History Main / RapeIsTheNewDeadParents

->"''It turns out that Darkness, Diabolo, Crab and Goyle's dad was a vampire. He committed suicide by slitting his wrists with a razor. He had raped them and stuff before too. They all got so depressed that they became goffik and converted to Stanism [sic].''"
-->-- ''MyImmortal''

A lot of amateur writers out there find the [[DarkAndTroubledPast tragic backstory]] appealing. After all, most of the interesting characters didn't get raised in Suburbia, USA with a loving, complete family that cared for them. That's just boring. But CharacterDevelopment is hard... You mean you have to ''explain'' things? But it takes time and research to establish believable mental illness, and physical handicaps would only get in the way of action sequences. Can't you just say [[RapeAsBackstory they got raped]] and be done with it?

Anyway, this is the tendency for writers who are just starting out, or for very lazy writers, often of FanFiction and role playing, but it can appear just about anywhere, to just casually drop rape into their characters' story for DeusAngstMachina or {{Wangst}}. Usually found in [[RapeAsBackstory backstory]], but it's not uncommon for rape to happen "on-screen" via two sentences that wouldn't qualify as IKEAErotica. The writers want to add some dimension of frailty to their character and give a good reason for moodiness, but it's done in such a flimsy and unexplored way that it means... nothing. It's mentioned like mentioning a casual detail on a college application. Perhaps the most common mark of the SympatheticSue, this trope tends to evoke kneejerk righteous anger with its use. It takes one of those horrible things which take years to get over, if ever, and turns it into a rather cheap shock.

Also frequent is to drop a history of prostitution within the character's backstory with similar implications. If you see this, it's often assumed that it's supposed to be the type that involves some element of human slavery, with nearly every 'client' being some abusive scumbag. This is an example of DidNotDoTheResearch. Not all 'clients' make it painful, and one major reason for becoming a prostitute is a drug addiction - although of course, drugs never come into it. That would suggest it was the character's choice.

The classical line for this trope is "Jane once got raped when walking home one night [optional:and her parents didn't care]."

Note that this is not merely RapeAsBackstory. While it often overlaps, that has its own page and is neutral. Also note that this is not just poorly handled rape; it has to be out of the story's attention within at most a minute and never show up again.

The trope name comes from the fact that ParentalAbandonment used to be the stock "tragic background" of badly created characters. Perhaps due to a combination of dead parents being considered cliche by uncaring writers (and less common in RealLife) and the fact that they think rape spares everything short of the character's virginity, it has replaced the dead parents for lazy tragedy.

Physically abusive parents are quickly becoming popular as the go to tragic backstory. Then again, rape is often still involved.

Examples of this in amateur writing are too numerous to list and too forgettable to remember. It still occasionally makes its way into the more dubious works, however. Differentiated from RapeAsDrama and RapeAsComedy in that it's neither dramatic or comedic. It's just... there.

Before adding an example, please think of whether or not the rape could be removed without impacting the rest of the story. If so, it's this. If the rape does mean something to the story or the character, it doesn't count.

See also GratuitousRape.

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!!Examples:

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[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* 14-year-old Rena Sendou in ''GetBackers'' was raped by both a teacher and her stepfather, although as soon as Himiko defeats her, it loses its seriousness, as Ban runs right up and rips the bodice of her dress to show Himiko her [[strike:boobs]] curse scar. After her HeelFaceTurn, she goes straight to GoodIsDumb and OutOfFocus, and it's never mentioned again.
* ''FushigiYuugi''. Nakago, who had spent the ''entire story'' up to that point being a CompleteMonster, fights Tamahome, who looks into his eyes...and a {{Flashback}} ensues to when Nakago accidentally killed his mother when trying to rescue her from rape...only to be himself raped by the Emperor of Kutou. It might have made him a more sympathetic character if that had been established earlier on and/or his motives for wanting to [[AGodAmI become a god]] clearer, but that it was shoehorned in at the last minute makes it this trope.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comics]]

