My politics are infecting my writing, take two

[valarltd]

I have had an epiphany. I am at a stage where I feel morally obligated to not write heterosexuality as functional situation. (been there for a while) It's even starting to lap over into my same-sex stuff. I feel obligated to show every relationship involving a male partner as dysfunctional.

If there was a one in three chance your car would explode every time you turned it on, would you drive? If there was a one in three chance that any meal you ate was poisoned, how much eating would you do? Yet, according to the CDC, one in three men report abuse from their male partner. One in three women report abuse from their male partner. The problem is clearly having a male partner. (and this was early in the recession, I suspect the numbers may have risen)

I'm at a point where I completely expect men to kill their wives for no reason other than to be rid of them. They do it often enough in reality.

I mean, I know, Tolstoy. (Happy families are alike, Unhappy families are unhappy in their own ways) But my morality and politics are interfering with my livelihood and pleasure.

So how do I reconcile lived experience, statistics and news articles with ideals and writing?

Do I treat the decent man like I treat any other mythical creature and follow the rules of the fictional universe?
Werewolves change on the full moon. Vampires drink blood. Subs control the scene. And men love their partners.

Do I have an obligation to my readers to NOT present men as acceptable love objects, but instead as the danger they are? Much in the same way that I make sure the sex is anatomically possible and safe.

Do I need to re-examine my morals and politics? They are based on reality.

Or maybe I just need to get away from the news.

Comments

[nbrooks.livejournal.com]

Develop a Robot/Android kink like I have?

(Epidemiologist mode)

[cimadness.livejournal.com]

Are you using NISVS data? Because NISVS gives lifetime prevalence of intimate partner violence among US women at 35.6% . . . but 12-month prevalence at "only" 5.9%. (Interestingly, the totals for men are less different than one might imagine: 28.5% and 5.0%, respectively.) Per-partner prevalence is undoubtedly somewhere in between, but I would guess closer to 12-month than lifetime (maybe I'm being optimistic).