still-luckier-than-bossuet:
slacksimoff:
cerebrosbeforehoes:
lollipopandroid:
THIS IS NOT RAPE.
Doug clearly enjoyed himself, he was only regretting the decision, mainly because of Warlock. But he was not unwilling, and even wanted to go again afterwards. Yes Danger may have gone about it a little bluntly, but Doug is an adult. He could have easily told her to fuck off but instead CHOSE to pursue sex. And let’s be honest, pretty sure Doug was a virgin, so he’s bound to be awkward and confused.
SPOILER ALERT: Sometimes sex just happens like that. For those who actually do have a sex life, and don’t just write fanfics about it online…. sex is a complicated, awkward, and random thing that often just happens on a whim. It isnt all fireplaces and wine glasses. And a lot of the time you may have enjoyed it, but afterwards you regret the hell out of it because seriously what were you thinking?? But just because you regret it doesnt mean it’s rape.
All you silly girls are ruining this—betting most of you don’t even know what a real trigger is and you’re disrespecting real rape victims by throwing the word around.
If you want to keep believing this, that’s your right, but do not force others in this fandom to think the way you do and censor us because of your own insecurity.
Uh, first off, some of the people talking about this are not “silly girls”, so stop that.
Second, I think this falls in the same category as the “Sam Wilson rape/Rick Remender shit” incident where it wasn’t “really rape” because the girl was not, in fact, underage, but it doesn’t really matter because it was read by most people as if she were underage. It felt like rape to the readers.
Danger having to coax his certainty of consent out of him is problematic. Danger coming to Doug IN HIS SLEEP is problematic. Danger, more than anyone else, should know whether or not a teammate is 100% conscious, and able to consent. People who are sleeping cannot give consent.
I read this, and I was uncomfortable. I thought about it from my prospective, and his, and I was offended with the way his teammates reacted.
Please don’t tell complete strangers they don’t understand triggers.
“Silly girls” and sayin’ we’re all sexless know-nothings… Fuck you, lollipopandroid. Glad you used a gif of a toddler, it suits you.
Doug was asleep, or half-asleep, and if he’d been entirely awake and able to defend himself, he would have rebuffed Danger. Danger has to goad him into saying he consented, that he’d do it again. He’s clearly upset and ashamed the rest of the issue. Rape is not just strangers leaping out of bushes, it is very often accquaintances, friends, people who might not even fully understand what they are doing is rape. This shit is real and sweeping it under the rug, just because you can’t tolerate criticism of your favorite media—which, by the way, is most of our favorite too—actually fucks real people up. The culture of dismissing and minimizing rape, and ignorning it, and not educating ppl about it, fucks people up.
Also, is anyone even sure how old Doug is?
I just read the issue – how is no one talking about this? Doug doesn’t even remember half of it! And all of the others, they just took it for granted that everything was ok even if Doug was visibly upset… What the fuck?!
I haven’t responded to this stuff on tumblr, let me do so now.
Before I even start, “little girls?” Seriously? Either you meant that to imply all the complaints are from teenage girls, or you’re using sex as an insult (most likely the latter). Both are terrible and ignorant, and they predispose people toward not wanting to agree with you.
Now for the real meat of my answer. People are assuming a lot of negative things off very little information. We do NOT know how they wound up engaging in sex. If you think you know, then stop, set your outrage aside and actually re-read the page. Let every single word of dialogue sink in for a moment.
One of the very first assumptions I see people make is that Doug was asleep and woke up to find Danger having sex with him. Does the dialogue say that? No, it doesn’t. What it SAYS is that Doug woke up and Danger was there. That could mean anything from “she was having sex with Doug when he woke up” to “she was standing in the doorway looking appealing and she could read all the signs that Doug wanted to have sex” to “he was half-asleep and Danger just assumed he wanted it when he didn’t.” There is a LOT of ambiguity here, and people are acting like their initial interpretation is fact.
The second factor to bear in mind: Danger asked every single person she encountered up to this point if they wanted to have sex with her. She came on to Gambit, asked Warlock, asked Lorna, asked Wanda. By this trend alone, wouldn’t it make a lot more sense that Danger asked him before they had sex?
Here’s my personal interpretation until we get more details: Danger asked Doug. Doug said yes, or something that Danger interpreted as yes. Danger, being Danger as depicted during ANXF, is currently incapable of understanding the sensitive nuances of relationships that would make an average person pick up on other cues that she should not have sex with Doug even if he says yes. Because of this, she proceeds to have sex with him, and Doug says and does nothing to stop her, either because he did want it or because he still wasn’t sure how he felt.
So we get back to the tricky question: did Danger rape Doug? If we look exclusively at the facts and nothing else, we don’t know. We have no real answer. The dialogue is too ambiguous. If we follow my interpretation, then what Danger did can count as rape since Doug wasn’t sure, but it was not Danger’s intent to rape him.
There’s one more piece I want to address real fast: teammate response. Remember, NONE of the team is aware of the questions on consent. They just know Danger and Doug had sex, and Doug wanted it kept secret. With Warlock’s reaction to finding out, Doug wanting it kept secret may look less like “Doug might’ve been raped” and more like “Doug didn’t want to hurt Warlock’s feelings.” The two important reactions here are Lorna and Gambit. Gambit talks to Doug briefly, and while his dialogue looks like typical “how was the sex” stuff, I think he was gauging how Doug’s doing and trying to show some support.
Lorna, on the other hand, doesn’t say anything. I think her lack of response is a mix of things. One, Gambit’s handling it for Doug better than she could. Two, she’s the team leader and perhaps feels that love life is something she shouldn’t interfere with if she doesn’t see anything harmful to it. And three, she has her own recent history with love issues, and perhaps she feels she’s not one to act like she has authority on the subject.
In other words: if Doug said “I think I was raped” or gave signs of it that couldn’t be mistaken for something else, I’m certain the team would’ve reacted much, MUCH differently.
Sorry for one of my usual long spiels, hope this calms everything a bit!
salarta 