History Main / TheWomenAreSafeWithUs

* The protagonist of ''[[RobertAHeinlein Typewriter in the Sky]]'' tries to enforce this trope on the pirates he commands, but finds that they refuse to obey any orders on the subject. The author gives a fair bit of attention to [[RapePillageAndBurn what would actually happen]] during a pirate attack, as well as how the main character's modern morality estranges him from his crewmen. In-story, the resolution to the problem is through a CosmicRetcon--the protagonist's the antagonist of the story-within-a-story, and the writer decides he's not evil enough and rewrites him straight into IHaveYouNowMyPretty ([[MediumAwareness much to his displeasure]].)

* ''{{Dune}}'' plays with this a bit, it doesn't bait around the bush about how armies of old raped women of conquered lands (and still do) and trying to avoid this is why Leto II makes his armies all female.

-->[[BelisariusSeries ''An Oblique Approach'']]

** Though, when you consider that one effect of the curse is to no longer take pleasure from "[[IfYouKnowWhatIMean pleasurable company]]", it sounds a lot more like a bluff.
*** Bluff or no, I'd think ripping off a young woman's clothes and forcing her to be oogled by a crew of depraved pirates who would do a lot worse to her if they had the means is worth a few minutes in the penalty box...[[IfYouKnowWhatIMean if not necessarily hers]].
*** The curse doesn't keep them from "performing" any more than it does eating or drinking, it just doesn't satisfy. The exact phrasing is "All the pleasurable company in the world would not slake our lust." Rape is more a crime of violence than sex in any case.
*** It's more power trip made possible by violence. Paradoxical, isn't it, that sexual pleasure is only incidental to sexual assault.

*** Erm...no. It really is about sex.

* Although writers (especially modern ones) like to [[SexSells play up]] their [[AnythingThatMoves more salacious aspects]], Rome, and to an extent Greece, actually disapproved of war-rape...of freewomen. [[ValuesDissonance Slaves didn't have the right to refuse sex, and so couldn't technically be raped]]; Romans would consider any enslaved enemy women fair game, but actually women made up a tiny proportion of the slaves they took when they conquered a tribe. Women who stayed free retained the rights of freewomen under the ''lex gentilis'', including the right to not be raped—though Rome generally preferred to pay off victims rather than punish offenders. Still, Rome was probably the first state in all of history to offer recompense to its subject peoples if its soldiers misbehaved.

* Wolfgang Mittenmeyer in ''LegendOfTheGalacticHeroes'' has made it one of his main principles to avert this trope whenever possible. He caught the eye of his future superior Reinhart von Lohengramm when he executed a nobleborn soldier under his command for the crime of war-rape. We later get to see him repeat this during [[spoiler:the Phezzan occupation]], where he instates -- and enforces -- a strict policy of death by firing squad to any occupation forces caught doing this.

* Both played straight and averted with in 1960's ''Spartacus''. The gladiator students (who are slaves) are,as a perk, given women (also slaves) to spend the night with. Varinia meekly prepares to go through with it, her sense of dignity long since subjucated by her survival instinct. But Sparty, being the hero, will have none of it - especially since his owners are leering to watch the show. Whether he's releuctant to take advantage of Varinia, simply apalled by the idea of performing for an audience, or both is not made 100 % clear. Averted slightly, in that the other women with the other gladiators are almost certianly being ravished. In spite of this, the other gladiators later form Spartacus' army, and retain audience sympathy.

* Jack Sparrow from the ''PiratesOfTheCaribbean'' movies embraces pretty much every stereotype of a pirate.... yet somehow, we know that because he's a "good" character the women he comes across are pretty well safe.

* An unusual modern example is implied in {{Farscape}}. During a siege from an enemy known only as "The Horde", a nurse (and mother) asks of D'Argo, "Do you know what the Horde does to children? If they overrun us... and I'm too weak or unable... I'd rather my girl were at peace than in their hands. Please - I'll depend on you."

