Yuri to Boushi to Hon no Tabibito

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Spring is old fetish month #11 – Rape – Not only a member of the brassica family

Posted on | February 2, 2009 | 9 Comments |


Welcome back to fetish month! This is the penultimate post in this edition of fetish month, and what better fetish to semi-end on than the one that I started with in the original fetish month – Rape. (Sorry to Joku who I thinkk wanted me to re-cover bondage, but perhaps you’ll be luckier next time ^^).

Rape is probably the most contentious topic I have covered in fetish month. This is because not only is the depiction of rape in adult material almost unique to hentai anime and manga (and underground illegal US pornography), but as we uncovered last time we discussed it, there are several reasons why people find the fantasy of rape attractive. So why is it then, that arguably the second most heinous crime (second to paedophilia) that one can commit is actually a major turn on to the extent that it features as a theme in at least half of all adult oriented hentai material?

In this post I’ll be first covering what I concluded the last time I discussed this in fetish month and then discussing some of my new views on the subject, some of which were covered or brought up by you readers in the comments on the last post.

Last time – on fetish month…

The last time I discussed the subject, I first brought up the issue that there was a dichotomy between the generic pornography formula of the West and the East. To sum it up in a single sentence – We want sluts, the Japanese want secret sluts. I then put forward the tenuous theory that perhaps this dichotomy stems from the very social nature of the two cultures – In the West for a long part of history, women were trained to be disinterested in sexual matters, as it was considered unladylike. This perhaps led to the dominant male fantasy that there was a subset of girls who would put out whenever they wanted it and in whatever fashion they desired.

In Japan, perhaps the key mechanic was the absence of the husband from the family home. It has become commonplace for the husband of a Japanese family to be away for work for long periods of time (this was a key part of my argument for my Enjo-Kosai post this fetish month). Therefore, it wasn’t far-fetched to think that Japanese women are sexually frustrated and that it only took a moderately attractive man assaulting them in a toilet to break their wedding vows for a quick meat injection. This, as was coined by one reader last time, could be known as the “virgin and the whore phenomenon”.

I was perhaps surprised that this was received relatively well, but also interested in the responses highlighting other aspects of the rape phenomenon.

The Taboo Effect

First of all, a small point was raised last time which I thought very interesting. In my post, I mainly talked about why rape was more popular in Japanese pornographic material when compared to the West. However, a couple of readers wrote in to suggest that perhaps there was more of an opposite effect – that rape is positively repressed in the West (and to good cause, obviously). Feminists and activists hve long sought to highlight the continuing problem of rape in the US and UK and therefore would be absolutely horrified to find that there was mainstream pornography being made in the West which depicted rape in which the rapist did not come to a bitter and horrible end. In addition, especially with certain high profile rape cases recently in the West, rape is inextricably linked with murder and specifically serial killings.

However, in Japan, even though it occurs, rape rates are a lot lower (though I would assume that there is a lot of under-reporting in Japan -_-) and the effect of this seems to be that it is much less of a taboo subject as long as there is a thin sheen of fantasy separating it from real life.

Rape – a purely fictional fetish?

A lot of the commentary on rape focussed on the fantasy aspect of the fetish in the anime context. As I hinted at before in the Lolicon post last week – one of the key purposes of pornography is to provide an ideal situation in which a fantasy can take place. Therefore, in such a setting, men can sexually assault a girl to their liking without repercussions such as lawsuits, jailtime, pregnancy and paying maintenance for the rest of their lives coming into the picture.

So am I saying that all men secretly yearn to push women they fancy down and rape them then and there, even when they’re screaming blue mercy? Well, perhaps in some cases, but I wouldn’t like to become the enemy of my own gender by saying it was 100% true…

It all comes down to the two basic forms of rape type hentai.

