Divergent Read Book Online

[Regulo Akers]

Thispost discusses how refreshing and empowering it was to a see a sexual assault on screen and see Tris fighting back and stopping the attack. And I agree, this can be a powerful and empowering message. Girls need to know that they can fight back, that they have a RIGHT to fight back. Time and time again I have scene a girl be raped on screen and I did think it was so very important that, for once, the girl fought back and was able to stop an attack. I took my 11-year-old daughter to see this movie and as we left the theater and she was talking about it, one of the things that she mentioned was that if a guy ever tried to kiss her against her will she would fight.

Every time we talk about sexual violence we must always steer the conversation back on track to the real heart of the matter: the crime and not the victim. We must not allow the talking points continue to be about the actions of a victim preceding or in the midst of the attack. The importance of this scene is not whether or not Tris fights back; no, the important thing to be discussing about this scene is how we continue to halfheartedly and without real thought use moments of sexual violence for storytelling and entertainment and how this use continues to create a culture that is willing to so easily glance over those moments on screen and in real life.

Thanks for your thoughtful post on this scene and how we should talk about scenes like it in future. (And of course, thanks for linking to my discussion.) I started writing my post because I was disturbed not just by the decision to change the scene and thus conflate fear or intimacy and sex with fear of sexual assault, and because the book is from Tris' perspective and I'm a woman, I focused on her, in part, because I was seeing the scene through her eyes. However, I do agree that we should consider framing the conversation in a way that emphasizes rape is never the survivor's fault. I mentioned this in my post, but it definitely wasn't the focus. Thanks for making me think more.

I was also uncomfortable with the Medium.com article because again it seems to place the responsibility all on the girl. And the logical extension of the argument is that if you can't/don't fight then you did something wrong. Again, it blames the victim.

Not all girls can be dauntless fighters, but all men are capable of not being rapists. *That* is where the responsibility lies.

Also, in terms of the storytelling, an attempted sexual assault is totally not in keeping with Four's character. There is no way Tris would imagine or fear this. She fears being touched by him, being intimate in allenses of the word, making herself vulnerable. She does not fear being attacked by Four because it's not even a remote possibility.

I think your post series is very thoughtful and important. I hope everyone reads it. Thank you for your comment. Like you, the scene bothered me and I really needed to talk about it these past few days and I appreciated having you to discuss it with.

Tris gets attacked by three boys, including a close friend

Tris spends the night at Four's

Tris and Four kiss

Tris goes into the fear landscape in front of her class and in it she's attacked by three dudes and has a panic attack.

Four scolds her in front of the entire class

Tris slaps Four

Four tells the other instructor that Tris kissed him, and that he thought it was silly and pathetic

Four and Tris make up and kiss because he was only mean to protect her

Tris goes into the final fear landscape for her test and is assaulted by three men

In the same fear landscape, Four kisses her, then unzips and removes her jacket, then kisses her again. He rubs his hands down her harms to her hips, then on the skin between her pants and the bottom on her shirt. She pushes him back and presses her hands to her forehead. He comes back and starts kissing her neck. She tells him she won't have sex with him in a hallucination, then grabs his shoulders, pushes him against the bedpost, and starts kissing him.

Tris is attacked by three boys, including a close friend

Four rescues her, lets her sleep in his room

Tris and Four kiss and she tells him she's doesn't want to move too fast

Four says that's fine, he has no problem sleeping on the floor

Tris goes into the simulator for her final test and Four kisses her, she says no, he pushes her onto the bed, she fights him, kneeing him, and the simulation is over.

I'm also troubled by a lot of the language being directed toward the rape survivor who wrote the article about how much the scene in the movie meant to her. People are blaming a rape victim who is putting herself out there, talking about her experience, for what they perceive to be victim blaming. Everyone doesn't respond to rape the same way. Not every portrayal of a girl fighting off an attacker is meant to condemn those of us who didn't fight back when we were raped.

I do remember the original attack by the 3 in the book and I was glad that the sexual violence element was removed in the movie because it was totally unnecessary in the book. Then this scene happened and I was devastated that they chose to go this route because I also saw it is unnecessary. I can honestly say that I do not remember the attack from the 3 boys occurring more than the initial time, I don't remember it being a part of her fear landscape so I will have to go back in and revisit that part of the book.

