Abstract
The terms marital rape and spousal rape are most often used in reference to acts that are in reality wife rape. Is this because there is a presumption that the spouse who perpetrates rape is as likely to be a wife as a husband? It appears there is an assumed mutuality of sexual “ownership” and sexual aggression, considering the gender-neutral wording of California’s rape statutes. For example, Penal Code 261 and Penal Code 262 refer only to a “person” or a “spouse” as victim or perpetrator of rape. Theoretically, it may be possible, but highly unlikely, for a wife to rape her husband. It is more likely that the gender-neutral language was used for political purposes (cf. Russell, 1982, p. 9), considering the difficulty of garnering support for legislation identified as women’s issues.
“Rape is rape no matter who is the perpetrator of the crime.”
Del Martin, testifying in support of California’s spousal rape law, 1979.
“[A] female slave has (in Christian countries) an admitted right, and is considered under a moral obligation to refuse to her master the last familiarity. Not so the wife: however brutal a tyrant she may unfortunately be chained to—though she may know that he hates her, though it may be his daily pleasure to torture her, and though she may feel it impossible not to loath him—he can claim from her and enforce the lowest degradation of a human being, that of being made the instrument of an animal function contrary to her inclinations. ”
John Stuart Mill, The Subjection of Women 1869.
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Pagelow, M.D. (1988). Marital Rape. In: Van Hasselt, V.B., Morrison, R.L., Bellack, A.S., Hersen, M. (eds) Handbook of Family Violence. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-5360-8_9
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