To the people in the comments, who have had to deal with a certain user telling them that they're being hateful, moralistic, misogynistic, antis for disliking mc, being angry over the ending or demanding that the author do better, your opinion holds weight because rape is never a joke. That said, we now know that SB used rape as part of humiliation and complete break of a certain character and no, I am not insisting that author change her story but rather recognise that what was done to Byun Minho was rape up till the final chapters and not hail the mc as a bdsm queen or sexy dominatrix.
The utter tone deafness of using rape, a problem that plagues women more than anyone, to one-up a female character in a story that so blatantly tries to be feminist in it's approach was disappointing. Plus having her face no consequences for it and in turn being rewarded with professional success, a devoted slave etc really shows that the author sees people in terms of who can be shown getting raped and who cannot. And yes Byun Minho, Yang Gyerin, Woo Haesol and Cha Wookyung were also raped. Even if verbal consent is not involved, physical cues practically don't exist in SB.
For the Gyerin-Haesol scene (straight guy forced on a lesbian while both are visibly uncomfortable), all of Haesol's scenes (no consent, no aftercare), all of Minho's scenes (rape, forced penetration, unwanted humiliation, no aftercare) and yes, with Wookyung too (forced oral sex). Wookyung himself doesn't practice consensual sex and is pretty screwed up so I don't know why we think that his and MC's scenes are going to be consensual since they are both sadistic rapists and regularly cross boundaries. Even though he's the psychopathic villain, WOOKYUNG WAS VIOLATED TOO (check ep 81-82), so no exception there.
It is okay to feel uncomfortable when a story tries so hard to make you empathize with a rapist while simultaneously punishing the rape victim with more rape and violence with not even a note of cognizance is passed by the writer who simply assumes that if a woman is criticised then she is justified in her revenge, 10 years later by rape actually what am I saying, mc is a perpetual rapist. Even the people she likes suffer from her selfishness.
I know rape is a constant in manhuaverse but let's not normalise it under the guise of "others do it too, why should women be hated for it?" rape is not gender specific and rapists who are glorified instead of being tackled carefully as problematic characters as part of a dark/psychological/rape fantasy. Nothing wrong in writing whatever you want but if you misrepresent, exploit or fail to address THE KEY THEMES that your work is about then yes, readers have every right to hate your idealogy and your work. SB picked up BDSM, Feminism, LGBTQIA and failed to even properly lay out the MOST BASIC FRAMEWORK of those concepts, sufficiently disappointing the communities as well.
Lastly, people have different tolerance levels. I am very sensitive to themes like abuse, humiliation, rape, assault and violence therefore this work becomes more vile for me with time. There are others who are able to digest the same content without needing the still necessary disclaimers but as the former, please don't let some callous idiot tell you that your feelings regarding the story are over the top/ you're projecting/ being unfair whatever.
To the people in the comments, who have had to deal with a certain user telling them that they're being hateful, moralistic, misogynistic, antis for disliking mc, being angry over the ending or demanding that the author do better, your opinion holds weight because rape is never a joke. That said, we now know that SB used rape as part of humiliation and complete break of a certain character and no, I am not insisting that author change her story but rather recognise that what was done to Byun Minho was rape up till the final chapters and not hail the mc as a bdsm queen or sexy dominatrix.
The utter tone deafness of using rape, a problem that plagues women more than anyone, to one-up a female character in a story that so blatantly tries to be feminist in it's approach was disappointing. Plus having her face no consequences for it and in turn being rewarded with professional success, a devoted slave etc really shows that the author sees people in terms of who can be shown getting raped and who cannot. And yes Byun Minho, Yang Gyerin, Woo Haesol and Cha Wookyung were also raped. Even if verbal consent is not involved, physical cues practically don't exist in SB.
For the Gyerin-Haesol scene (straight guy forced on a lesbian while both are visibly uncomfortable), all of Haesol's scenes (no consent, no aftercare), all of Minho's scenes (rape, forced penetration, unwanted humiliation, no aftercare) and yes, with Wookyung too (forced oral sex). Wookyung himself doesn't practice consensual sex and is pretty screwed up so I don't know why we think that his and MC's scenes are going to be consensual since they are both sadistic rapists and regularly cross boundaries. Even though he's the psychopathic villain, WOOKYUNG WAS VIOLATED TOO (check ep 81-82), so no exception there.
It is okay to feel uncomfortable when a story tries so hard to make you empathize with a rapist while simultaneously punishing the rape victim with more rape and violence with not even a note of cognizance is passed by the writer who simply assumes that if a woman is criticised then she is justified in her revenge, 10 years later by rape actually what am I saying, mc is a perpetual rapist. Even the people she likes suffer from her selfishness.
I know rape is a constant in manhuaverse but let's not normalise it under the guise of "others do it too, why should women be hated for it?" rape is not gender specific and rapists who are glorified instead of being tackled carefully as problematic characters as part of a dark/psychological/rape fantasy. Nothing wrong in writing whatever you want but if you misrepresent, exploit or fail to address THE KEY THEMES that your work is about then yes, readers have every right to hate your idealogy and your work. SB picked up BDSM, Feminism, LGBTQIA and failed to even properly lay out the MOST BASIC FRAMEWORK of those concepts, sufficiently disappointing the communities as well.
Lastly, people have different tolerance levels. I am very sensitive to themes like abuse, humiliation, rape, assault and violence therefore this work becomes more vile for me with time. There are others who are able to digest the same content without needing the still necessary disclaimers but as the former, please don't let some callous idiot tell you that your feelings regarding the story are over the top/ you're projecting/ being unfair whatever.