Now this is a tough one.
Although almost all contemporary societies do have a criminal offense called "rape" and outlaw it as one of the most serious crimes, there is no uniform definition of this legal term.
Forced sexual intercourse within marriage (in Germany rape could not occur inside a marriage per legal definition until 1997) or with opponents in the course of war (pretty sure the special operators in Ukr will not be sued back home), or with minorities or slaves (widely practised by ISIS members against their yazidi slaves) has not been or is not universally recognized as a criminal offense.
Many societies also blame or blamed the victim (looking at you
ramvivat), which is expressed, for example, in social exclusion (the yazidi women often faced this from their families after being freed) and even forced marriage with the rapist (like practised in Syria and the UAE).
While recent developments have certainly lowered the threshold of what is considered rape in some countries (as expressed in
nevermorexx post) other cultures may set the bar much higher. There are fine and sometimes fluid lines between sexual harassment, sexual coercion and rape.
Lets play out some Weinstein scenarios:
(Disclaimer: i am not a lawyer, so take these with a grain of salt.)
- Weinstein: "You know i have a tremendous influence on which actresses are considered for the cast. I heard you have special talents but i have yet to see them in action." Actress:"What do you mean? How can i convince you of my qualities?" Weinstein: "I dont know..." *looks at her mouth and makes a vague gesture just below his bellybutton. Actress catches up, makes a disgusted face, turns her head towards the door but drops finally to her knees, unbuttons his fly and blows him. Any prosecutor would have a very hard time to sue Weinstein for rape in this case. Perhaps sexual harassment
- Weinstein: "You know i have a tremendous influence on which actresses are considered for the cast. I heard you have special talents but i have yet to see them in action." Actress:"What do you mean? How can i convince you of my qualities?" Weinstein: "I dont know..." *looks at her mouth and makes a vague gesture just below his bellybutton. Actress catches up, makes a disgusted face, turns her head towards the door and says: "I dont want to do this..." but drops finally to her knees unbuttons his fly, and blows him. A german prosecutor would now have the first step into a possible sexual coercion case, since she expressed her unwillingness for the act.
- Weinstein: "You know i have a tremendous influence on which actresses are considered for the cast. I heard you have special talents but i have yet to see them in action." Actress:"What do you mean? How can i convince you of my qualities?" Weinstein: "Well, i can help you, if you help me, else... i dont know..." *looks at her mouth and points to his crotch. Actress catches up, makes a disgusted face, turns her head towards the door and says: "I dont want to do this..." but drops finally to her knees, unbuttons his fly and blows him. Now a german prosecutor would get into the range of a possible rape case, since Weinstein insinuated a harm to her career and made it somewhat clear what exactly he expects from her to avert this harm.
- Weinstein: "You know i have a tremendous influence on which actresses are considered for the cast. I heard you have special talents but i have yet to see them in action." Actress:"What do you mean? How can i convince you of my qualities?" Weinstein: "Well, i can help you, if you help me, else... i dont know..." *looks at her mouth and points to his crotch. Actress catches up, makes a disgusted face, turns her head towards the door, says: "I dont want to do this..." and heads towards the door. Weinstein runs after her and blocks physically the door: "Dont be stupid, you are just gaining momentum in this industry!" the actress sighs "You bastard, very well then..." and drops finally to her knees, unbuttons his fly and blows him. A prosecutor is now probably again a step away from a rape case and would rather press charges for sexual coercion; if he is lazy or an coward perhaps even just sexual harassment.
Well, you see where these scenarios are going, and they were just from a german legal point of view. While in all those scenarios Weinstein acts detestable and leverages his power against a young aspiring actress
and the result in all of them is the same, few of them are actually considered rape on a purely german legal basis.
So finding a common ground on that matter in a community like F95ZONE with such a multitude of cultural backgrounds, is practically impossible. Therefore i would advocate to accept TD1900s point of view, whenever you can align it with your conscience.
Because i strongly believe if TD1900 would have written a rape scene, there wouldnt be any ambiguity around it.