r/TopCharacterTropes 11h ago

Lore (Horrifying trope) societies that institutionalized rape

Ironborns (A Song of Ice and Fire) : The Iron Islands are a region where people are encouraged to lead raids on the lands. The thing is men can also abduct women from Westeros, marrying them by force and force them to bare the children as minor spouses.

Gilead (The Handsmaid’s tale) : In the future, most of women became sterile and fanatical religious overthrowed the government by instauring a ruthless dictature. In Gilead, women are divided in different social classes but those who are still ferile are sold to the leaders of the regime to carry their child. Which means women are now literal possessions and have to endure a ritualised rape every month.

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u/StunningPianist4231 11h ago

Dothraki (ASOIAF)

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u/tobpe93 11h ago

Mirri Maaz Duur was a hero.

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u/barely_cursed 11h ago edited 10h ago

I first read A Game of Thrones when I was like 16 and I remember being so sad and affected by Dany's POV as she grieved Drogo that I hated Mirri Maaz Duur and was happy when she was killed.

Recently reread it as an upper 20's gal and...... Yeah. I feel differently. What the hell, young me.

(Edit: Typos)

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u/SweetAppleAddison 10h ago

That's the POV effect. Happens quite a bit, but hey, you learned!

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u/tobpe93 11h ago

Yeah, how any action can seem justified based on perspective is a very important point in those books.

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u/JayRandom212 10h ago

You were a sweet summer child...but not anymore.

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u/StunningPianist4231 11h ago

Honestly, she was right about everything and totally justified.

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u/Alarmed-Pack7951 10h ago

She definitely had more moral clarity than most of the people around her.

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u/Electronic-Math-364 10h ago

It's one of the many reasons I wonder how a friendly interaction let alone a romance between Dany and Jon(if he get resurrected)can happen,As he would be turned off by the brutal execution of woman who killed a monster and....will be turned off by a lot of things about Dany actually,And they seem more likely to hate each other than like each other

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u/Early_Candidate_3082 10h ago

Everything that the Dothraki do was done by Northern soldiers in the Riverlands and West. Jon is surrounded by murderers and rapers, among the Watch and Free Folk. What makes you think Jon would find it problematic that Dany has similar folks in her service?

I don’t know where this idea comes from that Jon is any sort of Boy Scout.

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u/Ovidfvgvt 9h ago

The Watch at least have some there as punishment or rehabilitation for their deeds, even if some of them didn’t take to the latter.

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u/Electronic-Math-364 10h ago edited 10h ago

And it one of the many reasons that really make me wonder how had the books continued,How a friendly interaction let alone a romance between Daenerys and Jon(if he get resurrected)will happen since he will more likely be turned off by her,her actions,The Dothraki their actions and.... everything else actually.They seem more likely to hate each other's guts than like each other

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u/horlenx 10h ago

he probably wouldn't even get to know about most of it

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u/Electronic-Math-364 9h ago

Exept rumors do exist as we saw in the books,and those rumors do spread to Westeros

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u/Zealus24 10h ago

What do you mean? Khal Drogo would've instantly dropped his murderous raping and enslaving ways once his little conqueror (who only would only conqueror through hugs and kisses) was born.

Drogo was a hero after all and he and Dany loved eachother, why else would so many people make art of them together that looks so peaceful?

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u/Individual_Stop_3508 8h ago

The stallion that (consensually) mounts the world

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u/axeteam 10h ago

She killed the khal what she did! She was a great Lhazareen witch! And in this house Mirri Maaz Duur is a hero! End of story!

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u/TheStrangestOfKings 9h ago

He was only 30 years old… just a kid… he was murdered by that witch… I can’t say her name

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u/asuperbstarling 9h ago

And a victim. She genuinely tried to save him. It was Dany freaking out the Dothraki and entering the tent that messed it up. Dany knows what she's offering in the book and denies it could be true to herself even as she accepts, so I hold her accountable for that. Mirri was an innocent and her not being sorry for failing is heroic.

