There are probably many reasons involved, but I’d point out that in our media we frequently glamorize protagonists who kill people, but generally not ones who rape people.
There may be some cultural variation in this; I recall reading an African folk tale wherein, early on, the protagonist rapes his own mother. Afterwards he proceeds to navigate various perils with feats of cunning and derring-do, and I spent the rest of the story asking “how am I supposed to root for this guy? He raped his own mother! For no apparent reason, even!”
Tell me about that… Last night I was watching Big Miracle and I was like “how am I supposed to root for the whales? It’d probably cost a lot to save them, and with that much money you could save people!” Until the youngest whale was shown to be ill, then I did. I guess that illustrates the Near vs Far distinction even though that wasn’t the point!
“how am I supposed to root for this guy? He raped his own mother! For no apparent reason, even!”
BTW (continuing along the rape vs murder thing), have you read (say) Crime and Punishment, and if so, were you able to root for the protagonist? (I was.)
There are probably many reasons involved, but I’d point out that in our media we frequently glamorize protagonists who kill people, but generally not ones who rape people.
There may be some cultural variation in this; I recall reading an African folk tale wherein, early on, the protagonist rapes his own mother. Afterwards he proceeds to navigate various perils with feats of cunning and derring-do, and I spent the rest of the story asking “how am I supposed to root for this guy? He raped his own mother! For no apparent reason, even!”
Tell me about that… Last night I was watching Big Miracle and I was like “how am I supposed to root for the whales? It’d probably cost a lot to save them, and with that much money you could save people!” Until the youngest whale was shown to be ill, then I did. I guess that illustrates the Near vs Far distinction even though that wasn’t the point!
BTW (continuing along the rape vs murder thing), have you read (say) Crime and Punishment, and if so, were you able to root for the protagonist? (I was.)
No, I’ve never read it.