** Well, Conan is a rogue who regularly kills, steals, etc. The main reason he is the hero of his stories is that his opponents are either Eldritch Horrors or are human beings with extremely vicious tendencies. Rape is one way of painting them as more villainous than Conan himself. Case in point Salome, the main villain from "A Witch Shall be Born" (1934). She was born a princess of Khauran but at birth, she was recognized as the EvilWitch reborn, resulting in her own parents leaving her to die alone in the wilderness. She returns decades later to depose her twin sister Taramis of Khauran and replace her. So far so good, nothing unreasonable. But she then spends most of the story either arranging for various people to rape Taramis (starting with her first night on the throne: "Salome, hurrying along the corridor outside, smiled spitefully as [[ScreamDiscretionShot a scream of despair and agony rang]] shuddering through the palace.") or orchestrating orgies. Salome herself clearly enjoys the sex but the other women are unwilling participants: "She constantly indulges in the most infamous revelries, in which the unfortunate ladies of the court are forced to join, young married women as well as virgins." No other villain in the series seems as preoccupied with rape.

* In one of the {{Witcher}} novels an officer of an invading Nilfgardian army instructs his sergants to restrain the soldiers from pillage, arsons, vanton slaughter of civilians and rape, since they want to give the invasion a look of a libiration operation. One of the sergants is then shown relating the order to his platoon: "No pillage, except for forage, no arsons, no murders, no fucking... well, no fucking unless you do it hush-hush and so nobody sees you."
* Subverted in the firth book of {{Black Company}}, after invading a new city, members of the company start raping amazons. Croaker says they deserved it because they fighted. Of course, the mercenaries are [[{{understatement}} not exactly portrayed]] [[GreyAndGrayMorality as pure of hearth]].
* ''BirthOfANation'' ''is'' this trope. The etire thing is about the Ku Klux Klan killing black men and carpetbaggers who raped white women.

* In HBO's ''{{Rome}}'', one of Titus Pullio's (one of the two main protagonists) first lines something to the effect of how he lives to kill his enemies, take their gold, and enjoy their women. He's never shown actually enjoying an enemy's woman. He has bordellos for that.

** Jews were sometimes subject to this kind of abuse in countries that didn't have the above arrangement, as were Jews and Christians in some Muslim countries. More typically, though, Muslims charged ''dhimmi'' Jews and Christians a tax in exchange for "protection," in a similar arrangement to the one European kings had with Jews.

** Gets into WallBanger country when you consider the odds of a (what, 6th century? 8th?) Saxon warlord having a 19th century concept of Race Purity.

* Though it's popular to portray the Middle Ages as NoWomansLand, this isn't actually the case; war-rape was forbidden, along with looting and massacre of civilians, by the Peace of God movement. Medieval armies often had poor discipline, and the Peace's sanctions were sometimes difficult to enforce, but the same is true of modern armies and the Geneva Conventions. Rape was ''always'' a crime in peacetime, though (as in every society) it could be difficult to prove, and the powerful could often get away with it through bribery or corruption. The Late Middle Ages did see a resurgence of all the things the Peace had tried to curtail; the professional, mercenary armies that came to dominate the battlefield operated largely outside the rules designed to govern feudal war, and had little stake in the lands they fought in. In medieval wars against non-Christians, rape, along with massacre and looting, was often denounced as contrary to Christian principles (infidels still being in the image of God and, pragmatically, it being much easier to convert people if you treated them well), but the penalties of the Peace of God weren't usually applied to it. One exception, [[RealityIsUnrealistic contrary to what the trope named after them might indicate]], was the [[KnightTemplar Templars]], who considered the Peace of God to apply equally against all enemies.
** All this depends greatly on the era and location. Just about the only source to common folk's perceptions are records that the Inquisition made while hunting for heretics. They contain such lofty statements by common peasants as "A woman's soul is like swine's; insignificant." The same records also indicate that village priests often had the freedom to sleep with any woman they liked regardless of their consent. All this was technically speaking illegal, but it didn't prevent the common practice when the clergy were outside the authority of the secular courts, and it could take decades for the Church to take action.

