People need to stop using “it was historical” as an excuse. Even if the setting is historical, rape is still rape. People in the past weren’t somehow too stupid to understand that forcing someone who said no was wrong. Obviously, social attitudes and laws were different, and sexual violence was often worse, but that doesn’t mean people couldn’t recognize it as rape.
At this point, some authors are just milking the “historical” setting to romanticize rape because readers have become so desensitized to it.
People need to stop using “it was historical” as an excuse. Even if the setting is historical, rape is still rape. People in the past weren’t somehow too stupid to understand that forcing someone who said no was wrong. Obviously, social attitudes and laws were different, and sexual violence was often worse, but that doesn’t mean people couldn’t recognize it as rape.
At this point, some authors are just milking the “historical” setting to romanticize rape because readers have become so desensitized to it.