Several thoughts on a single subject
Nov. 17th, 2014 09:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
valarltdWe're working on a game sourcebook set in the Eight thrones universe.
The problem of rape in the Confederated States came up. The CS has reverted to mostly Old Testament Law, including a Gold Standard, standard weights and measures, some dietary laws and such.
Deuteronomy 22 is pretty clear on how to handle things:
22 If a man is found sleeping with another man’s wife, both the man who slept with her and the woman must die. You must purge the evil from Israel.
23 If a man happens to meet in a town a virgin pledged to be married and he sleeps with her, 24 you shall take both of them to the gate of that town and stone them to death—the young woman because she was in a town and did not scream for help, and the man because he violated another man’s wife. You must purge the evil from among you.
25 But if out in the country a man happens to meet a young woman pledged to be married and rapes her, only the man who has done this shall die. 26 Do nothing to the woman; she has committed no sin deserving death. This case is like that of someone who attacks and murders a neighbor, 27 for the man found the young woman out in the country, and though the betrothed woman screamed, there was no one to rescue her.
28 If a man happens to meet a virgin who is not pledged to be married and rapes her and they are discovered, 29 he shall pay her father fifty shekels[c] of silver. He must marry the young woman, for he has violated her. He can never divorce her as long as he lives.
Rape is a property crime against a father. Married women are considered adulteresses, because consent is not a factor in sexual propriety.
Even today, sexual ethics are based on purity, not consent. This is why certain strains of Christians have no problem lumping rape, incest, homosexuality and bestiality all into the same category. Because they are all impurity.
We decided to treat it as a property crime/adultery, but to give the husband the option to cover over his wife if he loves her enough. He can plead for her life, claim she was violated and stolen, that only the attacker should be punished. The court assumes he will punish her adequately all her life for the crime of being attacked. And he likely will. Because no man is ever QUITE sure it was rape. In the back of his mind, there always lurks the fear it was her choice and she faked it. (and if a woman is hauled in on a second count, she is executed)
The courts usually show leniency. After all, we aren't dealing with Vlad Tepis here.
It is said the Prince once noticed a man working in the fields while wearing a shirt that he adjudged to be too short in length. The prince stopped and asked to see the man’s wife. When the woman was brought before him he asked her how she spent her days. The poor, frightened woman stated that she spent her days washing, baking and sewing. The prince pointed out her husband’s short caftan as evidence of her laziness and dishonesty and ordered her impaled, despite her husband’s protestations that he was well satisfied with his wife. Vlad told him to be satisfied with another, and then ordered another woman to marry the peasant but admonished her to work hard or she would suffer the same fate.
(Or as I said when I was complaining one of my heroes was stupid for not abandoning his quest to find his wife "There are five billion women in the world. He needs to find another one.")
The problem of rape in the Confederated States came up. The CS has reverted to mostly Old Testament Law, including a Gold Standard, standard weights and measures, some dietary laws and such.
Deuteronomy 22 is pretty clear on how to handle things:
22 If a man is found sleeping with another man’s wife, both the man who slept with her and the woman must die. You must purge the evil from Israel.
23 If a man happens to meet in a town a virgin pledged to be married and he sleeps with her, 24 you shall take both of them to the gate of that town and stone them to death—the young woman because she was in a town and did not scream for help, and the man because he violated another man’s wife. You must purge the evil from among you.
25 But if out in the country a man happens to meet a young woman pledged to be married and rapes her, only the man who has done this shall die. 26 Do nothing to the woman; she has committed no sin deserving death. This case is like that of someone who attacks and murders a neighbor, 27 for the man found the young woman out in the country, and though the betrothed woman screamed, there was no one to rescue her.
28 If a man happens to meet a virgin who is not pledged to be married and rapes her and they are discovered, 29 he shall pay her father fifty shekels[c] of silver. He must marry the young woman, for he has violated her. He can never divorce her as long as he lives.
Rape is a property crime against a father. Married women are considered adulteresses, because consent is not a factor in sexual propriety.
Even today, sexual ethics are based on purity, not consent. This is why certain strains of Christians have no problem lumping rape, incest, homosexuality and bestiality all into the same category. Because they are all impurity.
We decided to treat it as a property crime/adultery, but to give the husband the option to cover over his wife if he loves her enough. He can plead for her life, claim she was violated and stolen, that only the attacker should be punished. The court assumes he will punish her adequately all her life for the crime of being attacked. And he likely will. Because no man is ever QUITE sure it was rape. In the back of his mind, there always lurks the fear it was her choice and she faked it. (and if a woman is hauled in on a second count, she is executed)
The courts usually show leniency. After all, we aren't dealing with Vlad Tepis here.
It is said the Prince once noticed a man working in the fields while wearing a shirt that he adjudged to be too short in length. The prince stopped and asked to see the man’s wife. When the woman was brought before him he asked her how she spent her days. The poor, frightened woman stated that she spent her days washing, baking and sewing. The prince pointed out her husband’s short caftan as evidence of her laziness and dishonesty and ordered her impaled, despite her husband’s protestations that he was well satisfied with his wife. Vlad told him to be satisfied with another, and then ordered another woman to marry the peasant but admonished her to work hard or she would suffer the same fate.