- 1) Non-consensual, non-enjoyable or True rape (TRAPE)
- 2) Partially-consensual, enjoyable or Fake rape (FRAPE)

As was hinted at last time, the majority of rape material that floods the eromanga and hentai markets is of the Frape variety. In this kind of manga, the girl is assaulted by one/many men who may or may not have faces (or even bodies). She starts of shouting “Iyaaa!! Don’t come near me!!” even as her clothes are ripped off, but as soon as the panties come off and their multiple appendages squelch deep into her hot and ready female orifices, she becomes placid as a baby with an extra large dummy. It might even go so far as to reveal her for the slut that she (invariably) is and she abandons her husband and his absent (and evidently insufficient) package for the joys of a modern multi-partner household and regular gangbangs.

True rape (basically, the rape that happens in the real world) is sligtly more difficult to find, but does exist in fairly large quantities in the eromanga market and especially in the hentai anime field. I believe I posted a guide on analysing hentai for watchability some time back, and in this there was a broad category of “nasty” type hentai filled with tentacles, guro and rape. The key difference between Trape and Frape is that the girl doesn’t at any point look like she is enjoying herself. At the end, instead of looking placated and strangely satisfied, she instead looks humiliated and used.

Of the many people who commented before, it was evident that most men and women like the idea of Frape but wouldn’t touch Trape with a 10 mile barge pole. Or perhaps it was for fear of internet repercussion that the Trape fans felt that they couldn’t voice their own opinions on the subject…who knows?

It’s easy to see why many people like Frape. It can easily be explained by two hypotheses – First, the Virgin and the Whore hypothesis outlined above, and second, the fetish for exerting domination and control which also plays a large part in BDSM fetishism. Let me explain in more detail. From the awkward teenage years, all boys yearn to have sex (not just with girls – some with boys, obviously). And for the most part, it seems that girls are holding all the keys and blocking the way. Especially with the seemingly unattainable older girls and celebrities, sex seems a distant fantasy that can only be achieved after lights out with a laptop and one’s celebrity photoshop site of choice. Therefore, Frape embodies possibly the most common sexual fantasy of men everywhere – To be ale to have sex with an unattainable beauty and for her to enjoy it so much that she falls in love with you by default. I think any man would be lying if he told you that he hadn’t had that kind of fantasy.

The aspect of domination and control comes into in, but is more of an aspect of Trape. Frape with strong themes of domination and control I believe tie more into themes of Domination/submission (Dom/sub) and BDSM, since there is an undercurrent of concealed consensual sex.

Trape, on the other hand implies in itself that there are strong control and domination themes together with humiliation and non-consensual sex. If you consulted the Dom/sub community, you would probably find that any aspect of non-consensuality violates the rules put down for Dom/sub relationships and therefore makes trape completely different from BDSM by definition.

The attraction of Trape, I believe, lies partially in the strong desire of some men to control women such that the focus of the sex is as a dominant act. This ties in with domestic violence (which is frighteningly common – 1 in 4 women in the UK) and perhaps some base intincts that some men find it difficult to get away from. Therefore, we could hypothesise that there are a fair number of men that feel this strong desire to control, but have the good mind to repress it for the good of their significant others and themselves. They therefore could enjoy Trape themes as their fantasies made real, the thin veneer of fiction making it less guilt-inducing. I know this has ended up sounding one sided, but I just can’t think of a rosier tint to put on this particular fetish. Perhaps one of the readers could help me out in that respect and tell me a more plausible reason for likeing True rape themes…

So what can we conclude after two fetish months discussing Rape? First of all, most rape can be dismissed as harmless male fantasy – after all, a teenager wouldn’t be normal if he didn’t fantasise about raping Rachel Stevens from S Club 7 (and there are fanfictions to prove it). Sorry to all the gay teenagers out there. You can all have Josh Hartnett instead. The other, much darker side of the rape fetish is difficult to see in an optimistic light. The most important thing to say is that liking Trape doesn’t in any way make you a latent rapist. Just like the rest of us, you have some unrealistic fantasies that the public happens to frown upon.

So don’t tell anyone, except me, OK?

See you next week for some good old YURI GOODNESS!

