On Dubcon

First my darlings, I owe you all an apology.  I was unable to keep my promise to debut a new segment this last Wednesday due to life getting in the way.  I didn't want to post it late since I want to keep the flow of new content even throughout the week, so we'll try again next Wednesday.

Now down to the meat (always my favorite part)of this entry. 

As many of you know, I have recently been forced (well, asked) to modify content in some of my work for display on one of my regular web pages.  This is not a huge heartbreak for me.  The fact of the matter, is that I know what I write is, for the most part, extremely silly stuff.  The idea that I could object on the grounds of having some deep artistic integrity would be kinda laughable.

Don't get me wrong.  I think I'm certainly one of the most artistic writers out there when it comes to describing megalithic dongs doing terrible and wonderful things to top-heavy protagonists, but, at the end of the day, I am still just writing a bunch of words about cocks.  There's not a lot of art there to defend.

That being said, I obviously do find it irksome that the internet has become so much more prudish as of late.  I'm a little confused about some of the details, but as I understand it, either Paypal or some of the banks who back the credit cards that are largely the currency of Paypal, had a sudden moral panic late last year and began to lean on e-book publishers and e-book sellers to do a better job weeding objectionable content out of there work.

Thus, the normal rebukes dolled out to pedophiles and snuff-porn authors suddenly were levied against people like myself, who have never before had their writing considered unacceptable.  It took us all a little by surprise.  Two of my books have been stricken from Amazon, and the second largest e-smut publisher dumped my whole publisher including all four of my published works.  This was totally out of the blue.

So I'm treading much more carefully now.  Gone are the days when I can compose a story in which a heroine gets a calloused cuff on the head from a cruel tyrant like Aaron Black.  Gone are the days when Veronica Divine can drug a girl to get her into her Master's estate for semi-consensual sex.  Gone are the days when Oluth can kill a man with a single stroke of his club-like member.  (Did I mention my work is silly?)

At the heart of the controversy striking the net right now, is work like mine, that fits under the label "Dubcon."  This is short for Dubious Consent, and refers to stories in which characters have rough or unexpected sex.  In real life, there is no question that a lack of consent absolutely totally always equals rape.  It is revolting how many sexual predators get away with these things simply because a jury can be convinced that "She might have wanted it."  And if there is one thing I will take delight in having to be more cautious about, it's the potential that stories like mine have contributed to a toxic cultural mindset that allows for true rapists to get away with their sickening crimes.

But I am also reminded of one of the stranger literary debates of the last century.  Ayn Rand (of whose politics and philosophy I am NOT a fan) had a memorable scene in "The Fountainhead" in which Howard Roark has some extremely rape-esque sex with Dominique.  Rand's reaction to criticism of this scene was always to point out where and how she made it very clear Dominique wanted Roark's violent advances, and it is obvious that she was always a bit baffled that anybody thought it went too far.

I don't have the arrogance to compare myself to Rand, of course, but I will say that we share that confusion on some level.  If nothing else, for me the line is drawn at fiction, and I believe that so long as people have an outlet for all their desires, provided that those outlets harm no actual people, they should be allowed to stay.

And I'll play you out on a little size-queenish number a fan sent me this morning....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DO_LZB5QGbE