SA as backstory - will it fly?

[redgarters]

I have a story on the drawing board where the FMC's backstory is sexual abuse when she was a minor. It's obviously violence and not sex, but still the 'minor' rules make me jittery as the emotional heart of the story would be her confronting her family about this. I'm wondering how strong the language can be - how broad or specific can the dialogue about this be?

Any concrete examples come to mind where something like this is addressed, or someone had rejections based on something similar?

 

[Baztrachian]

I have a story on the drawing board where the FMC's backstory is sexual abuse when she was a minor. It's obviously violence and not sex, but still the 'minor' rules make me jittery as the emotional heart of the story would be her confronting her family about this. I'm wondering how strong the language can be - how broad or specific can the dialogue about this be?

Any concrete examples come to mind where something like this is addressed, or someone had rejections based on something similar?

This cannot be posted on Lit. Change the FMC age to 18 and go from there.

Trust me on this.

The original version of the story linked below took place at a high school (nope!) and mentioned the SA of a female character. The rejection note advised me to change this which I did.

https://www.literotica.com/s/the-borrower

 

[BeechLeaf]

Does violence against a minor violate the rules? Is hitting a twelve-year-old girl a ground for rejection? If there's a sexual aspect to it, obviously yes. But just the beating?

I'm unclear what you mean by sexual abuse then 'violence and not sex'.

 

[Voboy]

How specific do you need to be?

A history of underage familial abuse will not get your piece denied, absent definite sex that was against your character's will.

I can think of many ways to make it clear that there was abuse without running afoul of that rule, personally. It's about being nonspecific, which needn't mean nonevocative.

 

[TheWritingGroup]

I modified one story ... the villain is 18 at start of story, and I had him perving about his friend's mom a couple of years before.

Then I decided to make his lusting after her vaguer, to avoid the Lit rules.

 

[redgarters]

I'm obviously not going to write anything graphic, but wondering how obvious this can be. Like can she say in dialogue that she was sexually abused by her father when she was young? Or will I need to keep it vague, imply rather than confirm.

 

[redgarters]

How specific do you need to be?

A history of underage familial abuse will not get your piece denied, absent definite sex that was against your character's will.

I can think of many ways to make it clear that there was abuse without running afoul of that rule, personally. It's about being nonspecific, which needn't mean nonevocative.

That's the thing, it's definitely not consensual in any way - that's the key trauma point of the story.

 

[redgarters]

Does violence against a minor violate the rules? Is hitting a twelve-year-old girl a ground for rejection? If there's a sexual aspect to it, obviously yes. But just the beating?

I'm unclear what you mean by sexual abuse then 'violence and not sex'.

Ah, to clarify, I'm talking about sexual abuse. To me that's violence against a minor, as opposed to a consensual sexual act.

 

[BeechLeaf]

Right. Speaking in my self-appointed role as spiritualist medium guessing about Literotica rule interpretation, 'I had sex when I was 13' is banned, so 'I had sex when I was 13 because I was raped' is also banned, even if I'm 19 or 47 when I'm recalling it. I think this would be one of the clearer applications of the rules.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

How much of the sexual abuse needs to be mentioned? Mentioning that abuse happened, fine.

But the confrontation would need to avoid any detail on what happened. You might end up with "You left me at Uncle Bob's house even when I begged you not to! You knew what he was doing to me!" "Sweetie, we had no idea." Reader: I have no idea either...

Which could work if there's a dry sentence at some point, eg what crime he was charged with.

I have a story where MFC refers to under-age "unpleasant experiences with penises" and it's made clear soon after that rape had happened, with the rest of the story being about trying to have penetrative sex but having panic attacks every time, until the happy ending.

You just need to ensure the sexual abuse isn't sexualised.

 

[redgarters]

You just need to ensure the sexual abuse isn't sexualised.

Thanks, this is the kind of thing I'm thinking about - how obvious can the dialogue be about what happened.

And it will absolutely not be sexualized, that's the whole point.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Right. Speaking in my self-appointed role as spiritualist medium guessing about Literotica rule interpretation, 'I had sex when I was 13' is banned, so 'I had sex when I was 13 because I was raped' is also banned, even if I'm 19 or 47 when I'm recalling it. I think this would be one of the clearer applications of the rules.

Mentioning under-age sex as backstory is not automatically banned. One of my stories mentions that a side character got pregnant at ~15, I flagged that in the notes, and it went through.