What I would like to see, in books and movies, is less sexual violence as a narrative device, as a casual storytelling device, which I believe it is in this work. Frequent exposure to these storytelling elements without exploring the real life ramifications can inure us to the very real world violence that occurs. For those who haven't experienced real life sexual violence, it glosses over the very real implications. And for those who have experiences sexual violence, it can be unnecessarily triggering.

I disagree, however, that the movie shows a healthy relationship in part because in the movie Four is aged up more and given more of a leadership role and I think this blurs the lines regarding the age of consent issues (I am not sure how old Tris is in the movie to be honest but they have said they aged Four up to 24, which makes his relationship with a teenage girl very problematic) and power issues (he is in a power/leadership/teacher role). We see far too many real life situations where older men in positions of power can manipulate that to their advantage. I felt the same way recently while watching The Vampire Academy movie as you saw the relationship between Dmitri and Rose.

But the important thing is that we DO have these types of conversations, with each other and with the tweens and teens in our lives. Because one respectful conversation at a time, we can start shifting paradigms, change the way we talk about consent and relationships, and change the way we respond when we read about sexual violence in both the written and the real world. So thank you.

I'm really (genuinely; no sarcasm) sorry to tell you that regardless of how you may feel, if you look at the twitter mentions of the lady who wrote the Medium.com article, you'll see (peppered in among the men harassing her for insulting 300 while being a fan of Drake and the women thanking her for writing it) snarky remarks from women who want her to know that they think her reaction is wrong. It's all over Tumblr, too.

Also, as a side note, bear in mind that there were some contributing factors here in the form of changes that were made to the story in the movie. In the book, Tris is afraid of intimacy because in Abnegation, family members aren't allowed to hug or show affection in any way, but in the movie, her parents are very open and loving with both their children and each other. In the movie they simplify the differences in how Tris perceives the fear landscapes and how normal Dauntless do by saying that she naturally perceives that the situation she's in isn't real and shatters the false reality, and she has to learn to fight everything with her body and tools she finds in the simulation (as a true Dauntless would) or she will be murdered for being Divergent. Those two things (and the lack of first-person narration, which softened the rape scene in the book), and what I think may have been a desire not to see Tris attacked by and fighting off a trio of men THREE TIMES in the movie, may have contributed to its being portrayed the way it was.

When we first wrote our review discussion of the film, I had wondered whether that scene really was necessary, or if there weren't another way to portray it. But after hearing Kate clearly explain how it played out in the book, I'm not surprised by the choices they made, not only in actually toning down some of what actually occurred, but also, again, because of the other changes they made to Tris' background and character. And it is not a surprise to me, in book or film, that Tris' halluciantions, as a young, inexperienced girl, would involve fear of sexual intimacy with a man she's interested in, nor that it might get out of control.

I am in complete agreement with you (and I appreciate the reasonable tone of your post) that there should NEVER be victim blaming, and I completely understand where you're coming from in expressing your concern. There's been far too many instances in recent memory where sexual assault is casually used as a sensationalist means of entertainment.

Part of my frustration, and Kate's, is that we've watched this poor woman who posted her reaction to the film get ripped to shreds over the past few days. A woman who is a rape victim, who shared her feelings of empowerment after watching a film. I'm not sure if you've seen the vitriol and scorn and condescension directed her way, but this is just one sampling:

-urban-deforest.tumblr.com/post/80511298132/galaxyofwitches-ouyangdan

Why is Lalonde's reaction less valid than other viewers'? Many of those attacking her haven't even seen the film, or aren't remembering that the exact nature of the scene in the book. I don't think that her taking away a positive message from the film necessarily equates with blaming the victims of assault. I don't expect every personal essay to outline opposing opinions and cover all scenarios, particularly one centered around such a painful topic. It's not the language or tone of your post that I'm questioning, btw, but my general frustration with the way this has played out online, because I DO think this rape victim is being unfairly scrutinized and blamed for expressing her opinion.

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