Apologies in advance for the people who will be offended by this post. No insult is intended. I could be totally wrong in my suppositions or simply lacking enough exposure to get the full picture. Then again, I could be completely right. Either way I welcome discussion and comments on the topic and hope that bashing, slamming and/or verbal dismemberment will be kept to a minimum.

I read quite a bit. Generally 2 to 3 books a week or more. Reading has been a part of my life since I was 3 or 4 years old and is my one obsession that will probably never fail. My book reading is mainly fiction - fantasy, sci-fi, or real-world.

The book I'm currently reading is Rules of Engagement by Elizabeth Moon. Moon has made the rape and abuse of her heroine a central focus of this book. I've been reading this book and I've been getting more and more uncomfortable with it but I'm continuing because the it is well written and the story, apart from those elements, is pretty good. But those elements are totally and completely unnecessary. I have a tendency to edit a book as I read it, rewriting or replaying it in my head with changes that would have made it simpler or better. With this book I can completely remove the raping and abuse with absolutely no deleterious effect on the story. Nada. None. The story works perfectly well without it. So why is it in there? It adds nothing and is actually making this book less enjoyable than it should be.

This thought got me thinking along another tangent. Many of my favorite female big name SF & Fantasy writers (McCaffery, LeGuin, Roberson, Rawn) have written rapes in their stories. Rape and rape fantasy is a staple of Harlequin style books, which are written for a female audience generally by female authors. Anne Rice, one of the biggest names in fantasy/horror literature, has made a franchise of sexual conquest, rape, abuse and sexual acts with children in her writing.

As I explored this in my head it became more and more apparent that rape content is not generally used by my favorite male authors. I can't think of a Martin, Roberts, Henlein, Brooks or Asprin book that had a rape in them. Weber used rape in one book of the Honor Harrington series but he handled it en post facto. He didn't describe it or dwell on it. He concentrated on how enraged it made his characters.

So what's up here? Why do female writers tend to write about rape, abuse, etceteras more often and more graphically? And why? My basic thought would be just the opposite - wouldn't women writers tend to avoid a subject like rape? I'm at the wild conjecture stage but here are some of my thoughts. Try to overlook the generalizations and see the intended points:

• Women are closer to, and more affected by, rape and abuse. As it is a subject that they think of more often they naturally fit it in their writing more often than males.
• Rape is frightening for women. Men have a different basic fear set. A female writer might tend to use rape as a scare tactic when a male writer will use something that generally frightens males.
• Similar to the above, a female writer might use rape to paint her bad guy as bad where a male writer might tend to use murder or some other nasty deed instead.
• Also similar to the above, a female writer might use rape survival to show how "tough" her heroine is while a male writer would go elsewhere.
• (I'm going to get slapped for this one.) The "Harlequin" mentality indicates a fascination with rape fantasy that ties into the fear of rape itself. The brutish man forces himself on (and in) the heroine but midway through the act she surrenders to his inexorable charms and falls in love. This is reflected in the writing of female authors.
• Because females are the general victims of rape (there just aren't a whole lot of male rape victims outside the penal system) they "own" it. Female writers can write about rape simply because they are female. Male writers are uncomfortable writing about it because they fear being tarred with the rapist brush. This would be similar to how a minority comedian can make jokes about his minority but a white male comedian better not.

That's all I've got. I'll put on my helmet and cup and prepare for the worst while hoping for the best.

Update: One more I thought of in the shower today:

• What's the market slice for fantasy/sci-fi? If it is significantly male, could female writers be putting in rape and abuse of women because they think it tittilates their male readers?