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“the ‘no no stop–’ and the ‘you’re going to have to anyway’ dynamic is so normal in BL that I no longer looked at it as rape…” Tiamat goes on to talk about how awful this is. And one level, being taught to think of forced sex as “not rape” is problematic, true. Yet I can see the other side, as well, that it’s a frequent convention of the genre, and there’s nothing wrong with enjoying rape scenarios as part of sexual fantasies. So I can’t agree with Tiamat’s statement that Anything that glamorises rape or sexual assault shouldn’t have a place on the shelves.

So? If it’s part of the formula, and this is clearly fiction with only tangential connection to realism, should any reference to rape be banned? One of the commenters mentions how rape fantasies are common among the young female readers the genre is aimed at. I think there’s a very good reason for that: women are taught that girls who want and enjoy sex are dirty or impure. So a rape fantasy makes enjoyable sex not their fault — they couldn’t prevent it, they were forced into it, and so the element of guilt is removed.

However in Gerard and Jacques I can’t help but feel that rape is being glamorised, especially when a member of the fandom say’s that she no longer sees rape as rape. If it was a woman being raped I wonder if she’d feel the same way? Or it’s only okay because it’s a man being forced into sex.

I personally am pleased with the EOCS’ decision. It is an important rejection of a deeply offensive form of expression. I would not have been pleased if it had been the Japanese government that had decided to ban such material. There is a world of difference between government censorship and the rejection of certain forms of expression as unacceptable by private groups.