A question of Rape

[erastes]

I had an email from Remittance Girl today which posed the following:

"It's widely accepted that erotic writing that contains non-consensual scenes are, for the most part, very hard to get published.  But what if this wasn't the case?

I'd be very interested in hearing from fellow erotica writers on this subject. Have you written erotica with non-consensual elements in it? Have you struggled with this topic intellectually, emotionally, pragmatically? What has informed your decision on whether to include it or not?

Any and all thinking on this subject would be most welcome and, with your permission, I would like to post your responses on my blog, as a sort of round-table discussion.

Hugs and thank-you in advance for your consideration of my request.
Remittance Girl
http://www.remittancegirl.com"

My answer was this:

I would never eroticise a rape scene, but I wont say I'll never include one - there's one definite scene in Standish, (although I only do the set up and the aftermath, which is probably worse as the reader can fill in their own details which are worse than the author can write) and there's a couple of almosts.

It would (specially in the gay historical genre) be stupid to ignore the fact that gay men aren't in danger of this.

What I dislike most is the trope of "raped woman (or man) falling in love with her rapist" or "stalked female/man ditto"  it reinforces the idea that this is acceptable behaviour and that no doesn't mean no. Wooing, even aggressive wooing is another matter and there is a fine line.

I particularly loathe the slave-fics where the slave falls in love with the repeated rapist. However - these stories are hugely popular and for some reason the publishers don't even count it as rape. It seems to be that if the body reacts that's taken as consent which is so clearly not.

I've been lucky with my publishers, they've never said "remove this or that scene" PD Publishing didn't change a word of Standish's rape scene, there's a torture and rape in Transgressions with, laughingly realising I sound like a hypocrite the abused become attached to his abuser. However this is Stockholm Syndrome and is not at any time portrayed as anything other than a sick, nasty relationship and not erotic--or at least in my eyes. However Perseus accepted the MSS as is, and didn't change it. I think that - perhaps? - larger publishers are more likely to take risks.  The smaller publishers (again, perhaps) are more anxious that their readers like their product and won't leave their brand if rape is allowed.

I'd be (and Remittance Girl would too!)interested on your thoughts if you'd like to give them, and if you don't want to have your comments posted on her blog, you'd better put a disclaimer or something.