Double Standard Rape (Sci Fi): Difference between revisions

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If someone is raped in a way that can only happen in a science fiction or fantasy setting -- mind control, shapeshifter impersonators, etc. -- it is often treated much less seriously than a rape that could happen in real life. In some cases the fact that it is rape is completely ignored by the storyline, and only the fanbase notices.

This can happen if the science-fictional element is just treated as Applied Phlebotinum to serve a specific role in the story, without doing a full exploration of all its implications. The audience might only realize the story is about rape via Fridge Logic.

Can frequently occur in variants of Aliens Made Them Do It and the Bed Trick. Fridge Logic points out that Love Potions that lead to sex may fall under this. Compare Getting Smilies Painted On Your Soul for manipulation that can be used in this way. Contrast Safe, Sane, and Consensual as well as Free Love Future and Ethical Slut. See also Double Standard Rape Divine On Mortal.

Examples



Anime & Manga

Urotsukidouji was to bypass censorship laws restricting the portrayal of male genitalia in Japanese pornography.

whose lonely soul just couldn't help remembering her lost love... by making his grandson Tenchi think he's married to her.

  • Pucca: It's not rape since there is no sex (at least, not

explicit), but it's kind of close considering it's a children's TV show (kissing). Pucca always try to convince Garu to kiss her, but he is totally against it. In more than one ocasion she tried to use magic means. This was played for laughs.

on is played for laughs, later arcs mention the rather severe problems that could arise from a magical uncontrollable love. Indeed, it is stated several times that even temporary Love Potions are actually illegal in Magical society, probably due to how effective a date rape drug they would be.

society of Zero no Tsukaima.


Comics -- Books

  • The rape of Ms. Marvel, which involved mind control and the villain

impregnating Carol Danvers with himself to escape his dimension, wasn't originally written to be a rape, and led to lots of fan backlash, including a later issue by Chris Claremont that had Carol calling out the Avengers for not helping her.

  • A partial use and partial aversion in She-Hulk where Starfox

is tried for rape, being accused by a married woman who had sex with him while under the influence of his psychic hormones. He is also accused of doing this to She-Hulk although it turns out he didn't. May not fully count because there's not much sign that he actually uses pheromones like that prior to this story.

    • It was eventually resolved by having a reveal that Thanos had

brain-damaged him so that he lost conscious control of his powers, but that he never consciously used his powers that way on anyone who wasn't already looking for a casual sex partner.

  • In an issue of Spider-Man, the Chameleon pretends to be Peter

Parker and has sex with Peter's roommate. The resulting Internet Backlash lead the writer to hastily Retcon it into just making out but it still left a bad taste in the fans' mouths.


Literature

Anita and Micah that is not supposed to be rape. Even though she said, "No," several times, and Micah didn't stop. Anita and Micah are destined mates because of the ardeur, which gets this sort of treatment regularly, due to forcing Anita and whoever's close to have sex, occasionally forcing rape on both parties.

referenced but ultimately averted. Merope, Voldemort's mother, forces his father into their relationship via a Love Potion. And the only moral problem with this is that she's having sex with a Muggle... Or so it seems, at first. However, this way of looking at the morality of her actions turn out to be limited to the views of Death Eaters and similar [[Fantastic Racism pure-blood advocates]]. Of course, the muggle himself acts with utter revulsion once the potion wears off, and Dumbledore refers to what Merope did as enslavement by magical means. The reader is left with an impression that Voldemort's refusing to see his mother as a rapist (instead blaming his father for refusing to succumb to the mind-control -- and thus abandoning his son) is a big part of why he became so hateful toward muggles.

equivalent of this, is seen by characters as tantamount to rape. Sorceresses who use it are either executed or expelled from the Palace of the Prophets (the Palace has a spell which slows down aging to about 10%, so there is little difference between the two for the exiles).

is something only the most depraved of villains even consider. Its effects on its victims amount to pretty much numbing most higher brain functions while amplifying sexual desire, like taking Viagra and drinking tequila at the same time, but not quite as dangerous.

    • The Yehtzigs use it on random civilians in the nation of Stato, in

what could best be described as a double-rape. This is in the hopes of inducing an unsustainable baby boom. Because they make getting married an offense that can get you killed, their victims are often scared to get married when the girl finds herself pregnant. This is intentional: make the idea of marriage unfavorable and encourage men to abandon the woman and her child if he wants to live. From there, the welfare system would collapse under the unsustainable baby boom, and would cause infighting amongst politicians on how to balance the budget. This would weaken the economy, and lead to military and defense budget cuts that would produce a weakness for the Yehtzig's [[The War On Terror la-Qualda operative to exploit]]. [[Evil Plan All that, just so they can hopefully enslave the entire planet]].

