Introduction to Rape in Horror and Suspense: Why Are We Talking About This?

I am a woman with a complex history of sexual assault who consumes a vast amount of horror and suspense media. Which is to say I am a lover of problematic things. I have a relationship with 2009's Last House on the Left that frankly resembles drug use. I am a total sucker for "get the girl" films like Taken and Spartan. Even as I roll my eyes at the dumb trope, in which a man gets the godlike moral priviledge to commit ANY act of violence he likes because (gasp) a (young, white, and most likely blonde) woman's sexual purity is at stake, I still enjoy myself. Even with drama, most of the movies I choose to view multiple times have some thread of sexual trauma woven somewhere into the narrative. That's no coincidence.

For me, being a survivor of sexual assault feels like I have an invisible appendage: some sort of third foot just made to be stepped on. It is not something I carry like a burden; it is a part of my body, the narrative of my life, and my minute-to-minute existence. Outside a handful of social situations, to disclose a history, an incident, or even to express a fear of unwanted sexual attention, is considered impolite at best, and at worst is met with hostility, denial, and the threat of repeated trauma. Is it any wonder I am drawn to depictions of survivors? I do not feel seen. I am looking, in culture, for some sort of mirror.

For the most part I avoid the kind of PTSD that can emerge from viewing horror and suspense movies that include rape because, a) they desensitize me, at least in the short term, and b) I assume that they will be triggering, infuriating, that they will take something that is a part of my story and they will tell it wrong. That is what works for me. This is not a movie guide for survivors. I do not speak for all survivors. This is a space designated for the fact that I simply can't enjoy problematic things without naming them.

Surviving sexual violence, no matter how easy it is to minimize, makes you an expert in your own oppression. It is a short and sometimes necessary jump from that stance, to beginning to critically analyze the culture surrounding this oppression. My own personal journey to confront and cope with the lasting effects has led me to schools, prisons, theaters, nonprofits, informal groups, and all sorts of institutions to confer with other survivors, other experts. These are my credentials: I have learned how to talk about rape and aftermath in a million different settings, and most importantly, I have learned the exceptional art of listening to someone whose life has been fragmented by some moments or hours or years of violence inflicted upon them, violence irrevocably tied to sex in some way.

In the following weeks, I am going to talk about several aspects of movies and TV shows that utilize rape as a part of the plot. I will talk about rape revenge movies like Sweet Karma, I Spit on Your Grave(s), and the aforementioned "get the girl" action flicks, in which rape is the justification for further violence. I will talk about the pleasure of viewing a magical world in which the rape of a woman or a child is met with action rather than inaction and further victimization; a mystical, far-off world in which perpetrators are invariably held accountable, and some movies like Teeth and Hard Candy where it's even a little fun. I will talk about my dissatisfaction with representations of and responses to survivor characters. I will surely take a moment to take to task Stephen Baldwin for Loving the Bad Man, a really exceptionally Conservative Christian film in which a rape survivor chooses to carry her attacker's baby, and then starts visiting him in jail (alternate title: Stockholm Syndrome: the Musical). I will talk about what I want to see more of, and what we can just retire and start replacing with something more interesting, or realistic, or both. If you are lucky, I will even talk about the exceptional art of listening to a survivor.

Up next: Part 1: in which I look at rape as the ultimate moral pass for a violent rampage. In the meantime, I'm going to go and pet my cats.