Rape Fantasies

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussions of graphic violence, sexual violence, gender discrimination, and rape.

“Rape Fantasies” embraces elements of humor and irony to explore the societal onus put on women to protect themselves from men from sexual violence. Written from the first-person point of view of the protagonist Estelle—a nervous, reflective woman—the story toggles between scenes from Estelle’s lived experience and lengthy imagined sequences in her mind. The interplay between Estelle’s public conversations about rape and her private meditations on rape captures the Conflation of Fantasy and Reality. Because Estelle is constantly exposed to representations of rape in the media, she feels she must consider the subject. However, the magazine and television reports represent rape as if “it was just invented” or as if “it’s something terrific” (163). As a result of this reporting, Estelle begins to regard rape similarly—as exciting. She blends her real fear of being attacked and raped by a stranger with pleasant sexual fantasies. Estelle recalls discussing the topic of rape fantasies with her coworkers during lunch, over a game of bridge.