# Can a woman rape a man? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 26, 2005, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-woman-rape-a-man/286834 "2005-01-26T22:49:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2005, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-woman-rape-a-man/286834/21 "2005-01-27T17:45:22Z")
Threat of failing your class or losing your job, even if you really need the grade or the money, probably won’t qualify. Usually consent is a defense to rape in all but a few circumstances. The most obvious is that consent gained due to threat of death or violence isn’t valid. In Texas: > [@](#): > > (b) A sexual assault under Subsection (a)(1) is without the > consent of the other person if: > (1) the actor compels the other person to submit or > participate by the use of physical force or violence; > (2) the actor compels the other person to submit or > participate by threatening to use force or violence against the > other person, and the other person believes that the actor has the > present ability to execute the threat; > (3) the other person has not consented and the actor > knows the other person is unconscious or physically unable to > resist; > (4) the actor knows that as a result of mental disease > or defect the other person is at the time of the sexual assault > incapable either of appraising the nature of the act or of resisting > it; > (5) the other person has not consented and the actor > knows the other person is unaware that the sexual assault is > occurring; > (6) the actor has intentionally impaired the other > person’s power to appraise or control the other person’s conduct by > administering any substance without the other person’s knowledge; > (7) the actor compels the other person to submit or > participate by threatening to use force or violence against any > person, and the other person believes that the actor has the ability > to execute the threat; > (8) the actor is a public servant who coerces the other > person to submit or participate; > (9) the actor is a mental health services provider or a > health care services provider who causes the other person, who is a > patient or former patient of the actor, to submit or participate by > exploiting the other person’s emotional dependency on the actor; > (10) the actor is a clergyman who causes the other > person to submit or participate by exploiting the other person’s > emotional dependency on the clergyman in the clergyman’s > professional character as spiritual adviser; or > (11) the actor is an employee of a facility where the > other person is a resident, unless the employee and resident are > formally or informally married to each other under Chapter 2, > Family Code. So a cop threatening to arrest you will probably be sexual assault, but your boss threatening to fire you won’t. I would be surprised if there was a state statute that made a threat of loss of employment a sexual assault charge. ---
**Author:** ![felipemcguire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ec9cab/32.png) [@felipemcguire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/felipemcguire)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2005, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-woman-rape-a-man/286834/22 "2005-01-27T17:48:24Z")
> [@Aesiron](#): > > Looking at the definitions at [dictionary.com](http://dictionary.com), physical harm is mentioned only two or three times and it is generally defined as simply forcing someone to have sex [against their will], which I agree with. > > Rape is about dominance, not violence. Again though…what do you define as force vs. pressure. Not that I’m saying that pressuring for sex is okay, obviously that’s not the case. However, force is defninitely a more serious issue. What do YOU believe is the difference between the two? ---
**Author:** ![felipemcguire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ec9cab/32.png) [@felipemcguire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/felipemcguire)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2005, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-woman-rape-a-man/286834/23 "2005-01-27T17:50:29Z")
> [@felipemcguire](#): > > Again though…what do you define as force vs. pressure. > > Not that I’m saying that pressuring for sex is okay, obviously that’s not the case. > > However, force is defninitely a more serious issue. > > What do YOU believe is the difference between the two? Actually…I looked up ‘force’ on [Dictionary.com](http://Dictionary.com)…just as long as we’re using that as our source: “The use of physical power or violence to compel or restrain: a confession obtained by force.” (man…looks like I’m gonna have to buy a ‘real’ membership… :rolleyes: ) ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2005, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-woman-rape-a-man/286834/24 "2005-01-27T18:09:30Z")
My definition of rape is sex under the threat of harsh consequences for refusing it. Loss of a job, death, violence, and a failing grade all apply in my view. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2005, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-woman-rape-a-man/286834/25 "2005-01-27T18:36:53Z")
> [@Aesiron](#): > > My definition of rape is sex under the threat of harsh consequences for refusing it. Loss of a job, death, violence, and a failing grade all apply in my view. Well, this is GQ. The place for obscure doublespeak is GD 😉 [/juniormodhat] No, seriously, I think the GQ answer would most likely involve the legal definition or the commonly agreed upon definition, i.e. one involving assault or battery. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2005, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-woman-rape-a-man/286834/26 "2005-01-27T18:48:01Z")
> [@Aesiron](#): > > My definition of rape is sex under the threat of harsh consequences for refusing it. Loss of a job, death, violence, and a failing grade all apply in my view. But we’re dealing with a concept that has actual _legal_ definitions that may not gibe with our own personal definition. For example, at common law rape is (or rather, was) the unlawful carnal knowledge by a man of a woman who is not his wife without her effective consent. Until most states abrogated the common law by statute, a woman was incapable of raping a man, and a man who forced sex on his wife was by definition not committing rape. That may seem reprehensible, but that was the law: a man could not rape his wife. The same goes with rape statutes in effect today. It may seem equally reprehensible, but consent obtained by threat of the loss of a job or a failing grade is probably not going to qualify as rape in most states, if any. ---
**Author:** ![richardb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/96bed5/32.png) [@richardb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/richardb)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2005, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-woman-rape-a-man/286834/27 "2005-01-28T02:39:55Z")
> [@klaus\_vonBarrenbeiser](#): > > My band has played a few gigs at a womens’ prison. At this particular prison there is a 19 year old girl who is in for raping an under-age boy. In this case, the boy was most likely a willing and eager participant, quite different than the question posed by the OP. Sex with a minor is Statutory Rape, as by law a minor does not have the legal ability to give legal consent. Obviously I do not know the details of this woman’s situation, but I’d bet this is the case. ---
**Author:** ![klaus\_vonBarrenbeiser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4491bb/32.png) [@klaus\_vonBarrenbeiser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/klaus_vonBarrenbeiser)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2005, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-woman-rape-a-man/286834/28 "2005-01-28T16:31:54Z")
> [@richardb](#): > > In this case, the boy was most likely a willing and eager participant, quite different than the question posed by the OP. Sex with a minor is Statutory Rape, as by law a minor does not have the legal ability to give legal consent. Obviously I do not know the details of this woman’s situation, but I’d bet this is the case. I agree that that is usually the case, but not this time. I had the opportunity to talk to her and a couple guards about it. The kid was 17 and bent on “saving himself” for marriage. The woman admitted she just wanted to bully the kid and “break him”. It was his idea (not the parents’) to press charges. If he had been willing his parents probably never would have heard about it. ---
**Author:** ![Josh\_dePlume](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Josh\_dePlume](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Josh_dePlume)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2005, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-woman-rape-a-man/286834/29 "2005-01-29T15:42:55Z")
I"ve always wondered about the term “statutory rape”. It seems to me that other kinds of rape are statutory too. I understand the distinction between statute and common law, but, as a post above mentioned, statutes have created new forms of rape other than sex with the young. I presume that the term is shorthand for “_merely_ statutory rape”, i.e., rape in the legal sense that is not rape in the commonly understood sense. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-woman-rape-a-man/286834.md?page=1)