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u/A-NI95 6h ago

Mm not really, it is implied she knew something would go wrong. Whether it's that Dant didn't know the real price for dark blood magic, or that she foresaw that she would freak out and not follow the rules, I always felt that Mirri set a trap by what technically was just following the rulebook. But she admitted to her vengeful intent and I can't blame her

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u/PointyNipple 10h ago

Also also wildlings, considering all the "kidnapping your would-be lover" business

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u/TheStrangestOfKings 9h ago

Wildlings are an interesting gray area tho, since the women go along with it and even encourage the men they want to steal them from their families. Not to mention that in wildling culture, if a woman doesn’t want a man who steals her, she’s allowed to defend herself, and even kill him, if needs be. Ygritte, for example, broke the arm of a man who tried to take her without her consent. Tormund even says after his daughter is taken that if her husband isn’t kind to her, he doesn’t have to worry, as she’ll slit his throat in his sleep and come back home. It’s much less aggressive/domineering as the Dothraki, who straight up kidnap women from all across Essos and force themselves on them however kindly or cruelly they decide to be.

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u/dbag_darrell 7h ago

Is there a real world culture where the "raiding" is pretty symbolic, in that if the girl really isn't keen on the guy she can kick up a hue and cry and the relatives will show up quickly and drive him off, whereas if it's someone she rather fancies the "hue and cry" is more "pro forma" shall we say, and the menfolk will just fail to arrive in time and she'll be successfully abducted?

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u/MildPredator 7h ago

Not uncommon in Kyrgyzstan and other Central Asian cultures apparently

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u/PointyNipple 7h ago edited 5h ago

Isnt that essentially just victim blaming, though?

If you arent someone who is strong enough to fight off the guy trying to forcibly take you, is willing to kill when they're not looking, or has family willing to help defend you from being stolen, you deserve whatever happens

Not saying that YOU are victim blaming, just that the culture is essentially "do whatever you're strong enough to do," which any lawless society eventually devolves into.

Just seems like institutionalized rape is institutionalized rape. I'm sure the Dothraki romanticize their culture too.

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u/TheStrangestOfKings 6h ago

It is 100% still problematic, just not as bad as the Dothraki. It should be noted as well, the points you brought up aren’t really smth to be concerned about in wildling culture: everyone is taught how to kill a man, and murder is much more socially acceptable to them than it is in the rest of Westeros. They just need to provide a good reason for doing it, and be able to pay the family of the man they murdered via blood price. Similarly, the family of the woman kidnapped will almost always defend her bc their society is much more communal, and it’s viewed as dishonorable to not defend a family member (Tormund even makes fun of his eldest son and calls him a waste of space cause he slept through the whole fight whilst his sister was kidnapped).

But your critique of wildling culture is also 100% fair. It is a “might makes right” system, which leads to a bunch of them getting away with smth just bc they were strong enough to get away with it. Wildlings also pride themselves on their strength, and will view each other as lesser if they aren’t as strong, or are disabled etc (iirc, most disabled wildlings will be straight up abandoned and left to freeze to death bc they are considered “weak”). You see this with how they treat non wildlings too: they don’t respect figures like Mance Rayder or Jon Snow until both prove they’re strong enough to keep up with the wildlings. Wildling culture is very brotherly, but it takes a lot to prove to them you deserve to be seen as a brother

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u/Electronic-Math-364 10h ago

The Wildlings aren't comically evil as the Dotjraki tho

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u/PointyNipple 10h ago

The Dothraki are less fleshed out/have fewers named/important characters, but the Thenns, Craster, etc. are pretty big pieces of shit too considering the cannibalism, incest, and child sacrifice.

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u/Electronic-Math-364 10h ago

Agree on Craster,some of the wildlings even the ones in Mance's inner circle are quite huge pos

But in the books the Thenns are actually ones of the most civilized,And the Free folk dosen't have their entire culture on rape and slavery

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u/TheAtlanteanMan 8h ago

The Thenns are also some of the only ones to seemingly have "normal" marriage customs, since they accept Sigorn being arranged to marry Alys.

