Hmmm.

[vr_trakowski]

If you read Löyli, would you be willing to give me an opinion on a possibly touchy issue? 


It has been brought to my attention that the scenario I created in Löyli could be considered sexual assault. 

I am not in possession of details, so I'm not sure to which part the objection refers--Tony hugging Pepper during their argument, or the encounter afterwards.  It could be both, I suppose, though I thought I was making it clear that Pepper was entirely willing for at least the latter part. 

In my head, Tony's hug, while unwelcome, isn't sexual in nature; it's a product of his epiphany, and he doesn't let her go at first because he's too caught up in that to pay attention to her anger.  But I may not have made that clear enough.  It could also be that some definitions of sexual assault are more stringent than mine. 

Opinions?  I'd really like to know what you think; you are, after all, the people for whom these stories are written.  Did I go too far?  Did I break character?  Am I doing the characters, or the fandom, a disservice? 

Thank you. 

ETA: Wow.  I wasn't anticipating quite this response, but I'm glad to see it!  Thank you all for your honesty, and for your courtesy.  And if you came from somewhere outside the fandom, welcome, feel free to join in. 

I fully intend to respond to the new replies, but if I don't get some sleep I'm going to start hallucinating, so I'll be back tomorrow.  Please, carry on meanwhile if you are so moved; just stay courteous. 

Comments

Part V

[amonitrate.livejournal.com]

He was infuriating. She wanted to stamp her feet and throw a tantrum. Instead Pepper set her teeth and shoved again. “Back off.”

Sobering a little, he did, letting his arms fall and stepping away. His towel fell too, but he didn't even seem to notice. “Pepper. Listen to me.”

Another troubling aspect, which probably deserves a separate response. Here, Pepper is infantilized: "she wants to stomp her feet and throw a tantrum."

Pepper shoves him again and tells him to back off. He does, temporarily, and his towel falls away, leaving him presumably naked and aroused. Pepper puts distance between them, or tries to. She expresses her disinterest in even listening to him at that point.

“No.” Pepper stumbled backwards, knowing she sounded petulant but too upset to care. Part of her wanted to snatch him close again, towel or no towel, her treacherous body trying to overwhelm her good sense.

“Yes.” Tony paced her, hands held out to his sides but still managing to crowd her, until the bench hit the back of her knees and she had to stop.

She knows she sounds petulant? Again, emphasizing that somehow her reaction to unwanted contact, to Tony not respecting her expressed boundaries, is childish? Her conflicting feelings resurface: yeah, she desires him, but she's choosing not to act on it. This is the key to me, because what does Tony do next? He ignores her wishes again and physically crowds her until she's up against the bench and has no where to go. He does not take No for an answer. Again.

He kept going, leaning forward at a dangerous angle to cage her in with his arms. "Dummy won't open that door until I say so. You'll listen sooner or later."

Tony disregards her explicit wishes again. Cages her in with his arms. Then he tells her that not only is there no way out, that Dummy won't let her out until Tony wishes it, that she's going to give in to him "sooner or later."

Again, given the context of the scene, this takes on connotations that I assume were not intended. Where it comes across like he's going to keep at her until she is worn down and gives in to his sexual advances. While it might not be technically rape, it's usually called coercion. The woman gives in because she feels she has no other options, and giving in is better than being raped. Whether or not she has feelings for him is not the point here; she did not wish to have sexual contact with him at that time and place, and he disregards that repeatedly and with force. Not only disregards it, but continues the contact, and tries to tell her eventually she'll do what he wishes.

That's how this scene reads. Regardless of the romantic bit that follows.

He was so close, and he smelled so good. Pepper felt her anger shift, making way for recklessness, and it occurred to her that all the reasoning that had held her back didn't apply.

So Pepper regains her agency a bit and turns the tables on him. Good for her. To me, this still does not read as her having power over him, because it doesn't erase anything that's happened before it. In fact, everything that happened before colors everything that happens next, no matter how consenting she is.

Pepper looked straight into Tony's eyes, seeing the same rush she was riding and betting that he hadn't gotten around to updating things. "Jarvis," she said sweetly, "implement protocol Gimmel Five."

"Acknowleged," Jarvis replied, and Tony's jaw dropped.

"Pepper, you bitch!"

This is particularly ugly given what immediately preceded it. So, Pepper takes control of the situation and Tony calls her a bitch for it. She secures a way out if she so chooses, and he calls her one of the most gendered insults there is, perhaps under "cunt," but no less powerful, especially in this context. She turns him down repeatedly, she makes sure she can leave, and he calls her a bitch for it.

Again, this colors everything that follows, to me, just as it is colored by everything that led up to it. It's not just an insult in anger, in the midst of an argument. It's uttered in the context of her thwarting his desire to have her, right there in the sauna, whether she's willing or not. That's how it reads to me.