 

[redgarters]

Self appointed spiritualist medium guessing about Literotica rule interpretation

We kind of need to hire you full time...

 

[BeechLeaf]

Sounds like one of those things where you confess all in the admin note and roll 2d6 to see whether they let it through.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Sounds like one of those things where you confess all in the admin note and roll 2d6 to see whether they let it through.

I recommend these:

 

[Bramblethorn]

My rule of thumb for this kind of thing is "could somebody plausibly get off on it?" If yes, it's probably not going to fly. The less description there is (not just of sexual acts, but of e.g. a grooming situation around that) the less likely it is to get rejected.

 

[Cagivagurl]

I think (Opinion only) So long as you refer to it as sexual abuse, and do not include sexualised details you should be fine...
Then when referring to it later in the story, simply say 'abuse'
I have posted a story centred on a rape victim. In the story I described the rape in a very bland manner. No sexualising it, simply stating the facts...
Try to make it sound like a police report... Just details... The language can be as strong as required...

 

[MrPixel]

I modified one story ... the villain is 18 at start of story, and I had him perving about his friend's mom a couple of years before.

Then I decided to make his lusting after her vaguer, to avoid the Lit rules.

"That's a lovely dress you're wearing, Mrs. Cleaver."

 

[Voboy]

That's the thing, it's definitely not consensual in any way - that's the key trauma point of the story.

I would imply rather than confirm. Something like...

"There had been hours with therapists, all of it geared toward things like 'healthy relationships' and 'positive intimacy,' a cascade of jargon designed to conceal, as all jargon did, the gravity of what her father had done to her long before she'd had the maturity to deal with it."

I would think a sentence like that would both pass muster and convey what happened to any halfway perspicacious reader, and the phrasing would deepen the reader's understanding of your character as well.

 

[anthrodisiac]

Tricky, rules seem to indicate such things are kinda dicey, which is why those 2 D6s are really gonna come in handy.



It'll need to be broad language, I imagine. Going into specifics about what happened to a minor is probably going to get it rejected. As much as it would be more emotionally hard-hitting to get a hint of detail, problem is butting up against the content guidelines. Maybe something as simple as paraphrasing her talking to the family about it in the confrontation. The details here might be less important than the conversation around the abuse, so broad strokes: "She told them what happened. When she she finished, she fussed with her shirt as she waited for someone, anyone, to open their mouth."

After all, the emotionality doesn't lie in the specifics of the abuse, it lies in the human element apart from the details. How, exactly, she was violated is less important than the actual fact that she was, and the betrayal and trauma of the associated act, the PTSD, the guilt, the impact. We don't need to know what exactly transpired, we just need enough to understand the sheer violation and monstrosity of the act, not the nitty gritty. Those specific details would probably get the story flagged, so don't worry about those. The story (probably) isn't contingent on that information.

 

[NotWise]

You can do it. Here are three segments from Hannah's story in Love is Enough. For background, TJ is a hipster wanna-be playwright working in an old theater. Hannah and Gabby are the ghosts of two prostitutes who live there.

"I'll say it," Hannah said. "The old man can't hurt me now." She looked up and went on. "Hannah was my real name—Hannah Daley. When I was a kid my step-dad done things to me—things my mom shoulda stopped but didn't. He said he'd kill me if I told a soul. He already killed a man, or that's what he said, so I knew he could.

And later:

Hannah appeared again; her eyes were red and tears streaked her cheeks. TJ pulled her into his arms and onto his lap, and he held her head against his shoulder. He warmed her and rocked her, kissed her forehead, and whispered in her ear. He said, "It's alright. It's okay," just like his mother told him when he was an injured child.

"She whipped me," Hannah said. "With a lamp cord. My mom whipped me with a lamp cord." She turned her face against TJ and her tears fell on his neck and trickled down under his collar.

"My step-dad thought she was gone," she said, "But she wasn't, or she come back, I don't know. He held me down on my bed, and he hurt me.

"She screamed at him when she found us, but she screamed at me, too. I was just a little girl, and she screamed things I didn't get, but I get now: harlot, slut, cunt. She pulled a table lamp from the hallway, and she whipped me with the cord."

And

TJ knelt astride Hannah's waist and ran his hands over the scars that crisscrossed her back. Some were raised, and some were angry red. "I touched your back last night," he said. "None of this was here. Your skin was smooth and soft."

