I've Been Rewatching Harvey Birdman: Attorney At Law, A Show That Irreparably Damaged My Sense Of Humor,

Drew Velma for today’s stream.

 "Ever wonder what Velma hides underneath that sweater of hers? Now you know.“ -Scrappy-Doo maybe.

by Philtomato 🍅@otagoth

i wholeheartedly believe the onceler fandom is still alive.

“Are you my good boy?”

“I am, Master..”

Dick is a rape survivor?! I have never heard about it! (I'm mostly into the Wonder Woman comics, so I don't know much about other things…) Could you elaborate, if it is not too much bother?

(In reference to this post.)

Nah, it’s no bother!

Technically, it’s actually happened twice, sadly enough.

The first time was in New Titans in the 90′s (after the comic had started really going off the rails, basically). One of Dick’s teammates at that time was a shape-shifter named Mirage, who took the form of Dick’s girlfriend Kory and impersonated her for a short period of time:

Dick (as seen here) didn’t find out about what had happened until days later, by which point he and the fake Kory had already slept together. 

Now, this is really stupid writing because I don’t believe for a second that Dick, who (a) had been with Kory for years at this point, and (b) is a detective trained by Batman, wouldn’t have picked up the difference or at least gotten suspicious. But be that as it may, the fact of the matter is that Dick thought he was sleeping with his girlfriend but was actually sleeping with someone else without his knowledge or consent, which makes this rape. 

And the way the comic handled this was… really freaking terrible, to be blunt. There was no acknowledgement that Dick was a victim here and had been taken advantage of, and Kory basically acted like he’d cheated on her:

Yikes. Oh, and Dick’s other teammate Pantha called him a “slut” for what had happened:

(Also note Mirage’s complete and utter lack of remorse for what she did. Jesus.)

So this storyline was basically one huge mess all around, notable for terrible writing of Dick, Kory, and basically every character involved, as well as Dick being victim-blamed and called a slut for having been raped. Lovely.

Unfortunately, the next time rape was brought up in Dick’s story wasn’t any better.

This was during Devin Grayson’s Nightwing run, in 2004. I think it’s the more well-known of these stories, and probably what most people are referring to when they talk about Dick having been raped.

To make a long story short, the villain Blockbuster was trying to destroy Dick’s life at that time, threatening to kill everyone he loved, and among other things had just burned down Haly’s Circus, so Dick was in a really bad place. Dick and a vigilante named Tarantula confronted Blockbuster, and Tarantula told Dick to step aside so she could kill Blockbuster, which he did.

Dick as overwhelmed with guilt about this and basically went into a huge freakout over it:

Then Tarantula comes up to “comfort” Dick, and this happens:

The original script of this scene referred to this as a rape, though Devin Grayson (the writer of the scene) subsequently made the controversial statement that “I’ve never used the word ‘rape,’ I just said it was nonconsensual.” (A nonsensical statement since the definition of rape is nonconsensual sex, but I suppose it made sense in her head.) It wasn’t until last year that she officially admitted it had been rape and apologized for how she’d handled the story, explaining that “I used a literal rape as a metaphorical nadir, and I know better. Or, at least, I should have known better and certainly do now.”

Which… you know, sure, whatever. I’m glad she admitted it was rape and apologized, although that interview is still full of some really problematic statements about Dick and Tarantula’s “relationship” and how it was apparently a betrayal of Barbara, so I’m not entirely sure Ms. Grayson has learned her lesson.

The bottom line is that while I’m not necessarily against using rape as a plot in comics, both of these stories are absolute debacles when it comes to handling such an important and sensitive issue. In both cases, the word “rape” is never used in-story, and Dick is never allowed to express the trauma he went through and work through it (the Tarantula story deals with his trauma over the death of Blockbuster and so on, but not specifically with the rape.) More troublingly still, in both cases Dick is implicitly or explicitly blamed for his own assault, instead of being acknowledged as the victim and supported.

This is why I take such a strong issue with the way Grayson portrays Dick being sexually violated (which is what it is when people take nude or partially-nude photos of you without your consent and then plan to steal your underwear) or sexualized without his consent as something that should be seen as funny, progressive, or empowering to women. That should never be okay in any case, but especially not when you look at the history of Dick’s character and the way he’s been both sexually assaulted and then victim-blamed for it.

i can draw shipping fanart sometimes

sorry

beep

still my fave homestuck ship