* Almost averted in DragonAge: Origins. This being DragonAge, the amount of [[FaceHeelTurn true allies]] with whom your women are safe is quite small, to say the least. In the City Elf origin, all the women in your family and you (if female) are dragged off by human nobles to be raped. A few NPCs allude to this fate when talking about war and banditry in Thedas. There are quite a few female NPCs with RapeAsBackstory. And, just in case you thought you were safe fighting inhuman, nonsentient beasts who don't seem to reproduce normally, the women who are taken away by the Darkspawn are [[spoiler: mutated into [[BodyHorror Broodmothers]] and forced to give birth to new Darkspawn]]. Yes, women are safe with the few actual heroes in this world (even DepravedBisexual Zevran will be very, very sure you're into him before he'll make a move), but this seems to be a fact about these particular characters as people, and does not automatically apply to anyone on their sides, ever.

* ConanTheBarbarian mentions in the story "The Vale of Lost Women" that he has never taken a woman by force. This may be due to Conan's inherent decency, but it may also be due to a formative incident in his teenage years in which he tried to rape a woman who [[MuggingTheMonster turned out to be the daughter of Ymir the Frost Giant]]. That would probably put anyone off rape for the rest of their lives.
** Well, Conan is a rogue who regularly kills, steals, etc. The main reason he is the hero of his stories is that his opponents are either Eldritch Horrors or are human beings with extremely vicious tendencies. Rape is one way of painting them as more villainous than Conan himself. Case in point Salome, the main villain from "A Witch Shall be Born" (1934). She was born a princess of Khauran but her magical potential was recognized from birth, resulting in her own parents leaving her to die alone in the wilderness. She returns decades later to depose her twin sister Taramis of Khauran and replace her. So far so good, nothing unreasonable. But she then spends most of the story either arranging for various people to rape Taramis (starting with her first night on the throne: "Salome, hurrying along the corridor outside, smiled spitefully as a scream of despair and agony rang shuddering through the palace.") or orchestrating orgies. Salome herself clearly enjoys the sex but the other women are unwilling participants: "She constantly indulges in the most infamous revelries, in which the unfortunate ladies of the court are forced to join, young married women as well as virgins." No other villain in the series seems as preoccupied with rape.

* The Clive Owen ''KingArthur'' movie uses a twist on this trope; the good Roman knights don't rape. The villainous Saxons are shown attempting to rape a woman but the BigBad stops them, arguing their shouldn't dilute their bloodline. One of the soldiers claims it's his right, and is stabbed for his trouble. The BigBad then kills the woman.

* Almost averted in DragonAge: Origins. This being DragonAge, the amount of [[FaceHeelTurn true allies]] with whom your women are safe is quite small, to say the least. In the City Elf origin, all the women in your family and you (if female) are dragged off by human nobles to be raped. A few NPCs allude to this fate when talking about war and banditry in Thedas. There are quite a few female NPCs with RapeAsBackstory. And, just in case you thought you were safe fighting inhuman, nonsentient beasts who don't seem to reproduce normally, the women who are taken away by the Darkspawn are [[spoiler: mutated into [[BodyHorror Broodmothers]] and forced to give birth to new Darkspawn]]. Yes, women are safe with the few actual heroes in this world (even DepravedBisexual Zevran will be very, very sure you're into him before he'll make a move), but this seems to be a fact about these paticular characters as people, and does not automatically apply to anyone on their sides, ever.

* Both played straight and averted with in 1960's ''Sparticus''. The gladiator students (who are slaves) are,as a perk, given women (also slaves) to spend the night with. Varinia meekly prepares to go through with it, her sense of dignity long since subjucated by her survival instinct. But Sparty, being the hero, will have none of it - especially since his owners are leering to watch the show. Whether he's releuctant to take advantage of Varinia, simply apalled by the idea of performing for an audience, or both is not made 100 % clear. Averted slightly, in that the other women with the other gladiators are almost certianly being ravished. In spite of this, the other gladiators later form Sparticus' army, and retain audience sympathy.

** Jews were sometimes subject to this kind of abuse in countries that didn't have the above arrangement, as were Jews and Christians in some Muslim countries. More typically, though, Muslims charged ''dhimmi'' Jews and Christians a tax in exchange for protection, in a similar arrangement to the one European kings had with Jews.

* The short story 'The Women of our Occupation', by Kameron Hurley, subverts this. Read more {{here http://www.strangehorizons.com/2006/20060731/women-f.shtml}}