This is The Reason It’s Not Rape If It’s Girl On Boy? by @willvanstonejr

Faggit, A Tedd Hawks Novel

aka It’s Not Rape If It’s Girl On Boy

After reading what was otherwise a very good book about one boy coming to terms with his sexuality while living in a very conservative Christian small town, It’s Not Rape If It’s Girl On Boy could very well could have been right there on the cover. If it had been a “corrective rape” scene with actual fallout, I wouldn’t have objected; as ugly as it is, corrective rape is a thing and as we all know, I don’t mind even the most stomach churning scenes as long as there’s authenticity behind them.

Faggit (misspelled on purpose to show the bigots’ lack of high IQ, if memory serves – it’s been a while since I read it) goes for the bullshit response to boys being raped. It ignores it. See what you started, Batman?

Jack Freeman, the titular faggit, is your average, everyday gay boy, who happens to be surrounded by homophobes whom he fears would disown him, and possibly worse, if they found out his not-so-dirty secret. Pretty typical coming of age YA tale, a la gay. Hawks does an admirable job of making it interesting, even if there are one or two farfetched scenes that had my eyes rolling. But I digress. This isn’t a review.

This is a calling out.

See, there’s this girl. And she really likes Jack. But Jack, for reasons that are obvious to no one in his hometown, doesn’t feel the same feels, but pretends to find her bootylicious so no one suspects he’s strictly dickly. Cause, y’know, teen boys must love boys if they’re not all-consumed by the mighty vajayjay. Again, digressing. Anyway, they’re “dating,” and she decides one day, while in the park, while the sun’s out (exhibitionist, much?), that it’s high time they got it on.

And she doesn’t care that he disagrees.

Susie pushed me to the ground. She smiled and put her lips on mine and started to tug up my shirt. Her hands found my crotch and started to maneuver over it.

“Don’t –” I started, but she wouldn’t stop.

“My sister told me what to do,” she whispered. “I’m going to make you feel good.”

Before I could stop her, she had my pants down. She hesitated for just a second when she saw my penis out in the open. The breeze died down and the cicadas roared as we both sat there, me exposed, and her thinking about what to do. We knew that something was changing, but it didn’t stop Susie. She started to kiss and move her hands all over me.

(Hawks, Tedd (2014-01-15). Faggit (Kindle Locations 563-570). . Kindle Edition.)

This Is Date Rape

If the roles were reversed, this would be called “date rape,” and he’d be an instant villain with no chance of redemption but, because it’s a girl refusing to acknowledge a boy saying “stop,” it’s not treated as such. In fact, it’s treated as consensual sex.

Not once in the entire book, is “rape,” even hinted at. There’s no mention of what happened and Jack acts as though saying “no” meant nothing. Right there in the middle of a goddamn YA book, a protagonist was stripped and assaulted, yet there’s not even a moment where he thinks about what occurred.

Because boys cannot be raped. Duh. Now I get it. All this time I thought the whole “no means no” thing was for everybody. Guess we don’t have to worry about that now, eh?

This book has been recommended by others, who claim to have read and loved it, to be passed on to LGBT youth as a story of hope. And not one review I’ve read has mentioned the rape, even in passing. Am I really the only one who sees something wrong here? Is it really that ingrained into our collective mentality for a boy to have choice forcibly taken? Is this the message we want to send to them? Oh, well, we know you said “no,” but you do admit to having an erection? Well, that right there is proof that you wanted it.

Fuck you. No, seriously; if that’s what you think than fuck you. As a human being, you suck and I want you to take a long walk off a short pier. Because fuck you.

Look at that, got me all sweary.

Why don’t more people get pissed off when this sort of crap happens? Why do we allow these things to happen in our fiction? What, do not enough people not know what rape looks like?

Apparently.

FYI: rape isn’t always violent and messy and bruising. Sometimes it’s a simple refusal to stop, even when the person who doesn’t want it doesn’t fight the rapist off. If Hawks had said he was confused and scared and didn’t know what to do, that would have been fine. Behold, a learning moment! Boys, if a girl wants the D and you don’t wanna give it up, say “no.” If she pulls off your pants, push her away. If she keeps going, then RUN.

Seriously, dudes, ain’t no shame in it. Contrary to what this, and so much pop culture, says, y’all don’t always want it and are not obligated to ever bow down to pressure. Y’know that thing said to girls all the time? About how it’s their body and they don’t have to let you near it? Same is true for you.

Boys Can Be Raped, Too

Not that you’d know that reading Faggit; not only is it seemingly okay to rape a boy, it’s not even really rape. I guess. Oh, hell, I don’t know anymore. Maybe it’s true: boys are always willing and since you can’t rape the willing, you can’t rape boys.

Pfft. As if.

Oh, and Batman, you totes could’ve stopped this if only you’d been honest about your ordeal, too. Instead, we have yet another instance of non-rape rape. Yes, DC, I’m yelling at you again. Along with every other writer, director, actor, singer, dancer, athlete, politician… who continues propagating this bullshit about how not affected by sexual assault boys are. Cause they are. Very much so. And those boys could use some bloody truthiness in their entertainment of choice so maybe they’d feel less wrong for feeling things they don’t understand.

You don’t need to keep sexual assault out of books, but at least be honest about what comes after. Or please stop writing. Your choice.

pictures courtesy of pixabay

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