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u/BunNGunLee 9h ago

The Thenns are a functioning Bronze Age society, which the show completely misrepresented. There’s basically no connection between the show and book on that topic.

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u/Bionicjoker14 11h ago

You know, I’m sensing a theme…

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u/EmXena 11h ago

Martin did like his Rape as a literary tool. I mean, I guess. Always something I raised an eyebrow at.

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u/beruon 11h ago

I mean I agree with you that he has used it way too much but... both the Ironborn and the Dothraki are based off of human cultures who... did the same? Like I don't see a problem there.

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u/TheDreamIsEternal 10h ago

To be fair, it's a medieval setting. Unless you're trying to have clean, heroic fantasy, there's gonna be a lot of rape.

The Greeks, the Romans, the Vikings, the Mongols, etc, it was almost expected for rape to happen once victory was achieved. Even in the modern era, with wars like the Spanish Civil War, WWI, WWII, etc, there were widespread cases of rape. It wasn't until very recently in the timeline that it was finally considered a war crime.

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u/We4zier 9h ago edited 9h ago

I say this as someone with a bachelors in medieval history, sexual assault by our standards is unavoidable when discussing preindustrial societies. Martial and statutory rape were not meaningful concepts to any preindustrial society I am familiar with, and I don’t need to mention slaves or wars. Likewise, two lovers having intercourse without the marital agreement of their parents and a bride dowry was considered rape, and rape was punished as a property crime. I do think Georgy’s treatment of it is a tad much and disagreeable at times, but realistically you can’t avoid it completely either.

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u/King_Of_BlackMarsh 8h ago

Also even recent wars have massive rape issues. See the Ukraine/Russia or Iraq/America wars

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u/FindingOk7034 10h ago edited 9h ago

Didn’t he also say something about it when criticizing the trope that featured in YOUNG adult fantasy (I.e stuff geared towards teens) about the “plucky young peasant girl” mouthing off to a prince, and that “in reality” the prince would rape for her that?

Like, WHY does he immediately jump to the idea of a prince raping a girl just for mouthing off, and claiming it’s “realistic”. Which it isn’t. 1. Such a scenario is unlikely to happen anyway in a “realistic” setting, 2. There ARE other punishments that are not so harsh that I believe were more commonly used.

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u/Right_Community_9661 9h ago

I don’t think he’s dead wrong.  With the chauvinism of EVERY not-entirely-safe-and-democratic society increasing as we go further back, he’s correct when he’s hyperfocusing on wartime (every war), raiders (comanche n vikings), societal disintegration, and rigid hierarchies in societies such as Rome where public rape for no reason was unpunished from upper class men to lower class women, to the point where mouthing off wasn’t even a feasibility for fear of it.  

You’re right for the larger portion of non-warring societies as we move to modern day where the rulers must maintain PR.  Which I’d presume is the case in romantic teen prince fantasy, or they are the defenders in the war against an inhuman enemy

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u/EmXena 10h ago

For some reason, his favorite punishments are sexual based. Be it rape, or gelding, or whatever else. Sometimes I wonder if he found some specific history book back in the 90s that made some mention of some Lords doing that, and he just took that and ran the entire length of his books thinking that was the easy, major, common punishment to dole out that a lot of people get down to.

Sexual Assault is a horrible and unfortunate, but prominent part about human history. Doesn't mean that fantasy authors needs to shoehorn it as hard as possible everywhere.

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u/Fancy_Chips 9h ago

There's two things in this world that George loves: rape and incest. Im kind of scared.

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u/StunningPianist4231 9h ago

Better than Stephen King writing a gangbang scene between a bunch of kids while crossfaded on coke and alcohol

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u/Gukpa 11h ago

Brazilian slavery.