"Last night was before Gabby reminded me," Hannah said. She propped herself up on her elbows and turned her head to look back at TJ. "The scars on my skin healed, you know? The scars on my heart, they never did."

"And these are the scars on your heart." TJ said, to himself as much as to Hannah. He touched her and tried to imagine a child's pain. TJ stroked his hands over Hannah's back and touched each scar. He leaned over her and kissed a red welt at the base of her neck. To him, the old scar seemed bitter and hot.

"What are you doing?" Hannah asked, but TJ didn't know, so he couldn't answer. He stretched the scars and smoothed them with a gentle touch, and Hannah sighed into the cushion. He traced them across her back with his lips, and he kissed them until their hot and bitter taste was gone.

Hannah moved under TJ hands. Sometimes she flinched away, and other times she pushed back against his touch. The dim light from overhead was all that lit TJ's work, but even by that light he could see the scars fade. He could feel Hannah relax.

And for the record, that was all difficult to write, and its still difficult to read.

 

[Cagivagurl]

You can mention rape, sexual abuse, just like you can discuss murder.
You say it happened... Do not dwell on it...
Not understanding your story, you could say something like...
"She was raped you fucking idiot. Do you not understand. Her father, the man she relied on to love and care for her, sexually abused her. For God's sake, she was only eleven, and he raped her. It destroyed her life."

 

[EmilyMiller]

I have a story on the drawing board where the FMC's backstory is sexual abuse when she was a minor. It's obviously violence and not sex, but still the 'minor' rules make me jittery as the emotional heart of the story would be her confronting her family about this. I'm wondering how strong the language can be - how broad or specific can the dialogue about this be?

Any concrete examples come to mind where something like this is addressed, or someone had rejections based on something similar?

I’ve done this, but not with a minor. In fact I’ve done it multiple times. I think SA of a minor is within site rules, so long as it is not described, or is definitively referred to as horrific. PM me if you want to talk.

 

[FrancesScott]

The story this text is excerpted from placed in a competition:

Mel stared at her mug and spoke quietly and haltingly. "I got your message. I'd unblocked you. My therapist thought it would be a good idea. Especially with me moving back to Marshall."

"Therapist?" I asked.

"Yeah, I... I guess after what happened, with you... and... Chloe. I... well moving to San Diego didn't help, but... I was so sick of myself that I decided to do something. I suppose you did me a favor, kinda."

I waited patiently, so many questions spinning through my mind, but realizing that I had to let Mel go at her own pace.

She went on, "The therapy, it... it wasn't about you. It was about... oh fuck... it was about other stuff, stuff from when I was a kid. I... I can't explain, but... I'm kinda fucked up. I have... trust issues... and... esteem issues. I always catastrophize... I assume things will blow up... that I'm not worthy of..." She paused for several seconds before saying, "...love."

Without even noticing at first, I now realized that I was holding Mel's hand. I started to speak, but she stopped me.

"I'm... I'm doing better, but I have a long way to go. A real long way. But... and I think you probably understand this more than most... I... I can react... overreact. It sometimes feels like the world is ending and I just can't cope. Do you know what I mean?"

I squeezed her hand, and more evenly than I felt, said, "Of course I get it. There's a massive overlap between trauma response and autism."

'And one can reinforce the other,' I thought to myself, hoping that my words had not sounded too clinical. Clinical was my favorite stress response.

"But do you really know what I mean?" Mel pleaded. "Shit it's so hard with you sometimes!"

"I know," I replied, sadly, "I don't mean for it to be. I'm sorry. Just tell me."

"My... my father and I are... estranged," she said hoarsely. "Don't make me actually say it, please."

"Oh shit! I'm... I'm so sorry." And I felt so inadequate, so stupid. It seemed that everyone's problems were so much greater than mine. I was deeply ashamed about the previous evening. I had to be stronger.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I'm obviously not going to write anything graphic, but wondering how obvious this can be. Like can she say in dialogue that she was sexually abused by her father when she was young? Or will I need to keep it vague, imply rather than confirm.

Vague implication only, a phrase or two with no detail. As soon as you go into any kind of detail, sexual content wise, you're up against the line. Violence, however, is permissible, provided it's not sexualised - which is a fucked up standard, but here we are.

In a nutshell, Literotica is not for teenage catharsis.