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A Distant Soil by Colleen Doran
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to quote D’Mer… “Emeris….”
Intense.
Hmph! So I was right, Emeris did some siovanan mind wammy over D’Mer….
There are two scenes in this series male readers objected to very strongly and told me they would no longer read my work. This is one of those scenes.
Their loss. Robert Plant in a cod piece and net curtain — what’s not to love?
I prefer to think of it as a codpiece and a diaphanous little something he just threw on.
And nearly missed.
Why did they object? It’s a strong dramatic scene, but…?
Some guys are uncomfortable when the victim is a man.
How sick is that?
I dunno. It’s just that I think the squick factor is different for everybody. And while there seems to be one level of squick for women in refrigerators, there is another level of squick for, well, comics like mine.
http://www.unheardtaunts.com/wir/
I have no proof, but I get the impression some male readers have less tolerance of man-as-victim than woman-as-victim. I could be wrong.
I wish I had a smart comeback here, for the sake of my sex, but I haven’t.
I suspect men maybe has an even harder time accepting the idea of being at someones mercy than women. Submission means absolutly nothing to a man (where I live) except as a threat, which must be dealt with immidiatly and often violently. In a way, it’s our deepest nighmare. The one we cannot face nor accept! I can’t say I’m that different here, but there are levels, and there’s the ability to separate reality from fantasy, and also the acceptance of the cruelty of reality, all of which I’m aware. Shit happens, it’s just the way life is. One needs to deal with it. Still, a man can’t let anyone push him around, at any cost, or he’ll be shamed forever in an intolerable way. I think it’s the same for women, but maybe there are different cultural rules for how to deal with it? Or maybe women has been simply forced to adhere to different rules because of history, and this is changing now?
Maybe they were offended ’cause Emeris is showing some very nice legs and butt? And they felt jealous!
and the whole thing may be interpreted away from any sexual abuse (which I personally believe is the case….) Emeris could be the classic sadist slave’s owner, who enjoy to break his toys. Look at his hands, they are covered in blood, so is clear Emeris inflicted D’Mer’s wounds.
Nothing is explicit on this page, so it is left to the reader to decide what is going on – several men objected very strongly to this scene.
And now a caveat; I just remembered that a woman on Amazon wrote a revue of A Distant Soil volume I and complained about a rape scene which isn’t in the book. I can’t even begin to figure out what she saw in Volume I which made her write that comment, but oh, well.
Several men came up to me at shows and really let me have it to my face over this and a future scene. It was some years ago, but I remember being rather alarmed. They were very frank about the fact that they would no longer read my work.
They are entitled to do that, of course, but it was a strange and unexpected experience.
*small shrug – perhaps you touched a very sensitive nerve in them.
At the School I am giving classes now, there’s a boy who was raped by some of his classmates. The abusers were expelled from the school, and the boy is somewhat Ok, but very withdrawn (I think that’s obvious and expected!) I was told by some of the other teachers that male abuse is a lot more common than female abuse in High school, but boys tend to bottle everything.
=/
I will… do my commentary tomorrow.
I was told by some of the other teachers that male abuse is a lot more common..
—
I was trying to go there, but it’s a difficult subject.
@amikael, It is a difficult subject. Bullying and harassment happen all the time at High Schools, just yesterday I had to break yet another “friendly fight” and the boys were aiming to grab their test***les. When I broke the fight, they both used words like “fag, gay, etc” to insult one another; I told them both that their lack of humane sensitivity was appalling.
Yeah, I live in a town that has had the sad statistic of being the most dangerous town for gays to live in, in sweden. The game here is hockey:http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/03/sports/hockey/03sweden.html
Make of it what you will. :-/
“tatistically, to produce that many N.H.L. players, Ornskoldsvik should have had about 12 million inhabitants.”
The atmosphere that creates this phenomen has a price though..
Woah…and here I thought Sweden was actually very gay friendly…
Of course, I really don’t know about real Sweden, I am basing my comment on what Humon from Deviantart comments in her “Scandinavia & The World” comic strips: http://humon.deviantart.com
Sweden is surface and depth. The surface is the media world and Stockholm, which is where everyone goes to ‘escape’. Then there’s the sweden behind that, up north in particular. Not so much. You got tough guys and housewifes, and a uncomfortable sneaky type of ‘soft’ christianity.
Example: a village very near to where I live, a young girl was raped, and immidiatly, everyone rallied for the boy being innocent, even though he confessed to the rape to the police. (and a second rape they didn’t know about) A website was created, people signed up there in the thousands, all accusing the girl. She was the hussy. She had to move. A year later, national tv got hold of the story and the confession, and all the evidence, which was massive, and it all went ballistic, and now the village tries to wiggle their way out of this scandal in all ways possible. It’s truly a sickening spectacle. You know what’s going on, he’s such a splendid boy, good in sports, yadda yadda, and it’s just amazing how this pattern keeps repeating itself.
UGH! The whole “let’s protect the Jock” attitude!! I hear you. I cannot fail the English students that are part of the American Football teams, even if they don’t even show up for their exams! the lowest grade I can give them is a 6! (more less like a d+ i guess…)