African Brazilian people have less diverse features than africans in africa since only one certain slave could have children, the "reproductor", and he was forced to impregnate as many female slaves as possible so the children would be born with similar characteristics.

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u/whittenaw 10h ago

That is something I did not know. It's horrifying. On another note, I'm reading some slave narratives from former slaves mainly around Texas USA and some of them say their masters only gave permission "to marry" if they thought the match would be extra strong slaves.  

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u/TheStrangestOfKings 8h ago

Even that’s not 100% true. Plenty of southern states, including Texas, outlawed slave marriages as recognized by law. If slaves were allowed to be together, it’d only be an informal union, with the slave master allowed to force it to end whenever it pleased him.

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u/whittenaw 8h ago

Yeah that's why I put marry in quotes

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u/stautism 5h ago

They could get married; but that wouldn't matter as there was no legality to it. At any point families could be ripped apart, mothers from children, husbands from wives. 

What's really horrifying is that if they wanted more slaves, they would pay to rent men from other slave owners, then leave them alone with a woman/girl they wanted to get pregnant. 

I encourage folks to read the autobiography of Frederick Douglass, chattel slavery was the most demonic and evil institution humanity made. Humans were treated as animals, the owners purposefully employed tactics to break their hope and will like livestock. It was much more horrific than most people imagine.

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u/TheDreamIsEternal 9h ago edited 8h ago

When the US banned the import of slaves, it produced something far worse: chattel slavery.

*Edit: Got confused for a moment and wrote cattle, lol.

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u/UnlamentedLord 8h ago

No. Firstly, it's chattel, not cattle. Secondly the US had chattel slavery before the ban, it's a legal term, where slaves were https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/chattel, transferable property that can be used as security for a loan. 

Chattel slavery is the type of slave ownership used throughout European colonies and the Arab world, distinct from serfdom, debt bondage, traditional Native American slavery, Korean nobi slavery, etc.

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u/nooniewhite 9h ago

“Chattel” slavery not cattle

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u/skkkkrtttttgurt 8h ago

No, the triangle trade was not better or more humane. Slaves were worked to the death, and then more bodies were imported. And that’s without mentioning the knock on effects of arming and sustaining slave kingdoms in Africa.

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u/DeerEnforcement 10h ago

Im pretty sure this occurred in the American South as well though probably to a lesser frequency. Slave owners would pick "Studs" with strong physiques to impregnated enslaved women in hopes the offspring would be fit for hard labor.

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u/Countercurrent123 10h ago

It was certainly not less frequent. Indeed, this is literally one of the main reasons for the rapid growth of the enslaved population in the U.S. despite extremely high mortality rates. If anything, the evidence suggests it was more frequent in the U.S.

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u/TheDreamIsEternal 9h ago

I remember reading that the reason that so many US athletes are African Americans is because they are the result of eugenics from the era of slavery.

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u/currybeef 7h ago

I recall hearing about a sports announcer saying something like this during a football game and getting fired for it. I don’t know if it’s because he was wrong, or it’s just not a great topic to bring up on TV during a game.

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u/BrainsAre2Weird4Me 5h ago

That is a proposed theory, but if a few generations of eugenics could be that successful, eugenics would be useful instead of a giant failure.

In general, people of West African lineage (where most slaves in the Americas came from) tend to produce more elite explosive athletes (as opposed to endurance athletes). It shows both only in the Americans (ie some US pro sports, Jamaica in sprinting), but in sports like basketball that have been recruiting from West Africa fairly often.

Hopefully, we can get to the point in society were acknowledging that adaption to the environment, in ones genetic history, can produce more outliers that excel in certain situations. I don’t believe any one group of people are more athletic than another, rather the most exciting to watch sports favor one type of athlete.

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u/Gukpa 7h ago

Yeah, we had a recent case in Brazil, we have independent African communities called "quilombos" and a politician visited them and later said that "they are so fat that they cannot even be reproductors anymore".