    • Wizard Lamdock uses it less elaborately. In an effort to make the

Voyagers, while trapped in a mall clothing store, easier to capture, he poisons them to make them helplessly horny. Since Cindy's not around, there is nobody for Liquidon to cling to. [[Didn't See That Coming So Liquidon finds a way to smash a window and ventilate the place]].

weapons]], the Crooked Rainbow uses Reverse-Eros gas to try to turn Oceanoe gay. He resists and overcomes, but it exhausts him.

riders are irresistibly compelled to do the same. The first book even has F'lar considering that if their dragons weren't involved, his relationship with Lessa would have to be considered rape. Since it was written in 1968, there's major Values Dissonance going on (and that's not even getting into how much he slaps her and shakes her around to show his concern about her putting herself in harm's way).

of supernaturally coercing sex are considered bad mojo, whether it is shapeshifting, faerie glamours, or the [[Horny Devils White Court's mental whammy]]. Mortals using mind control to coerce sex gets the death penalty from the White Council, though this falls under the general blanket Laws of Magic, one of which states that using magic to control minds is illegal. Love Potions technically do not count under the Laws, as the recipe used involves creating a strong aphrodesiac instead of outright mind control. Later in the series, the revelation that [[spoiler: Luccio was only in a relationship with Harry due to being mind-controlled into doing so by the Black Council]] is treated as disturbing for both of them.

  • In the Twilight series, a vampire biting a human is a parallel for

sex (hence why Edward refuses to bite Bella until after they are married). It's revealed that Carlisle bit Esme (his future wife) while she was unconscious and unable to give consent. He also bit Rosalie (again when she was unable to consent) after she was gang raped, with the intent of giving her to Edward as a girlfriend. In the former case, the two are Happily Married and the implications are ignored. In the latter case, it's treated as disappointing that Rosalie didn't take to Edward, and again the implications are not brought up.

  • In Hush, Hush, Patch does a number of things to Nora, including

possessing her body and putting words and images in her head. These incidents range from being played for laughs to being romantic moments, even though Nora usually is disturbed or upset by them.

  • In the Anna Strong Chronicles, the eponymous heroine gets raped by

a vampire, who [[Questionable Consent mind controls her into compliance.]] When she recalls the incident, she argues that because she was a willing participant (even though, you know, mind control) it couldn't have been rape.


Live-Action TV

gets what he wants using pheromones -- and has six wives as a result -- is treated far too nicely by the team, and the episode itself is mostly a comedy.

    • In the episode "Duet", a female marine ends up sharing McKay's

body by accident. After they argue a bit about who's in charge, she simply takes over after he falls asleep, takes his body for a run, then showers and sleeps naked. Later she wrests control from him to force him to kiss his girlfriend (which he'd been too shy to do), and then to kiss Dr. Beckett against the man's will. She did all this without ever asking McKay's permission, and while ignoring his protests. Again, it's a comedy episode and we're supposed to side with the woman during all of this.

into thinking she was Josette and marrying him. The story doesn't treat him as an attempted rapist at all.

the ethical implications of their plan to brainwash women into sex slaves, until the girl they victimized spells it out for them and they murder her as she tries to escape, providing the Moral Event Horizon for what had been played as HarmlessVillains.

    • Buffy has played it straight, however, when it overlaps with

Double Standard Rape Female On Male. For instance, consider Faith in Buffy's body having sex with Riley and compare it to, say, Warren raping Katrina using mind control.

  • The episode "Small Potatoes" of The X-Files, where a man with

shape-shifting abilities poses as the husbands of several women in order to have sex with them. His charges are mentioned in the episode, and rape is not one of them.

becomes pregnant when an alien tricks him into activity which would be the alien equivalent of sex, impregnating him. Played for humor because of the male pregnancy, and the fact that Tucker didn't give meaningful consent is ignored.

of the situation in his review of the episode.

alien, and she gives birth to him. Troi later insists on carrying it to term, and once he's born he reveals that he only did it to explore human existence, and he may not have realized the implications of what it was doing.

    • In episode "The Host", a Trill (at that time implied to have all

personality in the "parasite" part rather than a shared consciousness) who was having a sexual relationship with Doctor Crusher temporarily takes possession of Riker's body (with consent) to continue diplomatic negotiations. Doctor Crusher has trouble reconciling her romantic feelings for the Trill-personality with Riker's body -- but the issue of whether Riker would consent to her having sex with his body is never even mentioned.

to have had sex with Ruby, a demon -- but it has been established that demons possess the bodies of living people, so Sam would be a rapist. Fan backlash was immediate and soon a flashback scene was written showing that Sam refused to have sex with Ruby until she explained that her body had just flatlined in the hospital when she took it over and there was nobody else in it.

Sam and Dean get sent to the real world and it is implied that Sam gets intimate with his actor's wife. The Reality Subtext makes this merely amusing, but purely from an in-story perspective, Sam is a rapist.

to make a woman go from disgusted by him, to gagging for him, and when her boyfriend shows up enraged, Owen appears to use it again to get himself a threesome. This example of Date Rape is never commented on again in the show.

  • Jack's story in the Doctor Who episode "The Doctor Dances"

about waking up in bed with the jailers who were supposed to execute him after he got blindingly drunk as part of his Last Meal and blacked out is a bit iffy, too, even if he seems to view it as a pleasant memory. One can only hope they helped him escape before he propositioned them, and it wasn't about them taking advantage of their prisoner's desperate situation and drugged state.

