And experts suggest these numbers are likely vastly underreported. Even now, there are some states that have yet to remove loopholes that make it prosecutable.Īpproximately 10 to 14 percent of married women in the US are raped by their husbands during their marriage, and roughly one in three women report having 'unwanted sex' with their partner, according to the National Resource Center for Domestic Violence. Prior to the 1970s, marital rape was also explicitly legal in the United States. We’re still fighting their premise today. According to PBS, in 1888, an English judge wrote, “The intercourse which takes place between husband and wife after marriage is not by virtue of any special consent on her part but is mere submission to an obligation imposed on her by law.” These centuries-old laws aren’t relics. The 17th Century Hale Rule set the precedent that a man having sex with his wife could never be considered rape, because marriage made them “one flesh,” making non-consent impossible. In Britain, marital rape was legal until 1991 (yes, you read that right). Marital rape is one of the most aggressively normalized forms of sexual assault, so the Bridgerton universe’s choice to participate in that normalization perpetuates a centuries-old problem. We should all speak up whether it was triggering or not. We don’t have to be distressed by something to know that it is wrong. But I still think it’s important to call out these problematic depictions. It was disheartening.”ĭespite being a Black woman and a survivor of sexual violence, I am rarely triggered by on-screen depictions of racism and assault (even though people assume I am when I call out these horrible portrayals). “I was so shocked and disgusted that I started looking away after the second time it happened on screen,” writer Imani Sumbi, says of the marital rape scenes. Instead of losing themselves in the show, Black women are actively traumatized. To market the show to Black women as quality representation, and then depict Black characters’ sexual assaults in graphic detail, feels reckless, bleak, and purposeful. The show likes to lean into its “escapist” genre to dodge criticisms of white-washing and inaccurate portrayals of racism and slavery, but then shows gratuitous sexual violence instead of sexy romance. The conflation of marital rape with unenjoyable (or just plain boring sex) normalizes something that should be called out.Īnd it is a choice the Bridgerton franchise does, seemingly without a second thought. Is 'Bridgerton's Queen Charlotte A Real Person?.There’s even one scene where he threatens to make her have sex with him if she doesn’t do what he asks, and viewers see the fear and sadness in her eyes before acquiescing. When I tweeted about the abhorrent marital rape in the show shortly after its premiere, people told me I was exaggerating, arguing this was merely a wife having “bad sex” with her husband in olden times.īut it wasn’t just bad sex-Lady Danbury is groomed to be this man’s wife from age three, seems to dissociate during sex, and when she wants to abstain, it seems to come with consequences. Viewers watch as young Lady Danbury (played by Arsema Thomas) is continually raped by her much older husband, often several times an episode. Instead of changing course, it happened again in Queen Charlotte, a spinoff that delves into the young royal’s love life. In fact, the central plot of Season 1 revolves around Daphne’s manic quest for Simon’s sperm, which not only turns violent, but stomach-curdlingly gross. In Bridgerton, Season 1, Black viewers were outraged after Daphne Bridgerton (Phoebe Dynevor) rapes her husband, Simon, the Duke of Hastings (Regé-Jean Page), forcing him to ejaculate inside of her so she’d get pregnant, even though he didn’t want to be a father. It’s bizarre to me that Bridgeton has doubled -down on such repeated, graphic scenes of sexual assault after being called out for this issue before. Netflix’s Bridgertonand its newest prequel, Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story, are marketed as escapist romance, but the fake-Regency-era universe consistently subjects its Black characters to instances of marital rape that are played off as comedic interludes or a little bump in the road for a happily married couple. Content warning: Discussion of marital rape and sexual assault.
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