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I've got an idea for a story and not sure if it would go over well
the story is about a man who had committed assault and rape tries to reform and make up for the harm he's caused, and may involve him changing into a woman.
would you read a story like that?
Comments
Yes, conditionally
I'd read it as long as the rape/abuse wasn't spelled out in too much detail. For me, the ideal starting point of the story would be when he's let out of prison if he was caught, or right after the event if he wasn't caught. I don't need the details of the rape, just the knowledge that it happened. However, that's just one person's opinion. Take it for what it's worth.
LittleOne
Well...
Many readers here would read it. They may or may not like it. They might be surprised that you wrote such a story.
The previous commenter gave two suggestions. Here's a third: someone else is imprisoned for the crime, and the rapist tries to make up for the harm. As for showing the crime... My story "Vengeance and Beyond" would normally have been a solo. Instead, I segregated the crime into the middle section, giving the reader the option to skip it.
I have my own concerns about what might or might not be welcome here by the readers. There's "taboo" which is overtly and avidly proclaimed and advertised. Then there's the real taboo. I've probably crossed that line a couple times.
-- Daphne Xu (a page of contents)
The biggest issue
Is that such a person might be seen as unredeemable. Yes, they may be repentant, but they still committed a horrible crime. It' might be easier to have the person as an accessory, that by their inaction or overlooking circumstances, allowing the crime to be performed by someone else. Upon learning their role, then they might feel responsible.
Nearly 3/4 Million Rapes in US in 2018
Rape impacts all of us.
Why a person does it and what is needed to atone for it are valid themes.
All stories need to be clearly marked so that readers don't get blindsided.
However, don't write to make a statement. Write to tell a story.
Or . . . write what you need to . . . read it . . . post it, if you think you should.
Jill
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
Problematic themes
I couldn't imagine a circumstances in which a rapist winds up changing into a woman wouldn't seem creepy. It wouldn't be as wretched as those TG stories that seem to be a staple at another site, where a rapist is turned into a woman as punishment, then winds up loving her new femme life; But to me their transitioning would still be problematic- invoking the trope of the dangerous unstable trans person motivated to commit rape or worse by jealousy of genetic women. Unless there's some variant or motive for a rapist to transition that I haven't considered...
But the idea of someone who never imagined he would grow up to do such a terrible thing being wracked with guilt trying to find redemption might be readable to me, depending on the character. (A great first person account of a criminal plagued by remorse was the semi-satiric Swedish novel THE MAN WHO WANTED TO BE GUILTY, about a guy who wanted to suffer in some horrible way for killing his wife but was surrounded by liberal progressive Swedish people who only wanted to understand + reform him. It was an ideologically conservative work of satire, but it was thoughtful + engaging and I loved it...). It would be interesting though if the victim was trans and the perpetrator had to come to terms with the depths of his transphobia and forbidden attractions that led him to commit an assault and rape.
Like say, he's so remorseful he fully intends to kill himself, but first he feels he has to atone in whatever small way he can to his victim. He's found out where she lives and has been dropping envelopes full of money through her mail slot. Only this time the door swings open and she's got a gun. Orders him inside. (a very Randalynn sort of scenario, aint it?) She knows who he is and he doesn't deny it; and she realizes he clearly wouldn't mind if she did shoot him, the hell he's in since performing this unforgivable act would be over. Their conversation could be really interesting and ultimately healing, maybe for both of them...
But I'm sure you've already got a plot at least somewhat in mind; and maybe whether you should write your story or not depends less on whether readers here would like it than whether something about this story could be cathartic for you as the writer.
~hugs, Veronica
What borders on stupidity?
Canada and Mexico.
.
Honestly
I think a man being raped by other men packs more trauma than being turned into a woman and then being raped. I have some perspective on this as I was sexually molested at a young age. But I can't claim to have had the full effect. My young age then and the number of trips around the sun have conspired to blunt the edge of terror and pain I've dealt with for years.
That being said I suspect my ability to cope with a repeat would be limited. I keep a fully-loaded .40 S&W close at hand, one way or another I will not go through it a second time.
Nor will I read about it happening to someone else. If purely fiction the author will be blacklisted from my library. If it happened IRL to a friend, please refer back to the aforementioned S&W. "Vengence is mine sayeth the lord." But sometimes he contracts the job out.
"Life is not measured by the breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.”
George Carlin
Can there be redemption?
I think that this is a great story idea and I would love to give it a go myself!
Rape is an awful crime, but how apt is it that a man can only learn what it truly means by becoming a woman?
True regret and repentance requires him to live as a woman in a world dominated by violent men. That is his choice. His only way to redeem himself. A very twisted and complex character, but fundamentally a person that may be entitled to forgiveness?
So what happens next? He puts himself in harms way but the brute he hopes will dish up to him what he has done to others ends up loving him? Does that mean his/her torment continues? Will he/she ever find peace?
This is a rich vein of emotion bordering on insanity.
I can't wait!
Maryanne
That story idea makes me wanna puke
Sorry to be blunt, but I can't believe my warning about how wrong such a story would
be was followed by "Wow, what a great idea!" And then she's 'redeemed by love' and lives happily ever after??? Such a story would be facile at best, and at worst would violates anyone who's been raped all over again. One writer's cute little 'fascinating' exercise in spookiness is some real person's lifelong daily hell....
You've done an amazing thing in exploring 100's
of different reasons for a male to become a female,
but it might be OK to let one remain unexplored now + then...
That's just my feelings on such a story + whether I would read it.
I'm sure with a horrid title like SEXY LITTLE RAPIST
it would find its audience; but should it?
I wrote one story that explored
the absolute worst sort of child abuse
( https://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/fiction/24405/silence-night )
But before I did I asked myself "Is there a good reason for this story
to exist besides me demonstrating my own cleverness as a bush-league Stephen King?"
For me, I had to make sure the answer was an unequivocal YES or I never wouldve written it...
~hugs, Veronica
.
In an early version of this comment my emotions got the better of me
and I crossed the line into a personal attack, and I sincerely apologize.
What borders on stupidity?
Canada and Mexico.
.
Evil in Literature
Leaving aside whether this is literature or not, I cast my mind back to a poem by Browning called "Porphyria's Lover" where the writer coldly kills the woman he loves at the end. As a work of art I love it. I admire Goya's "Saturn" too, although it is horrifying. Evil cannot be disqualified from being the object of art.
Now, just in case you were referring to me (because I did say it was a great idea) I asked the question about redemption, but my ending proposed that he should not receive it, even though he went to extremes to receive the same pains as his victims.
If I do take on this idea, and I would only do so with permission, I would hope that I will find an audience that it interested in the expressions of evil, regret, the pain of guilt and the desperate need for that redemption.
Hopefully it won't be facile! It might upset a few, but some art does.
(I love this kind of chat - please keep commenting, Veronica)
Maryanne