* This trope is depressingly common for ActionGirl heroines in fantasy fiction, where it's used as justification for this woman taking up the sword and becoming tough and badass. Male characters don't get the same treatment, mostly because male-on-male rape is still very uncommon in media (except maybe for PrisonRape, which [[RapeIsFunnyWhenItIsMaleOnMale most of the time]] is PlayedForLaughs) and, of course, everyone in fictionland knows that it [[DoubleStandard doesn't count as rape]] when a [[RapeIsOkWhenItIsFemaleOnMale woman abuses a man]].
* Janissa, [[ConanTheBarbarian Conan]]'s occasional enemy and ally, was raped by Demons every night until she could fight them off as part of her training to become a master swordswoman in Dark Horse's ''Conan'' Comic Book. Needless to say, people wrote in pissed that the writers were lazy enough to resort to this and her every other appearance in the series inevitably led to the authors apologising, printing the letters of angry readers and promoting rape help-lines.
** The writer was KurtBusiek, and an editor of later issues of ''Conan'', Rachel Edidin, [[http://www.girl-wonder.org/insideout/2007/04/16/sexual-assault-in-comics-awareness-month-conan-12-revisited/ wrote a blog post commenting on reader reactions]] (part of a series of posts for Sexual Assault Awareness Month: they are all worth reading).
* [[{{Spiderman}} Black Cat]] was retconned as having been raped being her motive to become a professional thief. Well, she was intending to "steal his life" in revenge, but because he died accidentally first she decided to steal things from everyone. Yes, there is a disconnect there.
* Lampshaded and subverted in Garth Ennis' ''TheBoys'': Annie/Starlight (member of a [[{{TheDCU}} Justice League of America]] knock-off) is told by her MegaCorp overseers that she is getting a DarkerAndEdgier reboot that prominently features [[{{RapeAsBackstory}} rape]]. This change is also used to justify the {{Stripperiffic}} new costume they want her to wear. [[spoiler:As a repeated victim of real sexual violence at the hands of her teammates, she does not respond favorably to the idea.]]
** The series is verging on HypocriticalHumour on this issue: When attempting to sell Annie on the idea, one of the consultants mentions that the writers love it as a dramatic device, but over the course of the series, aside from the spoilered example above, it is revealed that [[spoiler: Butcher's wife was raped, almost certainly by The Homelander, and died as a result; Godolkin, the Charles Xavier expy, raped all of his G-Men ''while they were still children'', turning some of them into rapists, and others into nutcases and/or suicides; ''Wee Hughie'' has been raped (or at least molested) by Black Noir; and Tek Knight [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking raped a melon, his butler's ear, his car's exhaust pipe, his psychiatrist's coffee, and an owl]].]]
*** [[spoiler: [[ArsonMurderAndLifeSaving And an asteroid that was threatening the Earth. ]] ]]
* Alex, the female COG soldier from the ''GearsOfWar'' comic.
* Fortunately averted in Josh Lesnick's ''Wendy'': The comic ended before Josh could introduce this trope and further send his series into full-blown CerebusSyndrome, and only revealed his original ideas for the ending after he finally went back and tied up all the loose ends years later.

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[[folder:Fan Fic]]

* ''MyImmortal'', where a character's parents who committed suicide "had raped them [[{{Narm}} and stuff]] before too"
* This was used for ''two'' MarySue original characters in ''HogwartsExposed''. The first, Caitlin, was tied to a tree and raped by Madame Hooch (''yes really'') and left to die. The second, Jamie, was nearly raped when attending the Quiddich World Cup and the Death Eaters attacked. Both girls show absolutely no signs of trauma from this.
** Which is made more jarring when later Jamie ''is'' raped and suffers a complete breakdown.
* ''[[FanFic/LegolasByLaura legolas by laura]]'': the ten-year-old [[BlackHoleSue heroine]] Laura is kidnapped by Sauron "because she got a power and she can distoy [[CardCarryingVillain us all the bad guys]]" and raped by orcs, and seems [[EmotionlessGirl surprisingly calm]] about this. Legolas comes to rescue her and casually mentions that "when I was your age they did the same thing to me", never mentioning why they did this or how he escaped, and it's never brought up again.
* Pick any ''WeissKreuz'' fanfic focusing on a mysterious new girl. It's better than evens that said mysterious new girl's rape will be mentioned ''somewhere'' in the story, usually as part of the new character's FreudianExcuse for joining Weiss, Schwarz or, in some cases, both, and then seldom if ever mentioned again. (Bonus fun can be had by counting how many of these mysterious girls ''also'' have dead parents.) Still, it beats the fics where they have [[ChivalrousPervert Youji]] try and do it...

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[[folder:Film]]

* The eponymous character of ''Chasing Amanda'' mentions being raped by her brother almost casually. Her uncle is appropriately stunned, but she zips right by it. Her treatment of the subject may be partly due to her tendency to "hide" from her own life, but it still feels like an attempt at cheap sympathy for a movie lacking in sympathetic characters.
* [[spoiler:Lexy]] in ''Adulthood''
* Mary Kay in ''The Woodsman'' is a possible example of this
* Martha Beck in ''The Lonely Hearts Killers'', though this is {{Justified}}, as the RealLife Martha Beck claimed to have been raped by her brother.
* In Bollywood film ''Striker'' the main character rapes a woman (who had been letting him live with her!) after she scolds him for bad behavior. They are later married, with no mention made of the rape.