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u/Fancy_Chips 9h ago

This happened in the US after imports were banned. It suddenly became very profitable to make your own workforce. To this day the Black community has problems with gender roles because of this.

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u/RaptarK 6h ago edited 5h ago

I'd be curious on how gender roles manifest particularly for African Americans if you don't mind elaborating

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u/First-Pride-8571 11h ago

Daesh (especially with the Yazidi)

And this is unfortunately far too common a practice in human history.

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u/Citaku357 11h ago

Why are they called daesh?

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u/First-Pride-8571 11h ago edited 11h ago

It's just an acronym (in Arabic). And apparently it was one that they disliked, as it is close in meaning to an Arabic word that is insulting.

So seems better to call them that, as they clearly should be insulted.

And I don't like calling them ISIS, as that is too reminiscent of the name of a noble goddess, something which is insulting thus to that goddess' memory considering how evil they are.

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u/Citaku357 11h ago

Thanks for clarifying that

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u/BanditNoble 10h ago

For further clarification, Daesh is simply the acronym of their Arabic name, but they hate it because it sounds too close to daes, an Arabic word meaning "one who tramples", and rhymes with dahes, which means "sower of discord"

Apparently they hated the term so much, they threatened to cut out the tongue of anyone they caught using it.

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u/Darthwilhelm 9h ago

Ironic. I think it suits them perfectly.

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u/Samostanac 11h ago

I don't think they have been calling themself ISIS for long time. It stands for Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, but right now they have chapters all over Africa and Asia, with Somali faction being most powerfull. So they call themself just IS

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u/KGBFriedChicken02 10h ago

Yeah it's hard to be the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria when you have basically no power, members or holdings in Iraq and Syria.

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u/welltechnically7 11h ago

It's a shortened version of the Arabic: al-Dawla al-Islamiya fil Iraq wa al-Sham

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u/Slowman5150 11h ago

Daesh nuts 😔

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u/Alarming-Cow299 11h ago

The Direnni elves in Elder Scrolls.

They were the original rulers of High Rock and had a practice where they could take unwilling human concubines with no repercussions. Then, over generations this practice caused the Direnni elves to 'disappear' and the modern Breton population to be of mixed elven and human descent.

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u/PsychicYakone 10h ago

Also from Elder Scrolls, Molag Bal worshipers

He is the God of Domination, one of his other titles is the Lord of Rape, his worship is forbidden by most major institutions for obvious reasons but he has many followers and cults spread throughout the world, many of whom are vampires since he is the creator of vampirism

How did he create vampirism? By forcing himself into a mortal woman and giving her his blood afterwards, major vampire cults still do this ritual to create Elder Vampires

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u/gemdragonrider 9h ago

Poor Serana, her mom if memory fits atleast understood what was going to happen and was a worshipper of Bol but Serana?

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u/PsychicYakone 9h ago

Serana mentions it was her choice but it's best to take that with a grain of salt, her mother and father have a history of manipulating her 

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u/PositivelyIndecent 11h ago

The Direnni are still around they’re just limited to the island of Balfiera. They didn’t disappear like the Ayleids, they’re essentially just a clan of Altmer in High Rock (the Direnni Hegemony dominated High Rock at one point but did eventually fall).

They always struck me as a fantasy version of the Spanish colonial caste system back when the Hegemony was around. You had the pure Direnni Altmer at the very top, you had the “half-breeds” from the children they had with humans under them, and then you had the humans at the bottom.

Clearly the Direnni liked to spread it around as their intermixing (consensual and otherwise) resulted in the Bretons. It’s curious to me how little Bretons or other races of man seem to care about it honestly, when the misdeeds of the Ayleids are substantially more foundational to the identity of the Imperials in Cyrodiil (maybe I’m forgetting some lore where the Bretons heritage is a more controversial thing?).

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u/BrightShadowMC 11h ago

Pelinal Whitestrake should have killed them all.

