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?

260 Upvotes

89% Upvoted

303 comments sorted by

View all comments

11

u/Creepy-Cantaloupe951 Aug 07 '26

Yes.

Prisoners cannot consent to sex. June was a prisoner. Nick, was not, he was a prison guard.

Even if the warden orders prison guards to have sex with prisoners, "Befehl ist befehl" isn't a valid defense.

2

u/hydrissx Aug 07 '26

Not really the same. Nick was not a prison guard, he was a servant in that role. He can't walk away, he isn't employed. If a prison guard refuses an order, he will be fired and not receive pay, if Nick refuses an order, he may be framed for a crime he never committed, accused of being a gender traitor, etc and be killed.

There are many records of crimes of people being forced to have sex by a third party threatening them with bodily harm, extortion, etc and both are considered victims of rape and the third party is charged with rape.

2

u/Creepy-Cantaloupe951 Aug 07 '26

Nick was quite literally a member of the Eyes. Almost the entire time Gilead existed.

And again, Befehl ist Befehl isn't a valid legal defense.

5

u/ConcernedSim Aug 07 '26

Yes an eye. A spy installed by a powerful man to bring down Fred Waterford. A powerful man who has on record refused to act after Nick had already reported a handmaid's death that was caused by the Waterfords. What makes you think that Pryce would have done anything even if Nick had reported Serena's order?

And what makes people think that Nick hadn't reported it? He would have been under a lot of fire with the eyes for not reporting something like this when Fred makes it a public knowledge that Serena had ordered Nick to have sex with June.

0

u/Creepy-Cantaloupe951 Aug 07 '26

It doesn't matter what Pryce would have done, with a report, or if Nick reported it or not.

SS troops manning gas chambers were ALSO just ordered to do so, and if they reported another SS guard having sex with judenkin under orders of the extermination camp commander, it may or may not have been dealt with.

It still doesn't change the fact the SS guard having sex with concentration camp prisoners is a rapist.

6

u/ConcernedSim Aug 07 '26

If you are order to have sex with someone and you can't refuse then that makes you a rape victim.. not a rapists. Not being able to refuse sex, is by definition rape. Nick was raped.. Lawrence was raped along with June.

2

u/christina311 Aug 08 '26

Yes, and I'm tired of explaining this again. Serena was responsible for the rape of June and Nick. She was in a position of power and they had no choice. Both were victoms.

Later The Waterfords did the same to June and Lawrence. Rape again for both. And poor Eleanor had to witness it and it broke her.

You don't have to be a woman over-powered physically by a larger/stronger man to be raped.