New & Struggling Author!!
I have just joined tumblr! For....HuaLian purposes, but after cavorting about, flitting from post to post like a seasoned Quora user, I feel compelled to post about this dilemma.
I'm aware, I'm aware,
It's overzealous to think about the fame of your own thought-child, before you even decide to conceive it.
But I cannot help but think about an issue, that issue being how one of the somewhat present villains in my novel may be perceived!
It irks me, that future readers may feel as if she and one of the protagonists she antagonizes would be a "shippable" couple....purely on the basis that she is a woman.
I've seen this countless times, with female abusers portrayed by the media. They're romanticized, their torment taken as some sort of erotic display of dominance. Many users are very desperate for a "strong female character" or they want a "dominant female" character so they may intentionally or unintentionally take in a female abuser, simply on the basis that they look conventionally attractive. I want to give male victims of statutory rape a responsible and hopefully empowering representation...but I'm afraid that part of my future would-be fandom (gosh that sounds so silly to say) would end up sexualizing this and glorifying her behavior while shipping her to her younger victim.
While the answer to this moral quandary may just be laying off the screen time for a bit and focusing on writing, every time I do write, I end up thinking about this possibility when characterizing her, and it disgusts me to a great amount. So and so I have a difficult time writing and I find myself succumbing to trepidation.
Does anyone have any tips?