Post History

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/45083
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

My guile heroine's character arc is almost entirely **sex and manipulation**.

I tell (not show) she was a sex worker in the past, it's left ambiguous (likely) that she still is. She has powerplay scenes with multiple characters where she is able to change the stakes during a sexually-charged situation. Other scenes where she has no sexual power, her opinions and agency are dismissed. She is coded as sympathetic – doing what she has to do, and willing to play the game to get ahead.

Her sexuality becomes polemic, manipulative (when she can), and unsubtle. I try to show in each of her powerplay scenes that she is adapting to whatever her target responds to – demure with one, pervy with another, relationship-y with a third. When she can't pin down the hero (it's complicated) she retaliates by turning up the heat towards his co-workers.

Her decision processes are all _subtext_ – maybe she is not even aware of it. The hero lampshades the manipulations by ignoring her sexplay, forcing her to switch tactics and become smarter. He's the foil that reveals her true goals. She doesn't change though. She continues playing the other characters, and once you see the strings she is coded as a _femme fatale_.

She's intended to be an **anti-heroine** , whatever that is I am trying to figure out. She's the opposite of a "strong female character" she is a thot heroine who plays every card and has no moral compass. Someone in my reader group called her "the villain".

There are a lot of **near-sex** scenes, scenes in **sex clubs** , scenes with explicit **sex talk** , many _many_ scenes with **sexual subtext** , and 1 **post-sex** scene. There are no actual sex scenes.

**This is a graphic novel. I don't want to limit my distribution options.** OTOH, I have a main character who, on the surface, is a _schizo-nympho_ bad girl going after nearly all the other characters (as many as 8, 3 confirmed). It would be easy to go more explicit so some of this is actually fulfilled. I feel like I have a gunslinger who never has an actual duel onscreen, but everyone constantly argues about what an dangerous gunslinger he is.

**How do I decide where to draw the line?** I am like this heroine, I don't understand where the boundaries are. Right now I'm strictly telling the arc, showing the character development and story beats. I think it's probably showing her as a worse person than she is intended. We just see the manipulation not the sex, and maybe more important we don't see her fall for her own guile. It doesn't look like a character flaw or a handicap, she's just a trampy b\*\*\*\*. Ironically, I'm starting to think I need the sex scenes so people will like her more.

Is there a **publishing or distribution guide** to how far I can or should go with sexual content in a graphic novel? How do I decide what to show, and would it even work to soften this character? Her arc is actually about "leveling up" so she doesn't need to use sex to get ahead, but it's part of her habitual nature and it's not something she self-examines.

Original score: 4