(no subject)

[dreamer_easy]

Sometimes I stop reading or watching things when I get up to the first example of a woman being sexually assaulted or mutilated. I've just ejected the DVD of Experiment in Terror about five minutes in, although I did manage to sit through all the heavy breathing, groping, and rape threats. I also didn't continue past chapter one of River of Gods for this reason. It's not a hard and fast rule - I did keep going after hitting the (as it turned out, wholly gratuitous) sex-mutilation-murders in Greg Bear's Slant. But there are an awful lot of books to read and films to watch. Besides, as I sometimes say: if I really want that sort of thing, I can always switch on the news.

Comments

[qthewetsprocket.livejournal.com]

i have similar guidelines, and torchwood s1 just barely squeaked past. if it weren't dr who's kid...

the jury's still out on medium, which is an otherwise excellent and well-written show with strong female characters...and one unfortunate episode with a 5-minute rape scene. (5 minutes in a 1-hour drama being like half an hour in dog years. or something. anyway)

moot point nowadays as nbc has put it up against lost on wednesday nights, but still. those 5 minutes somehow make me feel not too bad about missing out on all the current eps.

Tangentially related...

[barrington.livejournal.com]

'Censored' ad sparks row in Spain (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6448421.stm). Frankly I'm not sure how the ad in question would sell clothes, since you can hardly see them and the emphasis is on all the half-naked flesh... But I can't say I liked the photo.

[zhenzhi.livejournal.com]

right on.

[drhoz.livejournal.com]

hmm - avoid the first book of Marshal Law then - it revolves around the Marshal's efforts to identify and apprehend a serial rapist-murderer. Nice use of politics, feminist theory, and the superhero genre tho. And the villian is believably bonkers. Reading this one was also one reason I scoffed so loudly at Bush Junior's "We will not pull out! This time we will go all the way!" speech.

[lordshiva.livejournal.com]

I am the same, only in my older years, I seem to have better sense about when to stop reading/watching before it gets to the point that I'm shaking with distress and nauseous.

[strangedave.livejournal.com]

Oh. I feel all sad for you not having read River of Gods - I can't fault your decision, but it seems an unfortunate book to miss out on having read, it was one of my recent favourites.

[murasaki-1966.livejournal.com]

Can I nominate almost anything by Stephen Donaldson? Especially the Gap series. His degradation of the heroine was nausating.

Writers would probably argue that rape, etc is part of real life, but the way it is handled makes a hellva difference. Handlined sensitively I can stand it, but when it seems to be gratutious, then I resort to the Dortothy Parker Law of Criticism and toss it (Not literally).