The Crime of Character Rape
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| Title: | The Crime of Character Rape |
| Creator: | Roberta Rogow |
| Date(s): | March 1992 |
| Medium: | |
| Fandom: | multifandom |
| Topic: | |
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| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
The Crime of Character Rape is a 1992 essay by Roberta Rogow.
It was published in A Writers' Exchange #2.
The Essay
Fanzine writers have been accused of all kinds of literary mayhem: plot holes, foggy description, total disregard for the rules of literary logic. Of all these crimes, by far the worst is character rape.
Character rape may be described as trying to turn a favorite TV or movie character something he/she/it is not, because that is the way the WRITER wants said character to be. Presumably, if you are writing a story set in a particular 'universe,' it's because you like that character in that universe. To alter the character to suit your needs destroys the very things that make the character worthy of attention in the first place!
For example, if there is a story in which a starship engineer gets falling-down drunk over a "girl"...well, it's sad, and possibly tragic...but make that engineer Montgomery Scott, and you've got character rape on a grand scale. Scotty's drinking capacity is legendary (remember, it took five hours and a bottle of Scotch to put him under the table); he's more interested in engines than women (although he'll accept female companionship, when it comes along), and to get drunk over a "girl" is just not in his character, unless the story showed the "girl" to be quite exceptional. And to say that "MY Scotty would do this" is begging the issue. YOUR Scotty is not the Scotty we saw on the screen in Star Trek, and that's that. Call the engineer Argyle, or MacTavish, or Kowalchek, or put him in the "Mirror, Mirror" universe-but, please, keep him consistent with what we SAW.
There is always the argument that TV series are written differently now; characters are allowed to develop in ways that were impossible 20 years ago. The Sam Beckett of the first "Quantum Leap" episodes was an intellectual snob. He's mellowed considerably in the four years he's been bopping in and out of other peoples' bodies and lives. But his basic character remains the same, and attempts to turn him into a lecher, or a mad scientist will be prime examples of character rape.
If you have any doubts about whether or not your description of the character is consistent with what is already known, ask yourself if the dialogue you have just written could come out of your character's mouth in a screened episode or in a sequel to a film. If it meets this test, you're doing fine. If not, you stand accused of character rape, and are herewith condemned to a major rewrite!