Basic Trope: A husband or wife rapes their spouse.
- Straight: Bob tries to initiate sex with his wife Alice, but for whatever reason(s), she is not in the mood. When she turns him down, he scowls, picks her up, throws her on the bed, rips her clothes off and has his way with her.
- Exaggerated:
- Bob rapes Alice to death.
- Bob rapes Alice several times.
- Every married man in the work does this.
- Alice's parents force her to marry Bob, knowing his predatory tendencies, and tell her she will "never have a choice in the bedroom."
- Bob is in a polygyny marriage and he rapes both Alice and Diane.
- Downplayed:
- Bob molests Alice.
- Bob presses her limits, but never technically forces her.
- Justified:
- This couple lives in No Woman's Land, where expectations in their culture regarding marriage, sex, and gender roles cause Bob to think that he is entitled to sex with Alice and may just take it if she won't give it to him.
- Irrespective of gender, their society assumes implied consent
with regards to sex within marriage — i.e. the marriage vow is taken as consent to any sex within marriage, whether the other partner wants it or not at any specific time. - The population is declining, and fewer men are willing to marry (or even be in contact with) women. The government is desperate to get more men to raise family and populate.
- Alice and Bob are not in a healthy marriage.
- Inverted:
- Alice and Bob have consensual marital sex.
- Gender Inverted: Alice rapes Bob and has her way for him.
- Bob rapes everyone except his wife.
- Bob insists that it would be wrong to have sex with Alice after they got married.
- Bob stops raping Alice after they marry.
- Subverted:
- Alice resists Bob's advances, but then gives in.
- It sounds like Bob is raping Alice, but it turns out it's just the TV show they're watching.
- It seems like Bob is raping Alice, but then she says, "Red," and he stops. Alice and Bob are into BDSM, and this was a scene.
- Double Subverted:
- Alice gave in to Bob's advances because she felt pressured. She worried that if she failed to fulfill her wifely duty, even just this once, Bob would cheat on her or divorce her.
- Alice initially is interested in Bob's roleplay games, but his increasingly aggressive behavior outside of the bedroom makes her feel that Bob is no longer acting under a persona but really wants to hurt her.
- Parodied: Bob kisses Alice all of the sudden, and she overreacts as if he had raped her.
- Zig Zagged: The consensuality between the two remained ambiguous.
- Averted:
- Bob never rapes Alice.
- Alice and Bob don't have sex at all.
- Alice clearly consented to Bob.
- It was clear right from the beginning that they are doing roleplay and it was Safe, Sane, and Consensual.
- Enforced:
- The setting of the story demands it.
- The author wants to show that Alice and Bob's marriage is unhealthy and unsafe.
- The author sincerely believes that a husband can rape his wife, because she is legally married to him, and marriage usually comes with certain expectations.
- The author firmly believes that a husband cannot rape his wife just because they're married, and wants to do a point about it.
- Lampshaded:Bob: It counts as rape if it's a stranger, but not if it's your wife!
Claire: It doesn't matter if she's your wife! She said no, and she has a right to say no! - Invoked: All Men Are Perverts, especially Bob. He married Alice thinking he would be within his rights to sleep with her whenever he wanted.
- Exploited: Alice uses this as a way to threaten and control Bob.
- Defied:
- Alice decides to give sex a chance.
- When Alice turns down Bob's sexual advances that night, Bob feels disappointed, but accepts it and just goes to bed, watches some TV, or masturbates to porn instead; he doesn't rape Alice or coerce her into sex.
- Bob doesn't make sexual advances towards Alice that night in the first place, either because he isn't in the mood, or can tell she isn't in the mood, or both.
- Alice trains to become stronger than Bob, so there's no way in hell he could even try to rape her without getting a broken arm in the process. Now, in case she is in the mood but Bob isn't, and she decides that she's gonna muscle him into it...
- Alice gets the help she needs, and files for divorce from Bob. (If she takes him to trial, in this case, he is found guilty of a crime and punished accordingly.) If she decides to pursue romance again, she makes sure that her new guy has nothing but the utmost respect for her and her wishes and treats her well.
- Discussed: "Is it considered rape if you're married?"
- Conversed: "Why do men always get away with rape on this show? That would never happen in Real Life."
- Implied: Alice and Bob are shown to be in an unhealthy relationship, and Alice covers herself constantly when she is near him.
- Deconstructed:
- This is a form of Domestic Abuse; one still has the right to say no to sex, even to one's spouse. It might be all the worse for Alice because people honestly buy into this, leaving her without a support system to rely on. Because people buy into this, Bob will most likely get off scot-free.
- When this trope came to light, no men wants to marry, knowing that even after marriage, they may not have sex.
- Reconstructed: Men worried about this all make sure to marry women who have high sex drives.
- Played for Laughs: Black Comedy Rape, "Not If They Enjoyed It" Rationalization
- Played for Drama: Bob doesn't know he has one or more sexually transmitted illnesses, and unknowingly gives it to Alice.
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