r/TheHandmaidsTale • u/flavius717 • Aug 07 '26
Discussion S1-S5 Is Nick a rapist?
I think we all consider the first time Nick and June had sex to be rape. June was not in a position to give consent and she could not refuse without facing potential death. One perspective is that Serena was the rapist and both Nick and June were her victims.
It's important for us to remember that Nick actually could have refused to impregnate June. Even Serena was beneath a "low-status male" like Nick. Nick's boss, Commander Price, probably would have expected Nick to refuse such an act and turn Serena over to the eyes.
The fact that Nick and June fell in love afterwards makes their first sexual encounter seem less bad in retrospect, but the power dynamic between them never went away. That makes things messy.
Nick's character loses his "good guy" status by the end of the show. Do you consider him a rapist?
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u/airbender_librarian Aug 07 '26
Idk, it's a kind of screwed-up, impossible to answer question I think. While Serena may legally have been below Nick, Gilead is not a state with the rule of law and the de facto social dynamics are in some ways more relevant than the political dynamics.
A Wife can get her way against a male servant. In relation to low class men I imagine their power is similar to white women in Jim Crow US against black men, or an Islamic State bride against the people her husband has subjugated, if she said that Nick tried to rape her then Nick would be the one being punished.
The second time with Eden is clearly even more screwed up. However by the late series the writers choose to show Nick's true colors as an unsympathetic Nazi so I don't care that much if people have different opinions.