Do female rapists in fiction get a pass more than male rapists?

[QuinnFillory]

Rape is wrong. It is a disgusting act of violence that should never be tolerated. This is fact that we all know. However, I have noticed something as of late: sometimes, when the rapist is female and the rape victim is an adult male, it seems to get glossed over or ignored.

For example: Once Upon A Time had two instances where the female villains, Regina and Zelena, basically raped their male victims onscreen. Those acts were never made to be a big deal on or offscreen (though some fans did complain about what they did for a while). Meanwhile, Hook ended up with the nickname Captain Rapist in some circles based on a remark he may have made about drinking with women before sleeping with them, or something like that. Another example: The Vampire Diaries had some fans saying that Damon should not be with Elena because he may have raped her friend while mindcontrolling her, yet no one has made mention of the fact that Katherine did the exact same thing to Stefan, and tried to do so again before she was defeated.

Really, it may come down to how society sees women, and how they may not come off as violent as men do. Again, rape is an act of violence, after all.

[Gray Lensman]

There's also Agents of Shield where Ward (not yet even suspected as Hydra) gets controlled by Lorelai and he gets dumped over it.

[Kusanagi]

Deadpool was raped by Typhoid Mary, while it wasn't played for laughs it wasn't treated with the kind of seriousness it warranted and barely went addressed until years later.

[Michael Watkins]

I've never understood the prison thing. I would think that prisoners wouldn't care that much about consent. it's pedophiles that have to watch their backs.

[Anthony Shaw]

Moondragon's rape of Thor back in the 1980's. That situation hardly ever gets brought up, especially compared to breakdown of the relationship between Hank & Janet during that era.

How was Moondragon any different than Marcus Immortus?

[MyriVerse]

Moondragon's rape of Thor back in the 1980's. That situation hardly ever gets brought up, especially compared to breakdown of the relationship between Hank & Janet during that era.

How was Moondragon any different than Marcus Immortus?

Well, Thor didn't get pregnant.

And no supposed friends expressed their happiness for Thor's situation.

Was anyone ever even told about Thor's rape?

[Skedatz]

Anissa in Invincible sorta almost got a pass. But it looked more like in the vein of "I understand who you were and who you've become."

[Anthony Shaw]

Well, Thor didn't get pregnant.

And no supposed friends expressed their happiness for Thor's situation.

Was anyone ever even told about Thor's rape?

Somehow, Norman Osborn knew Hank hit Janet.

The writers knew, and it showed by how some of them treated Hank's character.

Outside of Roger Stern, I don't think any writer has brought up Moondragon's rape of Thor.

[Powerboy]

There's also Agents of Shield where Ward (not yet even suspected as Hydra) gets controlled by Lorelai and he gets dumped over it.

That's interesting and kind of scary because I'm very much a proponent of the idea that racism is racism no matter what race the racist is or what race he or she hates and sexism is sexism no matter if the sexist is female or male and that rape is rape no matter who does it. Yet it never slapped me upside the head to label what Lorelei did with Ward rape even though I absolutely label what Kilgrave did to Jessica Jones as rape. Likewise, I hadn't had the word rape jump out at me in flashing red letters when Regina did it. In fact, I'm guessing the reference was to the original sheriff that Regina literally had his heart and he had to go to bed with her or whatever she wanted.

Granted Lorelei was the villain and Regina and Zelina were villains when they did the things they did and one expects villains to sometimes do horrible things. But the scary part is I didn't register that it was rape as I did with Kilgrave. I do now. It was rape. But yeah, I think women do sometimes get a free pass on that maybe because people don't stop and think, "Hey! Wait! That's rape!"

[Michael Watkins]

"How was Moondragon any different than Marcus Immortus?"

[mathew101281]

Women rapist aren’t held to the same standards as male rapist in real life either. Look at some of those teacher sleeps with student situations you see in the news. Now imagine if the sexes were reversed. If it was a male teacher caught doing that to a female student, they would have thrown him in jail as fast as possible. Art reflects life, for some reason our society doesn’t see female rapist the same way we do male ones. Part of it has to do with fetishization, (the he probablty liked it excuse), but part of it is the perceived power dynamic between male and female in our society.

[SpiderClops]

Yeah, female rapists aren't held to the same standard in fiction or in real life. Same goes for domestic abuse. Like, how is this any different than Hank/Janet situation?



But nobody talks about it. Hell, some even say Scott had it coming(for what? Asking a very reasonable question for the universe he lives in?)

[mathew101281]

Our society in general seems to have issues when it comes to female antagonist. It’s like it makes us uncomfertable. They are either defined by their sexuality or barely antagonists at all. It’s like we don’t have as many archetypes for female villains as we do males. It’s either the femme fatale or the hag, if you want anymore you usually need to start co opting traditionally male archetypes. It’s strange their is a huge run on creating Female heroes(and minority heroes) but villains seem to be stagnating right now. Odd since some of the most iconic characters in comics are villains.

[dancj]

That's interesting and kind of scary because I'm very much a proponent of the idea that racism is racism no matter what race the racist is or what race he or she hates and sexism is sexism no matter if the sexist is female or male and that rape is rape no matter who does it. Yet it never slapped me upside the head to label what Lorelei did with Ward rape even though I absolutely label what Kilgrave did to Jessica Jones as rape. Likewise, I hadn't had the word rape jump out at me in flashing red letters when Regina did it. In fact, I'm guessing the reference was to the original sheriff that Regina literally had his heart and he had to go to bed with her or whatever she wanted.

Granted Lorelei was the villain and Regina and Zelina were villains when they did the things they did and one expects villains to sometimes do horrible things. But the scary part is I didn't register that it was rape as I did with Kilgrave. I do now. It was rape. But yeah, I think women do sometimes get a free pass on that maybe because people don't stop and think, "Hey! Wait! That's rape!"

There is a bit of a difference there (if I remember Agents of Shield correctly). As I remember, Lorelei made Ward love her, so I would have had sex with here willingly and enjoyed it. Only after Ward recovered would he have been traumatised by it. Killgrave controlled Jessica Jones, but her mind was intact. It would have felt like rape as it actually happened.

Still rape either way, but it was different.

[Carabas]

There is a bit of a difference there (if I remember Agents of Shield correctly). As I remember, Lorelei made Ward love her, so I would have had sex with here willingly and enjoyed it. Only after Ward recovered would he have been traumatised by it. Killgrave controlled Jessica Jones, but her mind was intact. It would have felt like rape as it actually happened.

Still rape either way, but it was different.

The way I saw it this was a few levels more twisted.
Ward seemed to go into it completely willingly. He had the drop on Lorelei, and instead he waited an eternity for her to get her hooks in. Which at the time seemed like really bad writing, but later we found out he's a seriously twisted Hydra agent who whose orders had just switch from infiltrate to eliminate Coulson's team, and there are very few better excuses than being mind-controlled. He tries to kill May after Lorelei's control had ended.

So yeah, I can see him not being all too traumatised by it afterwards.