should, “differentiate the act of rape from non-consensual sex, whether forced or through other types of control or coercion.” That would, so far as I can see, mean that any event not involving a club wouldn't be 'rape'. Reducto ad absurdum then, four huge but gentle men holding a completely unwilling woman down (without injury) while a fifth penetrates her would not be rape. I’m not picking on BB, just pointing out how wobbly our individual perceptions can be. For myself, I would suggest that any major degree of coercion pushes marriage into the ‘forced’ category.

Historically however, there have been any number of cases. One might talk of the ‘shotgun wedding’, but we’ll look further.

‘Bride kidnapping’ was common in Africa. The ‘groom’ and his buds grabbed a woman and, posession being nine-tenths of law, claimed her from her family as his wife. Forcible sex reduced her 'value' to her family, thus reducing the bride price, ick. Over-simplification, but correct in essence.

The Bible records many instances of forced marriage. King Saul had given his daughter, Michal, as wife to David. When Saul changed his mind and attempted to have David killed, Michal warned her husband, who fled. Enraged, Saul forced her to marry another man, even though David was still alive.

The Roman legend about the ‘Rape of the Sabines’ is often said to have had some basis in fact. Faced with a shortage of women in the new city, the Roman leader Romulus forcibly kidnapped a bunch of Sabine women, giving them in marriage to his troops.

In waning days of the Middle Ages in Europe, money was shifting from the land-wealthy nobility to goods-wealthy merchants. More than one young noblewoman was married off to a commoner in return for settling Daddy’s debts. I doubt many of them went happily. Ditto for the political marriages of nobles across time.

In the Middle East recently, ISIS’s adoption of forcible marriage has been well covered.

The list is almost endless. On top of that one may consider that any arranged marriage has at least the potential for force if the society and husband in question place a high value on a husband’s ‘marital rights’.

 

[ElectricBlue]

What about you? Do you have any ideas as to how to write a plausible "rape turns to love" story? Or is it too sick too pull off?

It seems to me that you're pushing at the boundaries again, to see what you can get away with on Lit. You should read this site's Non-Con content rules, which are laid out in the FAQs.

I've found, over the years, that if someone asks a question in their opening post, they were right the first time. Trust your instincts.

 

[gunhilltrain]

It was done in The Fountainhead, although the rape episode was only a very small part of the story.

That was obviously Ayn Rand's fantasy. Yet if something like that had really happened to Rand, I'd guess she'd try to kick the guy in the nuts. And she'd have every right to do so.

 

[gunhilltrain]

Well, let’s start by asking what ‘forced’ means. Yes, I originally used the term, but I mention it now because I think everybody will have their own definition.

BobbyBrandt for instance says we should, “differentiate the act of rape from non-consensual sex, whether forced or through other types of control or coercion.” That would, so far as I can see, mean that any event not involving a club wouldn't be 'rape'. Reducto ad absurdum then, four huge but gentle men holding a completely unwilling woman down (without injury) while a fifth penetrates her would not be rape. I’m not picking on BB, just pointing out how wobbly our individual perceptions can be. For myself, I would suggest that any major degree of coercion pushes marriage into the ‘forced’ category.

Historically however, there have been any number of cases. One might talk of the ‘shotgun wedding’, but we’ll look further.

‘Bride kidnapping’ was common in Africa. The ‘groom’ and his buds grabbed a woman and, posession being nine-tenths of law, claimed her from her family as his wife. Forcible sex reduced her 'value' to her family, thus reducing the bride price, ick. Over-simplification, but correct in essence.

The Bible records many instances of forced marriage. King Saul had given his daughter, Michal, as wife to David. When Saul changed his mind and attempted to have David killed, Michal warned her husband, who fled. Enraged, Saul forced her to marry another man, even though David was still alive.

The Roman legend about the ‘Rape of the Sabines’ is often said to have had some basis in fact. Faced with a shortage of women in the new city, the Roman leader Romulus forcibly kidnapped a bunch of Sabine women, giving them in marriage to his troops.

In waning days of the Middle Ages in Europe, money was shifting from the land-wealthy nobility to goods-wealthy merchants. More than one young noblewoman was married off to a commoner in return for settling Daddy’s debts. I doubt many of them went happily. Ditto for the political marriages of nobles across time.

In the Middle East recently, ISIS’s adoption of forcible marriage has been well covered.

The list is almost endless. On top of that one may consider that any arranged marriage has at least the potential for force if the society and husband in question place a high value on a husband’s ‘marital rights’.

I don't think any of these examples shows humanity at it's best.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

I don't think any of these examples shows humanity at it's best.

Indeed.