The opposite of slut-shaming

Bella, the student manager of the Harkness varsity hockey team, loves sex and isn’t afraid to say so. She knows that a lot of guys and especially their girlfriends frequently say uncomplimentary things about her behind her back because of her reputation, but Bella isn’t ashamed of enjoying sex in all its many forms. Hence when her hot downstairs neighbour ends up on her doorstep one evening with a bottle of wine, dejected because he broke up with his girlfriend on his birthday, she cheers him up the best way she knows how, and can’t quite understand why he gets so flustered and awkward the next day.

What Bella doesn’t know is that Rafe was a virgin, and had been planning on losing said virginity the night before with his long-term girlfriend Alison. Discovering that she had cheated on him wasn’t exactly the birthday present he was looking for and getting drunk and seduced by the gorgeous girl upstairs was certainly never part of his plans. Rafe doesn’t regret what happened, but isn’t interested in no-strings hook-ups every so often. His mother got pregnant with him when she was very young and Rafe has been raised in a loving, but very Catholic environment, so the idea of casual sex just doesn’t appeal to him. He only wants to sleep with someone he’s in a committed relationship with. Bella is most certainly not the long-term relationship type, and last thing Rafe wants is to pressure her into anything she’s not ready for. He just doesn’t feel comfortable telling her why he’s having a hard time facing her after their night of *insert funky bass line here*

Then Bella discovers she has chlamydia and goes to inform the guy she knows she caught it from. She wakes up the next morning, naked, with her body covered in insults in permanent marker. She knows can tell that she wasn’t sexually assaulted in any way, but photos of her naked body are posted on several websites and while Bella was ok with the occasional snide remark about her reputation, having been publicly humiliated in this way is something else entirely. She (understandably) has a minor breakdown, refusing to leave her room or see anyone.

She isolates herself enough that she loses her job as team manager and eventually, deeply concerned, Rafe convinces her next door neighbour to let him into her room through their shared bathroom. He insists on helping her, as much as he’s able to, bringing her food, coaxing her out to go running, helping her with lecture notes, anything to make sure she actually snaps out of herself a bit. Bella doesn’t want anyone’s help and she’s decided that she’s done with men for good. Her previously iron-clad confidence has taken a heck of a blow, and Rafe hates to see her broken by malicious assholes. Allying himself with Bella’s reclusive (and previously pretty judgemental next-door neighbour), he does his best to help Bella get her mojo back. Lianne, the star of a series of sorcery movies (think Emma Watson), turns out to have hacking as a hobby and offers to help Bella bring the frat boys who humiliated her down, so they can’t subject anyone else to their illegal tricks.

Progressive and feminist as a lot of romance novels are, there is often a really unfortunate tendency to slut-shame and villainize sexually experienced women, while men get away scot free. This is the opposite of that.