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Abstract: This essay looks at the rape myths in the series by these authors (Rice's Beauty series, Bishop's Dark Jewels series, and James' Fifty Shades series). Even though these are works of fantasy, they perpetuate male rape myths that say that men and boys are not or cannot be traumatized by sexual trauma because they are male. The perpetuation of such myths, even in fantasy fiction, makes the public less aware of trauma faced by male victims of sexual assault and rape and silences male victims.
Male Rape Myths perpetuate the idea that males (boys and men) are unaffected by sexual assault and rape. These myths include the following ideas: that a male cannot be raped, that a male who is raped must have wanted such treatment, that only gay males can be raped, that males are not traumatized by being raped, that a male cannot be raped by a female, that male rape only happens in prison, that same sex rape means that the victim will become homosexual, that homosexual and/or bisexual males deserve rape because they are deviant, that if a victim responds sexually during rape he must of wanted to be raped. However, mounting evidence tells us that boys and men are traumatized by rape (perhaps even on the scope of the trauma experienced by female victims of rape) as the testimony of Victim #4 in the Jerry Sandusky/Penn State Child Abuse case made clear as well as the stories of the many victims of sexual abuse at the hands of Catholic priests (Panaritis).
Despite this growing awareness that sexual assault traumatizes victims of both genders, popular culture is replete with stories that perpetuate Male Rape Myths making it more difficult for males to come forward and seek the treatment they desperately need. Anne Rice, publishing her Beauty trilogy under the name A.N. Roquelaurie, has her characters, male princes and female princesses, sent to the Queen's kingdom to serve as sexual slaves to her favorites and to be offered out to court elites. These characters endure repeated rapings, beatings and whippings, and humiliations and degradations, in the course of their "educations," but they are not traumatized by their experiences. This includes Prince Alexi, Prince Tristan, and Prince Laurent. Anne Bishop in...