I’m seeing, what to me, is a disturbing trend in fiction.

Let me make it abundantly clear. I’ve been raped. Multiple times in different circumstances. (Familial abuse and SO abuse). So… when I talk about this concept, it’s not as an outsider looking in.

Specifically… there’s a trend in agents/traditional pub NOT accepting ANYTHING with rape even alluded to.

(Not just my stuff… I talk to a lot of writers with shelved books with some form of rape in them.)

I think I get what the industry is trying to do, maybe?

BUT (You knew that was coming)… rape exists.

It has existed throughout the course of human history.

It’s disingenuous to deny stories publication ‘just because they have rape as a concept’.

By denying those stories page time, the industry is folding to patriarchy. (Yes, you read that correctly. In trying to pretend rape doesn’t happen (by not publishing it) the trad pub industry is giving power over to the rapist, not the raped.

Having words on the page of how people (Male, Female, Genderfluid, Trans) have experienced AND OVERCOME, their rapes is a needful thing.

I rather doubt anyone in the industry listens to my words here, but I needed to say them.