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[[folder:Literature]]

* In ''TheBlackCompany'' [[spoiler: Arkana]] is raped by members of the eponymous company. She's cool with it though, and joins the company [[spoiler: as Annalist]] a few weeks later.
** Likewise, [[spoiler: the White Rose]] is found by the Company while being casually gang-raped as a seven-year-old. Nobody gives it much thought.
* There was an old mystery where a woman says, "He tried to rape me, but I'd forgotten about it." The writer of the book where they read that (a man) nominated that for a Male Chauvinist Piggery Award.
* Used, abused and ground into dust in the ''AnitaBlake'' series. About the only vaguely original thing is that it's mostly used with men, and even then it takes a turn into UnfortunateImplications as the title character's UnwantedHarem is mostly composed of rape survivors and not only can she [[{{DeusSexMachina}} magically force them to have sex with her]] to [[{{HornyDevils}} suck their lifeforce,]] but has actually done so.
** [[{{OurWerewolvesAreDifferent}} Richard and Jason]] were raped by [[{{TheVamp}} their pack's former Alpha female.]]
** Both [[{{OurVampiresAreDifferent}} Jean-Claude and Asher]] were whored out by [[{{TheVamp}} their former mistress.]]
** Nathaniel used to be a child prostitute. Kind of subverted in that he's obviously messed up, but eventually it gets glossed over for [[{{DeusSexMachina}} porn purposes.]]
** Subverted with [[{{OurWerewolvesAreDifferent}} Micah]]: he wasn't raped, but tortured when he refused to rape his pack-mates. Played straight in that the major resulting trauma is... [[{{EyesOfGold}} yellow-green cat eyes.]]
* [[spoiler:Rosalie]] from ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' was gangraped and left to die before she was found and made a vampire. Sure, she went off and killed the people who raped her and she's had a long time to get over it, but she's shown to be visibly upset about not being able to ''bear children'' while casually telling the story of how she was raped.
* Used to effect in NickCave's ''And The Ass Saw The Angel'' when toward the end, the narrator reveals that oh yeah, he got raped one time. He's already so completely insane that its lack of effect on him feels wholly in-character.
* Subverted in-character in ''Russka'', where a young woman from the Ukraine confesses to her fiance that she's no longer a virgin, having been raped by a Tatar when she was younger. (Truth is, [[spoiler: she's been in [[ParentalIncest an incestuous relationship with her widowed father for years]], brought about due to mutual grief and social isolation, plus her father's alcoholism]].) The alleged rape is only alluded to once after that, when her now-husband kills a Tatar raider, and by that point she's forgotten telling him the story.
* Mitsuko Souma in BattleRoyale. The degree to which she winds up getting screwed up differs across the novel, manga, and film, with her going absolutely AxCrazy in the manga.
* Melanie Rawn uses this in ''DragonPrince.''
* The reason Joanna Archer from the ''Signs of the Zodiac'' series is on the outs with her family and trained in martialry is because she was raped as a teenager.
* Shattering Glass by Gale Giles does this for two characters (Young and Rob), being used as the link between them. The story only uses that link as "they were both betrayed by someone they trusted" (one by his father, one by a camp counselor). Only one scene in the entire 215-page book references how the abuse being rape affects Young. In the scene, Young's girlfriend comes onto him, and he briefly remembers the rape; however, the next chapter begins after they have sex, and no conflict over the memory is shown. Rob doesn't even get this much. To add to all this mess, it's "revealed" by a chapter starting with one character reading a poem Young wrote about a kid being raped ([[{{Squick}} yes, we get to read the poem]]) and telling him what happened wasn't his fault. All in all, ANY type of abuse could have filled the spot of the rape if Giles wasn't so hell-bent on "shock value."