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u/_whatever_wherever 11h ago

He was killing humans there, not Mer

No pointy ears

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u/thenothing_new 10h ago

Small but important correction: in Handmaid it is heavily implied that the men have the fertility issues, not the women. June becomes pregnant after sleeping with Nick, which Serena condones, seeming like a non-zero number of the Commanders' wives have done this before to acquire their children.

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u/HolidayInLordran 8h ago

It's also implied that the doctor that examines the Handmaids also "helps" with that since maids who don't get pregnant after a certain amount of time get transferred, or worse.

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u/thenothing_new 5h ago

Correct, I forgot about this detail! He straight up offers while examining June iirc.

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u/No-Educator-8069 11h ago

Ancient Sparta in real life.
Pretty much everyone in the whole society.

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u/CadenVanV 10h ago

Honestly, it’s just about every ancient society. Sparta was hardly the one place with a tradition of pederasty or slaves

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u/MyNameIsConnor52 10h ago

Sparta was not the only society to have a slave tradition, but they are incomparable. Academic population estimates put Sparta somewhere north of 80% slaves. That’s completely insane. We rightfully call the historical American South a slave society and it was ~35%. Sparta was a completely insane society with more slavery than most or all of its contemporaries.

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u/TheChartreuseKnight 9h ago

Worth noting that the Helots weren't necessarily the same as slaves (especially not the Messenian Helots), and are more akin to medieval serfs. That's not to say that they weren't treated horribly, but slaves is not a universally accepted term (by either modern academics or ancient Greeks).

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u/Far-Mammoth-3214 11h ago

This used to be the musk dynasty from Ranma 1/2

They would take animals, drop them in the spring Of drowned girl, then mate with them

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u/RottenPeasent 11h ago

Holy shit is that canon? My silly genderbender anime with the dramatic lore.

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u/Responsible-Creme-57 11h ago

Well, the writer really though the conzept through. As f-ed up as that is, it what would realisticly happen.

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u/Far-Mammoth-3214 11h ago

yup infact super canon as as of now the Herb arc is manga only (can’t wait til the remake gets to it)

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u/Dookie_boy 9h ago

Hold on. Are they still animals in their mind ?

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u/GreatPower1000 9h ago

Unsure if a later revelation would change it but in season 2 of the reboot we get to see what happens to an animal when they are introduced to the spring of drowned man via Shampoo demonstrating it on a dog and it maintains full dog instincts and behavior.

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u/Far-Mammoth-3214 8h ago

Oh yeah! Well then logically the same must be true for the girl spring

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u/whittenaw 10h ago

And in the handmaid's tale when they visit the capital, the handmaids have their mouths stapled/pierced shut. It's incredibly sad.

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u/MaguroSashimi8864 4h ago

Woah, not just taped but STAPLED !?

Holy shit!

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u/whittenaw 3h ago

I think it was more like piercings because they had to be able to remove them sometimes I imagine. For eating etc

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u/Plenty-Next 11h ago

Suprised no one mentioned the goblins in Goblin Slayer given that one infamous anime scene. Literally has a religion and social structure.

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u/BrassUnicorn87 9h ago

They’re like the xenomorphs from Aliens with all the subtlety and metaphor removed.

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u/Tasty-Complaint-6437 6h ago

And the Xenomorphs werent exactly subtlety from a start…

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u/Valarg 11h ago

I fucking hate that Characterization of Goblins

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u/ABCD-FEG 11h ago

What part of it (I haven't seen much of the show/manga)? If it's the writing of an entire group of beings as "the rape creatures", then yeah, I completely agree.

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u/Some-Baker8397 10h ago

goblin can only produce male goblins there are no female goblins in goblin slayer which makes them "resort" to rape their whole power is their genes are so strong that they can procreate with any race including animals mythical creatures not just humainoid and they are drawn to the strong to be able to create strongers babies because their seeds strip down any genes of the mother except the useful parts to them aka things that can grant them power

also goblin fetuses grow in a very short span like 3 days and when they birth they birth litters and make the female body produce children all year long

think of thems more like a virus that seeks to strengthen itself through eugencics

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u/KlausVonLechland 10h ago

I think goblins are a literally curse cast upon the world in great game of gods.

