Doc, Fluff, and the Gender of Rape

Doc and Fluff, Pat Califia's 1990 s/m novel is subtitled "The Dystopian Tale of a Girl and Her Biker." Dystopian, it is, for sure. For sure, it is a worthwhile and challenging read. It's important for prospective readers to know that the book is full of violence- of the consensual kinky kind and also the nonconsensual, life shattering kind. In typical Califia form, the lines between these two are sometimes blurred and often leave you with questions about the nature of your own desire. What does it mean to encounter sex and rape in such rapid succession that one's body reads them similarly even when one's mind does not? How does it feel to be looking for smut and instead confront trauma?

Like some days I didn't want to open the book, that's how.

Before working at Early to Bed, I spent two and half years full time at the largest rape crisis center in chicago. When I say full time, I mean there was not a moment, awake or asleep, that I was not thinking about sexual violence. After ten months of liberation from the pager, I now occasionally stop myself and marvel that these days hours and sometimes even a whole day can pass without rape on my brain. This is also how it can be for survivors.

One of the fundamental pillars of the anti-rape movement is that rape is not sex. The intent behind this is to identify that while sex can be used as a tool of domination, the perpetrator is not motivated by sexual desire, but instead a quest for power and control over another person. I believe this. At the same time, I wonder if in an attempt to distance one from the other, the intrinsic links between the two in an oppressive culture are obscured and important factors in ending harm are overlooked. What would the world of kink look like if we were living in a larger culture free of oppressive relationships? Is that even a useful question?

Califia remains one of my heroes in the gender-fuck, sex outlaw realm, but not without fault. In his 1995 introduction to the novel, Califia admits that the ending to Doc and Fluff was somewhat forced, somewhat of a cop-out, a little too ride-off-into-the-sunset. I'd agree, but my critique goes even farther. The story centers around Fluff, a young, femme top sex worker who is rescued from the clutches of Prez, the leader of the Hell's Angels, by Doc, a motorcycle riding, drug trafficking butch dyke outlaw. As Doc and Fluff fall in love and Prez and the Angels attempt to take revenge for Fluff's liberation, the Harpies, female seperatist, attempt to take revenge for Prez's brutal rape of one of the biker women. Towards the end of the novel, Doc and Fluff's relationship has gone sour, mostly due to Doc's pride, drugs, and alcohol. The fight that ultimately leads to Fluff walking out of Doc's life ends in Doc raping her, a scene that begins with the line "She saw her hands go out and wrap around Fluff's neck, and could not stop herself."

This idea, that rape is something out of control of the rapist, is the first of the rape myths that the ending to this book promotes. Though this scene is clearly non-consensual, Califia never uses the word rape to describe what happens. The fact that Fluff ultimate forgives Doc and they ride off towards Canada after Doc committs to sobriety and Fluff completes a Co-dependants Annonymous program is not what irks me so. It is that fact that there is no indication that this is intended to be read as a rape scene is what saddens and angers me. If it is, it is certainly not portrayed to be as gravely serious as other violence that occurs. Maybe Califia was under deadline from his publisher and anxious to finish the book, but he doesn't examine at all the impact of this violation on Fluff and the process that she must go through to allow Doc into her life again. It's still rape even if you love the person. It's still rape even if they're your partner. It's still rape even if you cum. (People rarely talk about this, but our bodies respond to physiological cues. It's quite common and absolutely does not mean that someone liked it or was "asking for it.")

It's still rape even they're a woman and you are too.

I wish that there was more openness from the anti-rape community toward kink and the grey areas of sex and violence. I wish that there was more dialog about abuse of power in kink communities and domestic violence in queer communities. Dystopic, yes. But the failure to name what Doc does to Fluff is not something of a distant sci-fi world; it much too closely mirrors the silence about queer on queer violence that is our world today. I expect better from sex radicals.