    • A PG version of this trope happens in "New Earth". The villain, who

had previously murdered a bunch of people, [[Mind Rape possesses Rose's body,]] gropes Rose's body, and then uses it to kiss the Doctor forcefully. It's all played for laughs and the Doctor doesn't seem to have a problem with it even after he finds out that he was sexually harrassed, and only objects to Rose's possession in general, not to the fact that her body was used to do sexual things against her will. Later he lets the villain possess his body, and she uses this opportunity to make salacious comments about his 'parts' and imply that she was reading Rose's private thoughts while possessing her. Again, all played for laughs and none of the victims seem to mind. At the end, [[Karma Houdini the completely unapologetic villain is forgiven for everything]].

    • No sex involved, but "The Doctor's Daughter" features the Doctor

being forced at gunpoint to donate genetic material to create a clone, who later proceeds to call him dad. The Doctor is pissed at first, but the show dismisses this as 'dad shock', instead of acknowledging that he was forced to father a child against his will.

Rape by fraud]]. No-one is really okay with this except Walternate, so it's more of a subversion. Olivia apologizes to Peter for not thinking about how it affected him, and Broyles is reluctant to let Peter and Olivia read Fauxlivia's files because of "what they've been through".

viciously abused and gang-raped by several human crew members of the ship she had previously served on while disguised as a human. When other humans from another ship discover that a rape of another humanoid robot was about to occur, they attack her would-be rapists, killing one of them. This leads to serious arguments between characters on the morality (or even possibility) of raping a machine.

shown mind-whammying girls (especially Caroline) into it, drinking their blood, and then making them forget it. Including a group of college girls, in a scene meant to highlight his own angst.

    • In the second season he starts "dating" Andie, heavily and repeatedly

compelling her and feeding on her. One time she goes off-script when he's in a bad mood he attacks and threatens her, so even you ignore all the supernatural aspects he's a Domestic Abuser. No one appears to care about all this in the slightest. And when she dies, the show has the audacity to play it as a source of angst for him, despite her obviously being every bit as much his own victim as Stefan's. This guy is one third of the show's main love triangle.

  • Averted in the short-lived Century City. One episode deals with a

nanotech drug that allows a person to "ride" someone else's experiences. As the person introduced to the drug was a man about to have relations with his girlfriend, the girlfriend later brings charges of rape against the third partner, as she certainly didn't consent to him getting involved.

  • In True Blood, Tommy becomes a "Skin Walker" (shapeshifter than can

shift into other people) early in season 5. He uses this power to have sex with Sam's girlfriend. This is treated pretty seriously... for about an episode. No one ever mentions the word "rape" and all is forgiven shortly afterwards.

  • Bizarro on Smallville pretending to be Clark and having sex

with Lana. Lead to an awkward moment, but wasn't really treated as a rape.

expected that characters will effectively see each others' bodies when they change clothes. Both Aeryn and John, who have swapped minds, are implied to take advantage of the situation to [[A Date With Rosie Palms explore their new bodies]], and while both are disgusted the R word never raises its head.


Music

of the Enterprise get, well, banned from Argo, Nurse Chapel uses an "odd green potion guaranteed to cause Pon Farr" to take advantage of Spock. This is Played for Laughs and treated no more seriously than Scotty and Chekov's drunken parking violation.


Tabletop Games

control occupy the same rung on the Karma Meter as the more mundane kind of rape.


Video Games

magically enthralls Varian Wrynn and sets herself up as his lover. What he thinks of it after he breaks free is never touched on.

    • It's worth pointing that he did [[spoiler: get to kill her shortly

afterwards, which may have helped. Closure, and all that.]]


Web Comics

  • This has been stated by Word of God as a big part of the humour in

Ghastlys Ghastly Comic. The artist said he's iffy about rape jokes involving realistic situations, but since nobody in real life has ever actually had their life ruined by Naughty Tentacles, he feels okay joking about it. It helps that the tentacle monsters have human-level intelligence and understand things like consent, so nobody in the comic actually does get raped, outside of fantasy sequences.

  • A possible in-universe case occurs in Drow Tales, where

Snadhya'rune Vel'Sharen has her friend Wiam Val'Jaal'darya [[spoiler:get one of her lover Mel'arnach's eggs under false pretenses (Mel was under the impression it was for an experiment, which while technically true was still deceptive), and uses it to make their daughter Kalki without Mel knowing until years later]]. Of course try telling that to Snadhya's fans, or Mel'arnach for that matter, who seems to realize on some level what Snadhya did but decides to ignore the implications.


Web Original

  • Averted in Chakona Space when Malena uses an overdose of pheromones

to get her brother (and mate) Garrek to impregnate her. Both are deeply traumatized (Malena because Garrek went feral) and Malena is ostracized to the point where she has to leave her home village. However, she is forgiven fairly quickly because: a, she didn't know that her pheromones would have that kind of effect, b, she became pregnant with triplets, and c, it was discovered that her mother had actually done the same thing to her father and was covering up her shame by kicking her out (also why she didn't know better).


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