InsaneJournal

Rape is not the norm.
Rape is not the norm. There is no reason to assume that a fic chosen at random will contain rape or something else triggery.

When people say that you shouldn't read fic that has no warnings on it because it might contain rape/other triggers, what they're in effect saying is that writing fic about rape is perfectly normal and a standard plot device/twist.

No. It's not. There is no way that it's reasonable to say that writing about rape/child abuse/incest is so common that people should think it's the norm and need to take especial care to avoid it.

The current stats are 1 in 3 women will encounter some form of sexual assault during their lifetime. I have no stats like that for fanfic but common sense would seem to imply that all the gen fic and non-triggery fic should outnumber the fics that fall into niches of rape, incest, underage or whatever else can make people flinch.

And even if a third of all fics written do actually involve rape? That's still less than half. That's still not enough to tell readers that it's their responsibility to e-mail the author and ask if the fic contains rape.

Rape is not the norm and people shouldn't have to treat the process of reading fic as if it is.