“Fiction is fiction, and reality is reality.”

That is very true but I am a firm stickler for that things in the world aren’t so black and white, and fiction is one of them. This is an essay, feel free to read if you’re bored or interested ^^

Say what you will but at the end of the day, fiction is a sub-set of reality, it is influenced by reality and the experiences we have in real time. Hence why, no matter how fantastical the content of whatever you’re reading may be it still influences you in some form or fashion. Your brain can differentiate what’s real or imagined sure but no matter the form it can come, it can still affect you detrimentally regardless of its state. That is why you can sob and feel actual pain from watching or reading a story about a group of characters you are invested in.

Yes, fiction is fiction but that does not make it any less powerful and influential on our life. Mass Media is one of the four pillars in Sociology when we talk about Agents of Socialization. Institutions, groups, ideas, and messages that shape and teach us things as we participate in society, along with Family, School, and our Peer Groups, a section that is mostly made off fictional and propagandist material is considered a big part of our functioning in society? Why? Because it affects us whether we like it or not, unconsciously or not. I mean how many times have you seen a film or a book that’s made you almost change the way you behave or act? That’s the power of fiction, it’s driven people to commit mass suicide (The Sorrows of Young Werther, 1774)

So what does this have to do with rape? Well it has to do with a little thing called normalization. It’s basically the act of turning an idea, a concept, into a slowly accepted norm or excusable action with not much backlash. Whether or not the concept is actually morally bad. For example, age gaps are pretty normalized, especially with an older man and younger women. I’m sure if you asked your parents age a lot of you would find out your father is bit older than your mother. That’s because age gaps are an normalized and almost expected thing in a relationship. It’s even showcased in your movies and books and shows so it’s very normal thing by now.

But there is a byproduct of normalization and it’s a pretty unsafe one too depending on the topic, if something is normalized then it can quickly be trivialized. Especially, if it’s not a good at all. For example, in America it was quite common up until maybe the early 2010s for older men to date REALLY young girls, men that were in the 30s dating actual high schoolers and it was often broadcasted and accepted and normalized. From Jerry Seinfield, Brad Pitt to Jay Z. It was normalized this heavily big age-gap and because of that it became easier to trivialize it.

Rape has the biggest problem with this.

Rape is one of more the trivialized issues out there and it’s victims have it even worse. It doesn’t help that places like in America, the court system half of the time does not charge, convict, and prison rapists despite how the media would often make you feel as if they do. Only 37% of reported rapes are prosecuted and then only 18% are actually convicted. So without a doubt there are SERIOUS issues on how Rape is treated in court but don’t even get me started on how it’s treated in media and on the internet.

Rape is such a trivial thing it’s turned itself its own slang and playoff words like Earrape and etc. How many times have you heard of “don’t drop the soap?” or someone say I’ll rape you in a playful affectionate way? It doesn’t get any better but so much of mass media downplays rape to the point of when it actually happens most times people don’t take it seriously at all and often aren’t on the victim’s side.

And so you could argue that Rape and rape culture is a normalized thing and in such making it normalized its become trivial when it’s not.
It never was and that’s not okay.

It’s often that when you read these webtoons they might romanticize the scenes a bit, maybe the victim is actually feeling good even if they don’t want it (the infamous ‘you’re saying no but you’re body seems to like it’ and whatever variation of that line... which... believe me victims have heard in real life), perhaps the assaulter is someone the victim actually likes so they let it pass, or the assaulter apologizes and so it makes up for earlier and sometimes.. but this often happens more than not... it’s so subtle and so common that the red flags don’t even hit you at all because all those trigger words are just so normal for you to see in a webtoon that you don’t even recognize that it’s rape?

Yup, that’s the trivialization in work. Rape is such a normalized thing you don’t even blink twice at it much unless it’s extremely graphic and if you recognize it and you don’t care how far do you think you’ve fallen into it? How do you respond when you interact and read up real actual cases of rape? I knew of a past friend who often read a lot of fictional shotacon/lolicon porn, some graphic some not, he knew it was fictional but after some point in time he couldn’t stop picturing the kids he saw in real life in those scenarios. Not out of sexual attraction or anything but even as he was no longer in that state of mind of wacking off his junk to that content, he couldn’t stop thinking that way. Even when he understood that everything he involved himself into was fictional.

So why am I telling this? Well! I love Webtoons and I love reading but I also love dissecting works and noticing the common tropes, ideas, and beliefs that can spread in these works and eventually make us susceptible to it. I know I have a few that I’m weak to, even I’m not proud to admit it. I just want to be more hyper aware of what I reading and what it says to people. Of course, I can still like this content and still give it critical analysis. That is what makes the issue of Fiction Vs. Reality so black and white of course! There are many tropes and issues in webtoons that should be discussed and talked about! It’s fun to just read and enjoy things for what they are but it’s also fun to break them apart and see what makes them tick. I hope that gives you some more understanding and a broader way of thinking. I’m not saying we should ban this stuff but it’s always cool not letting media have a grip over you so easily.

With that said, if you’re interested more in topics like this. Check out Pop Culture Detective, he’s a channel dedicated to finding the more harmful tropes in American media and how unravel toxic masculinity. He did a great piece about the Sexual Assault of Men being Played for Laughs pt. 1 about Men on Men and pt. 2 on Female perpetrators.

Check him out if you’d like!

https://youtu.be/uc6QxD2_yQw

https://youtu.be/9nheskbsU5g