Is marital rape possible in the absence of a physical threat?
Under UK law, rape of any kind requires physical force or threat of physical force. The situation may be different in the US, and possibly duress of another kind, such as blackmail, may be sufficient to prove rape. (Nobody has demonstrated this for definite on this thread.)
Since 1993, marital rape has been treated like any other kind of rape, so yes, there must be, in the UK, a physical threat for marital rape, generally the husband’s superior physical strength.
Of course, marital rape, like date rape, is difficult to prove.
It is interesting that those PJM readers commenting on my post about Heather Mac Donald, linked above, were quick to say that women who got drunk and went off with strangers were partly responsible for any rape that happened, and that their behaviour made it not really rape. They were drunken sluts who were asking for it. And yet on this thread, a man who behaves unwisely, gets drunk and goes to a motel room with an unknown woman, is deserving of sympathy.
In my opinion, they are both victims and both deserving of sympathy. But they don’t appear to be getting it equally.
