Flower Crown Magazine: Issue 2

The Fix Complex:
How The Media perpetuates rape culture
By Sara Geiger
Trigger Warning: descriptions
of rape and
sexual assault.
The Fault in Our Stars
has become the most
recent catalyst when
it comes to influencing
a large crowd of
young teenage girls.
It may provide the
possible message of
Hazel Grace (main
character) needing
someone to rely on
in times of turmoil.
However, this instills
the promotion of
the idea that she still
Source:fishingproceeds.tumblr.com
needed a romantic
interest to feel any sort of fulfillment in her young life.
Boys seldom are sentimental in media. While girls, on the
other hand, are taught to accept and ‘work’ with what is
given (even if it’s an unsatisfactory partner). Yet, audiences
are supposed to regard the rarity of men acting this
way as an appreciated novelty.
This concept also propagates itself into a self-proclaimed
need for one to “fix” another. To further clarify- this idea
(that I’ve fittingly named “the fix complex”) occurs in a
majority of male characters whose plot is driven by the
feeling of necessary emotional repair for the female
counterpart.
The fix complex is quite similar to the Manic Pixie Dream
Girl trope; one character’s sole purpose is to fulfill and
create significance out of the main character. Simply
put, it turns ‘romance’ into a project for one person in a
relationship.
Typically, the fix complex and assumptions of attraction
do not only heavily influence their main target audience
of young people- they can prove to be detrimental once
it’s an actual pursuit on the part of young men.
These implications are portrayals of pseudo-relationships.
It can be inferred as the root of continuous teen dating
violence, which around 9.4% of American teens have
experienced. (source)
On a much larger societal scale, the impact plays a role in
encouraging rape culture.
Often, boys are taught to grow out but seldom show
sentimental feelings. While girls, on the other hand, are
taught to grown in, to accept and work with what is given
(again, feeling the need to “fix”). Yet, because women are
depicted often as romantics, submissive, etc., audiences
are supposed to regard the rarity of men acting this way
as an appreciated novelty.
In her book, All About Love: New Visions, bell hooks
incisively describes this unwritten social code-
“…the paradigms of leader and follower often prevail,
with one person assuming the role deemed feminine and
another the designated masculine role. No doubt it was
someone playing the role of leader who conjured up the
notion that we “fall in love”, that we lack choice… This way
of thinking about love seems to be especially useful for
men who are socialized via patriarchal notions of masculinity
to be out of touch with what they feel.”
In Twilight, both characters, Bella Swan and Edward Cullen,
attempt at modifying each other in a power struggle.
However, as we all know, the relationship becomes
over-dramatically fatal as Bella puts her life on the line for
what she considered to be love.
The way Edward goes about seducing Bella also includes
stalking and breaking into her room to watch her
sleep. And are we, as an audience, supposed to find this
charming?
“Twilight portrays the mutual infatuation of its teenage
protagonist Bella and the breathtakingly handsome
vampire Edward with a sexually charged tension that
quickly leads to his complete domination of the young