Christmas in Alaska

I lied, one more. And this is the worst one. TRIGGER WARNING FOR: kidnapping and suggested rape.

Two stories, both fucking horrible. The first one is about a woman who is essentially married off with neither her permission nor her knowledge by her great aunts. The second one is about a woman who is kidnapped to keep her from meeting a man that’s no good for her.

Caroline and Paul’s story gives me the biggest ick. First of all, for most of the story, she’s convinced that she and Paul had sex while she was drunk, and he doesn’t let her do anything by herself because he “can’t trust that she won’t run away”??? Huh, wonder why that is. The r*pe thing is never addressed, by the by. And then everything’s fine. She learns to love him, despite everything that happens, and it’s just so disgusting.

Jenna and Reid’s story is just so lighthearted about kidnapping, because what isn’t funny about taking a woman essentially hostage? If you don’t take me to where I told you I’m going, even if it’s to meet someone you know is a snake, I will pepper spray you. And then press charges. It’s not “cute” and I will never thank another person for deciding things for me. Also, Jenna’s situation with her mom is called child abuse. If the child is forced to act as a parent, then that’s abuse. Stop pushing toxic relationships.

Also also, can we please stop using real native people as diversity points? If you want to learn about the ethnolinguistic group of eleven different peoples known as the Athabascans, here’s their wikipedia page: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaskan_Athabaskans. They are not a plot point. They are not the punchline of a joke. And they are not the plot device of some white woman who wants to write shitty romance stories.

Trigger warnings: racism, child death, death, domestic abuse, alcohol, rape, gaslighting, grief, kidnapping, medical content, misogyny, pregnancy, sexism, sexual content, slavery, toxic friendship, toxic relationship

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