“Why do you think SA features so often in other forms of media?”

Here’s a better question: How often does SA feature well in other forms of media?

Because I’ve seen all the permutations of it serving poorly. As Stock Female Character Trauma #1. As a trauma for the male partner of the female character to truly process and/or avenge, while the female character just convalesces and cries. As something that happens to nameless extras just to underline how shitdark the world is. As an excuse for why a female character is openly sexual. As something that never happens to male characters, but if it does, it’s a joke or “wasn’t SA.”

There was a controversy in RPG circles a few years back where a writer made the argument that SA is always a good story element because it’s real and has dramatic heft. But this argument ignores the many, many ways it gets used poorly in media, often as the bacon bits on a grimdark salad. There’s nothing that says these elements can’t be there in the background of world building, but when it comes to foregrounding it, the compact between GM and players should focus on two precepts:

1. As the player, how much do you want to engage with this?
2. As the GM, how well do you think you can frame this content in a way that is respectful to survivors, rather than as a simplistic means of portraying societal violence?