The other day, it came to my attention that the bad guys in my books have something in common.
Dominic - Whenever You Want
Dominic seems like he's interested in Christina, but he isn't. He's putting up a facade because he thinks she matches girls he's used in the past to entertain and control his brother, Alexander. So, he's more like a sex trafficker than a predator for his own needs. This actually makes me feel better because he's a little different than the others in this way,
Rylan - Kiss of Tragedy
Rylan is Hades in different skin, so when he was the God of the Underworld, he was used to playing by a different set of rules. Therefore, conquering his woman was par for the course, and if you know anything about pillaging, that means rape. So, he does that. Currently, no one likes men who do that. So, he's a villain.
Schroder - The Blood that Flows
Schroder is in love with Sweeper, but she's too young when he meets her and he doesn't want to kill her, so he keeps his hands and his fangs to himself. Until he can't anymore, then he bites Sweeper's older sister, London, in order to get his jollies. He claims repeatedly that he loves Sweeper and he could never hurt her, but in her place, he hurts her sister repeatedly.
Armand - Rose Red
Armand wants Paige all to himself. He wants all her rights stripped. He wants her to be his slave and do whatever he wants. It's pretty alarming how much he wants to make sure she is in a position lower than himself. He arranges for someone else to hurt her in his place, so she'll turn to him for comfort. He even wants her to be legally his possession with no money or resources of her own... only his.
Evander - Behind His Mask
If you've read Behind His Mask, it's probably interesting for you that I am characterizing the main male lead as the antagonist, but he is. All his hangups revolve around his fear of becoming a sexual predator. He does not become one and in that way, the story is a success and the antagonist is defeated.
Charles - His 16th Face
I nearly wrote something that was HUGE spoiler for the second book in this series, 'If Diamonds Could Talk', but then I stopped myself. Lucky me!
Antony - Hidden Library
Antony is super bad and I'm going to hold back on him because I have not released this book for free anywhere. The book opens with him running invisible fingers down Veda's leg, so he's got a sexual fixation with her and it goes badly.
Carver - If I Tie U Down
Carver gets hung up on Shannon. He sees her kidnap Fletch instead of him and he gets this idea that if she had kidnapped him instead of Fletch, they would have had this really hot romance. Instead, Shannon is having that hot romance with Fletch and Carver is so jealous, he's about to lose it.
So... why are all the bad guys intent on being sexual predators? Why don't I have any female antagonists? Why isn't there another story?
I wondered at my own lack of creativity for about five seconds before I could answer this. Very simply, I have endured an insane amount of sexual harassment. I could count on one hand the number of times a girl treated me unkindly in jr. high and high school put together. Frankly, I don't think any of them saw any point in getting in my face. I was getting grabbed in the hallways of my school by guys in grades above me and instead of telling on the boy or waiting for someone to save me, I'd fight him in the hallway. No one was going to save me. The vulgar, hateful things guys said to me as a matter of course were handled... by me. The truth is that I can't imagine what antagonism from a woman would even look like. But I know exactly what an oxytocin switch looks like. Frustrated lovers get like that. They love you one day and hate you the next.
I'd like to write a different kind of antagonist. I really would, but the most natural enemy is a guy who wants to get with me who I'm refusing. I wrote a book about my teenage life called A Little like Scarlett, but I left out so much of the sexual harassment. You've heard it once, you've heard it a hundred times.
Thinking of the contents of my book A Little Like Scarlett, I recall that I actually have been antagonized by women. When I left home, I moved into a house with six girls and most of them hated me. It stemmed from their rage at my popularity with guys, which they didn't experience, and they felt was unfair. I dunno... it doesn't really feel like novel material. Or at least, it doesn't feel like something that was not adequately discussed in Gone with the Wind. Girls who have the audacity to talk to men and amuse them with their prattle are annoying to women who lack the talent. HOWEVER... I come from a household where I wouldn't have learned how to talk if I wasn't willing to talk to men, so... let's all be nice to one another.
I feel that settles it.
I do have a female antagonist in the works, so perhaps all is not lost. We'll see how she turns out.
With love,
Stephanie Van Orman
Novelist
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