That one femslash comic

[alias_sqbr]

A lot of people have been linking to Lady of the Shard and it is indeed beautifully made and has some cute/touching moments. But.


**Discussions of fictional depictions of rape and abuse, also spoilers**

So intellectually I understand that a lot of women feel much more uncomfortable with traditional not-very-good-at-consent romance narratives when they're m/f than when they're f/f. But it's still unpleasant seeing so many people I follow, who are usually VERY CRITICAL about this kind of thing, uncritically squeeing about a comic in which the protagonist's only priority is the happiness of her Goddess, and then after the Evil Goddess brainwashes the protagonist into making out with her (with the ambiguous implication of off screen sex) the solution is for the protagonist to blushingly kiss Evil Goddess and for all three to enter into a poly relationship! Because Evil Goddess was just lonely and love solves everything!!

D:

I mean I was expecting some consent and power difference issues from the "mortal woman/Goddess" premise but was not prepared for what I got.

And if literally anyone was like "Have some cute yet dirtybadwrong dubcon f/f/f" that would be fine! But no. I mean most people are just saying it's good and maybe the "dirtybadwrong dubcon" is implied? So I'm not sure I'm criticising them exactly so much as just...really really not enjoying the situation.

And hey just as I finished writing this I came across a post, though I really don't see how poorly labeled dubcon justifies speculating about the author's life. Poorly labelled dubcon is pretty darn popular, it's just usually het.

Comments

[moonvoice]

Eesh, yeah, you'd think there'd be some more commentary just about unlabelled dubcon? I mean even in the m/m world (or in the sectors of it I'm in), people are normally very quick to both - in meta and towards the author - point out when something *is* dubcon (or noncon) and ask for a label, and there's a fandom culture around this (generally) being okay and accepted with grace and usually speedy relabelling/labelling (again, in the sectors I'm specifically in, I know not every sector handles these things in the same way).

So...it's surprising people just haven't mentioned it as a sort of observational 'huh this is a part of a culture in both het and m/m slash, so why not here?' (Except that you know, you're doing it now).

But that sounds like a definite dubcon at the very least, and certainly a situation where I'd expect more people to be flagging for at the very least: consent issues with no discussion of consent-through-brainwashing.

I'm glad you're writing about it, and hopefully it starts some (positive) conversations about it. I mean I can see she has this warning: " and sexualized situations involving a manipulative, domineering character." - but...this is ultimately quite vague, and doesn't actually indicate that the situations involved aren't consensual, just - perhaps - problematic. Idk if that's enough for the level of brainwashing you're talking about. (Brainwashing that leads to sex is like, I can understand it as a kink, but I don't think that's ever not dubcon if the character being brainwashed isn't going you know 'oh please brainwash me so we can have sex I consent to that.' And even that is like...ehhhh, grey area.)

Apologies for my rambling, I wanted to say something more concise (when do I ever, though), but yeah - I think it's a good thing that you've flagged this, and it's a good heads up for others looking into the series. And it might also help people reccing the series to just add on the sentence of 'includes dubcon via brainwashing' (or similar).

[bunny_m]

Excellent points from both of you.

I shall definitely try to add the 'Warning: brainwashing and dubious consent at best' to any recs I make from now on.

[alias_sqbr]

nods Though it's tricky because for me the most significant thing is the "rape leading to love"-ish-ness, but that's impossible to warn for without spoilers.

[alias_sqbr]

Yeah, "manipulative situations" is not the same as total lack of consent, which is what actually happens. She is completely brainwashed, and once her mind clears she does her best to escape.

I mean for me, the dubcon in and of itself wouldn't be the problem if it didn't lead to love. But since it's not expected to label for that consistently I just avoid anything labelled dubcon or noncon if I'm not sure of the plot, even though it's only some of it that gets to me. And that requires people to label for them.

I'm not sure the expectations amongst f/f writers are any different in theory, but I think a lot of people are subconsciously affected by the way women are seen as inherently less sexually aggresive, so don't always conceptualise of things as dub/non con when they should. Also there's no sex, just kissing, though it seems plausible that sex happens off screen. So it's not dubcon by everyone's definition. Really, I needed a "surprisingly fucked up relationship dynamics" tag haha.

[lilacsigil]

Well, thank you for linking it! It was super interesting dub-con!

[alias_sqbr]

Haha, yeah, this is definitely one of those cases where one person's warning is another's advertisement :)

[ember_keelty]

I guess I misread the ending because I thought the awful goddess ceased to exist when she passed on her powers — that art style is really hard to follow — and I probably would not have come away from it with the overall positive feeling I did if I'd gotten the impression that she was still around and dating people she'd abused.

That said, my lack of criticism on reblogging it was more about not being in the mood to do criticism than about not having seen anything worth criticizing. I was not a fan of the "smooch your rapist" resolution even with my misconceptions about where it ultimately ended up.

[alias_sqbr]

HUH. Now I'm wondering if I misunderstood it.

And that's totally fair. I know intellectually that people aren't going to give their full opinions in every rec etc, especially on twitter which is where I saw a few of them. This post is very much a vent based on an intense emtoional reaction, not a considered critique.