I don’t think her “no” was a clear “yes.” I think that it was left intentionally ambiguous by Margaret Mitchel about what happened between the “no” and the morning after when Scarlett was, well, basking in the afterglow. And that ambiguity allows enough room to extrapolate that Scarlett said yes. She could have said yes before they even reached the bedroom. It’s not like this didnt’ fit a pattern in their relationship. Scarlett initially didn’t want to dance with him while she was in mourning, but she did. And he did not drag her kicking and screaming out to the floor. Scarlett didn’t want to kiss him, but she did (three times IIRC). Scarlett resisted marrying him, but he didn’t force her to the alter. In fact, before any interaction between them, there was a moment when Scarlett relented and chose to do exactly what she wanted to do. And since we’re not talking about real people, but rather, two characters who played out the same pattern over and over again, I feel comfortable citing this as another example of the pattern.
I just don’t think it’s a clear-cut case of rape. I’m not saying it was a clear-cut case of consent either. I think it’s an ambiguous situation, but I tend to lean on the side of “No! Don’t! Stop!..No, don’t stop!”
I thought that too, but the 15 year old girl wouldn’t testify against him. According the McMurphy “She said she was 17 and she was plenty willing.” Of course, anything he says is to be taken with a grain of salt.
McMurphy also tells of losing his virginity at 12 to an 11 year old girl. Again with a grain of salt.
Brit cop TV series The Bill depicted a statutory rapist in a very sympathetic light some years back - he was a lonely middle-aged man who’d taken in a homeless 15-year-old and eventually, after some months, they’d ended up having sex on her instigation. She said during the police interview that it - the interview - was making her feel like she’d been raped, and added “<Billy> never raped me”. She was within a few weeks of legal age at the time.
I hated the book, too, and it’s been (counts on fingers) 23 years since I read it, but as I recall, it was concensual sex, but she was drunk, and noisy, and they were in her house. In the racial climate of the time, he (black, and a servant) would have been lynched for having sex with a (rich and) white girl anyway. He accidentally smothered her while trying to keep her from getting him caught, then threw her down the air duct. He then ran away, and everyone assumed he’d raped her and deliberately murdered her.
That’s basically how he kills the white girl. I don’t think they’d had sex. He has taken her out and she’s drunk, and he smothers her by accident so her mother won’t hear the noise and fire him for either being there or letting her drink.
However, Bigger later tries to get his girlfriend involved in an extortion plot, intending to convince the dead girl’s family that they’ve kidnapped her. The girlfriend is noncommital, and he ends up murdering her as described.
Actually, the rich white girl was Mary, and he put her in the house’s furnace. He had to chop her head off to get her in there. The crime was found out when her remains, including one of a unique pair of earrings, were found in the ashes.
His girlfriend was Bessie, and she was the one he threw down the airshaft. Bigger was only tried, covicted, and scheduled to die for his actions to Mary (who was not raped and was killed accidentally). He does rape and kill Bessie, but that is inconsequential to the story. That is very ironic.
Geez-o-pete, I don’t remember anything about Bessie. It’s those 22 years and an absolute hatred of the book, I guess. But what can I say–I think I used it in the A.P. English exam, so I guess it’s good I read it.
Tony Manero. After the dance contest, he and Stephanie are in her car. He picks a fight; she counters that she’d been playing with him. He starts tearing her clothes off; she hits him in the nuts and pushes him away. After brooding all night, he goes to her apartment, and she grudgingly opens the door, saying, “First time I’ve let a known rapist into my apartment.”
As I understand it, people have run around the house and thrown children out the windows ( while dreaming the house is on fire ), or even driven places and committed murder while sleepwalking. It’s very rare, but some people can do quite elaborate things while asleep; apparently the cause is a specific form of brain damage, which weakens or destroys the function that keeps people ( and animals for that matter; it can be induced artificially ) from acting out dreams.
I’m going to second this. The disorder is called “REM without atonia.” Normally when people (and animals) are in REM sleep, or dream sleep, the skeletal muscles are paralyzed, effectively preventing us from acting out our dreams. Very small lesions of the brainstem can cause people to be able to move during REM.
This disorder has, on a very few occasions, been used as a successful defense in criminal trials. It’s always interesting when sleep research and criminal law coincide.
I think I’d argue that Cerebus isn’t remotely sympathetic even while being the star of 300 issues of a comic book.
One of my female friends argued strongly then that Astoria had enticed the rape. In fact, she does invite it while teasing him (she’s emprisoned and trying to barter for her freedom) and taking her panties off and showing off the goods. But he simply forces her at that point.
In the end, Cerebus is an asshole for the entire run.
Funny you mentioned The Fountainhead but not the protagonist, Howard Roark! About midway through the book he rapes the heroine (forgot her name), though after the episode is over it’s implied that she wanted to be.