Category: Editorials, Hentai/Ero-games, Philosophy/Thoughts

Comments

9 Responses to “Spring is old fetish month #11 – Rape – Not only a member of the brassica family”

  1. Plain Jane
    February 2nd, 2009 @ 2:23 am

    Hm, very difficult to put a totally positive spin on rape fantasies, of the FRAPE or TRAPE varieties. I feel there are some who enjoy them who are genuinely messed up in their heads, but most I feel are simply satisfying various harmless fantasies. However, I feel much more negatively about FRAPE than TRAPE as far as porn fantasies go – y’see, I love non-consent porn, erotica, hentai, whathaveyou. I’m a sub into BDSM, and I like the domination/humiliation aspects. And rape is bad, wrong, and taboo – things that make indulging in it sexy for a number of viewers. But…FRAPE…the old ’she wanted it all along’ and ‘a woman’s no’ aspects…make me skeev out. I feel like it plays into old patriarchal bullshit, and I want none of that.

  2. love
    February 2nd, 2009 @ 10:06 am

    Hello all..

    Just thought I’d mention as it doesn’t seem to have cropped up in the post – but a big part of the appeal could also be seen from the rapee’s point of view.

    I’m sure i’m not the only one that quite likes rape (or at least definitely “frape” hentai) because I empathise with the poor defenseless girl. Not in real life, obviously that would be bad, but there’s a lot to be said for putting up a fight having your best defensive efforts overwhelmed by evil rapists (indeed lets make it even better – evil yuri rapists).

    This of course also ties in nicely with bondage and why we all love that so much too.

  3. Andre
    February 2nd, 2009 @ 11:15 am

    Here is a link to another discussion about rape fantasies in japan (http://coffee-spoons.curry-fury.com/2008/07/02/r-r-the-mechanics-of-rape-fantasies-%E2%80%93-your-wildest-dreams/). It boils down to the thesis, that there are rape fantasies, because japanese women are not allowed to be sluts for real.

  4. hirohisa4president
    February 3rd, 2009 @ 5:47 pm

    Well bible black had tons of rape,but I dont think many of them enjoyed it that much?
    and thats about the only rape story centered on rape out of the hentai i have including the manga i have.

  5. HappyHappyJoyJoy
    February 5th, 2009 @ 1:16 am

    Yuribou, you might find this interesting. An article outlining the work of female scientists, attempting to find a unifying theory on female sexuality. It mentions rape in more detail, and a few other fascinating tidbits. Article is long.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/25/magazine/25desire-t.html?pagewanted=all

  6. lillith
    February 5th, 2009 @ 2:10 pm

    one word, negimaru

  7. Jaden
    February 5th, 2009 @ 9:39 pm

    Never liked rape, or even frape. I just avoided chapters that deal with it, that is in the past now. Now I just get depressed by it and I blame Now and Then, Here and There. Holy shit, this is the most depressing Anime ever. I couldn’t even finish it, and I was only 4 episodes in. And after Sara’s first rape I wasn’t able to be aroused for a few days, and they didn’t show anything. But anyway for myself I find a party being seduced into action is a lot more appealing. It has all the high points of frape, but without the bad after taste.

    Also you horrible people, Taiga would never let that happen to her! She would bite off the guy’s dick! Which brings up another point, anyone else find it weird when they have a fellatio part in a rape scene. Not all that common but just seems to break the suspension of belief when it does.

    One final note, I think we should all start to call canola oil rape oil again.

  8. Yuribou
    February 5th, 2009 @ 10:22 pm

    They call it rape(seed) oil in this country…

  9. SK
    February 7th, 2009 @ 8:52 am

    Hmmm. I would have to agree that FRAPE does have slightly more sinister overtones, with the rape actually being enjoyed. Yet, all porn/hentai has the same problem, the “objectification of sex” and all that malarkey. In a sense, TRAPE is better in that way as it involves greater realism. In real life, raping someone is a terrible thing, resuling in psychological problems which can destroy a life, and TRAPE at least acknowledges that. Still, the fact that people do consume TRAPE suggests that the consequences of rape don’t matter to some people, which is slightly worrying.
    Depressing topic, I would agree. Still, rapeseed oil always brings a smile to my face :)

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