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

* Used recently in the pilot of ''TheSecretLifeOfTheAmericanTeenager''. The TroubledButCute Ricky was molested by his father and while it's clearly meant to be a FreudianExcuse for his misogyny, it was so briefly touched on and so poorly acted out that it just failed to do anything but fill sixty seconds of screentime.
* PsychoLesbian Claire in ''Peak Practice'', which does nothing to help the UnfortunateImplications.
* Gabrielle in ''DesperateHousewives''. Its casually mentioned in season 1 that she ran away from home after being raped by her stepfather and its brought up again in season 2 to emphasize her mothers lack of care towards her
* Somewhat used as a FreudianExcuse for James Robson and Shirley Bellinger in ''{{Oz}}''.
* ''BadGirls''. Denny Blood and her mother Jessie. RapeAsBackstory is explored in more depth with the character Shell Dockley.
* Carol in ''Band of Gold''.
* Subverted in the US version of ''TheOffice''. When cornered for altering some files, Kelly tries to use rape as an excuse and is chastised for it by Michael, who tells her that she can't keep doing that.
* On one episode of ''{{Shark}}'', one of the prosecutors claims to have been repeatedly raped by her aunt's boyfriend. In terms of her characterization, it comes completely out of the blue - she'd been bitchy in past, but never particularly angsty. It later turns out that she'd never been raped and that this was a lie designed specifically to convince a witness to come forward.
* If a female character has been on an American SoapOpera for at least three years, she's 90% likely to have been raped, molested, or been a prostitute (or had rape/molestation/prostitution revealed as part of her backstory). Maybe a quarter of the time it's treated as something more than a DeusAngstMachina or [[ChandlersLaw Chandler's Assault]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Music]]

* [[CoheedAndCambria Claudio Sanchez]] said of ''My Brother's Blood Machine'' the first album by his solo project The Prize Fighter Inferno "And there are so many subplots. One, for example, talks about how Cecilia's father happens to molest her, and eventually she can't take it anymore and tries to convince Johnny to leave with her. She steals her two brothers, who happen to be twins, and Johnny decides not to go. So she ends up running away with the twins into the woods." That her molestation and her brothers being twins are revealed with the same level of nonchalance is particularly bad.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* Inverted in ''TheElderScrollsIVOblivion'', as part of the Dark Brotherhood (Assassins' Guild) storyline. [[spoiler: The man you kill for the initiation quest, named Rufio, apparently raped and killed the wife or daughter of the man who then arranged for Rufio's assassination]].

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[[folder: WebComics]]
* Though revealed in the character interviews section, [[{{Flipside}} Umber]] (a married, [[FetishFuel bisexual exotic dancer]]) reveals that she lost her virginity when she was raped at [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil a young age.]]
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[[folder: WebOriginal]]
* ''SurvivalOfTheFittest'' has several characters in version one and the version two pregame (most characters in version two proper either [[{{Retcon}} retconned]] it out or didn't use it to begin with) who mention having been raped in their profile, to the point that some handlers were exasperatedly asking if anyone had ''not'' been raped. Most of the time it was just mentioned once and then never brought up. There was also one v1 character who worked as a prostitute. A variation appears in the increasingly common event of characters being raped in game. It went from one disturbing event in version one to something that happens at least once in every game.
** Rape Hands. That is all.
[[/folder]]
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<<|RapeTropes|>>
<<|BadWriting|>>

->"''It turns out that Darkness, Diabolo, Crab and Goyle's dad was a vampire. He committed suicide by slitting his wrists with a razor. He had raped them and stuff before too. They all got so depressed that they became goffik and converted to Stanism [sic].''"\\
--''MyImmortal''

* One trope read about an old mystery where a woman says, "He tried to rape me, but I'd forgotten about it." The writer of the book where they read that (a man) nominated that for a Male Chauvinist Piggery Award.
* Used, abused and grounded into dust in the ''AnitaBlake'' series. About the only vaguely original thing is that it's mostly used with men, and even then it takes a turn into UnfortunateImplications as the title character's UnwantedHarem is mostly composed of rape survivors and not only can she [[{{DeusSexMachina}} magically force them to have sex with her]] to [[{{HornyDevils}} suck their lifeforce,]] but has actually done so.

* Lampshaded and subverted in Garth Ennis' ''The Boys'': Annie/Starlight (member of a [[{{TheDCU}} Justice League of America]] knock-off) is told by her MegaCorp overseers that she is getting a DarkerAndEdgier reboot that prominently features [[{{RapeAsBackstory}} rape]]. This change is also used to justify the {{Stripperiffic}} new costume they want her to wear. [[spoiler:As a repeated victim of real sexual violence at the hands of her teammates, she does not respond favorably to the idea.]]

* This was used for ''two'' MarySue original characters in ''Hogwarts Exposed''. The first, Caitlin, was tied to a tree and raped by Madame Hooch (''yes really'') and left to die. The second, Jamie, was nearly raped when attending the Quiddich World Cup and the Death Eaters attacked. Both girls show absolutely no signs of trauma from this.

* Mary Kay in ''TheWoodsman'' is a possible example of this

* Melanie Rawn uses this in ''Dragon Prince.''

* PsychoLesbian Claire in ''PeakPractice'', which does nothing to help the UnfortunateImplications.