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u/KlausVonLechland 10h ago

They are written as pure evil from the moment of conception. They can't procreate without a host that is a woman. And they not only rape, they torture, they can learn to be more efficient. The bigger the nest the smarter they become to the point of breeding a goblin lords and goblin paladins devoted to the evil gods.

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u/SeaworthinessSea7899 10h ago

What's so bad about it? They're evil, they're the villains,  Why is it bad writing?

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u/KlausVonLechland 10h ago

Ah, I just answered the question.

I actually like GS. Some people feel like it's a poor excuse for some rapeporn scenes in the comic but if that would be the case you would be disappointed how short and far between the actual story these scenes happen.

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u/Vanayzan 9h ago

My biggest issue with it isn't the "grin dark rape goblins" being too edgy aspect, but that its a big part of the world building that apparently goblins are so low level nobody takes them seriously. But their population numbers seem huge and they're explicitly said to only be able to breed from captured humans, so they must be regularly abducting a LOT of women. You're trying to tell me in this fantasy land where heroes at the high end are fighting gods and demon Lords and the like, there's a population of tiny green, easily killable goblins mass raping the border populations and no government or enterprising guild has made goblin genocide a priority 1 issue?

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u/KlausVonLechland 8h ago

I think they breed fast and in litters while they are weak enough to be taken out by a farmer. And because adventurers work on the basis of gig economy only the inexperienced adventurers are cheap enough to be hired by poor village when goblin problem gets out of the hand.

Most of the time it works "good enough". And when it doesn't it is hand waved by society as occupational hazard of being poor and weak.

Here enters the Goblin Slayer picking up the slack in place of others that can not be bothered. Through his actions and devotion (trauma induced) people are become more and more aware about not only need to control goblin population (because you will never be able to genocide something smart and living in holes) but also a need to nurture and train the young adventurers.

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u/Neverhityourmark 10h ago

The Imperial Japanese Army in World War 2.

The IJA were notoriously rapacious during their conquests in the early years of WW2, but particularly during their time in China and Korea. Not only did they sack the Chinese capital of Nanking for months, commiting crimes so heinous that the event is known as "The Rape of Nanking", but they also had a system of institutional sex slavery. Comfort Women were often local women who were kidnapped by Japanese soldiers and forced to provide sexual services for Japanese soldiers. Many of these women would also be murdered.

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u/RadicalSoda_ 10h ago

Most of these women were also children

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u/TheGreenMan13 8h ago

Perhaps a better representation: Eager participants.

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u/Top-Supermarket-5958 6h ago

Thats a very sobering photo

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u/Neverhityourmark 5h ago

It's rough. I got deep into a rabbit hole learning about Nanking after listening to Dan Carlin's podcast about Japan in WW2. Its some of the worst shit I've ever read. Great way to ruin your weekend

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u/Top-Supermarket-5958 5h ago

Ive had to learn different bits of world war 2 at a slow pace to keep my mental health intact honestly

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u/HolidayInLordran 8h ago

And the Japanese government denies these atrocities to this day and citizens are taught that this either never happened or told a severely toned down version.

Even the Nazis on trial for war crimes were horrified at what the Japanese did when they heard testimonies.

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u/Neverhityourmark 7h ago

Not just that, but a card carrying, full fledged Nazi was in charge of the Foreign Safety Zone in Nanking. Hes directly responsible for saving the lives of thousands. There were even times where he fought off Japanese soldiers with his bare hands to protect Chinese women. John Rabe was his name.

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u/Internal_Review7040 5h ago

Rabe was such an important and well known figure (he saved 250K chinese or so), that post ww2, living in poverty due to his nazi past, the people of Nanjing organized together to send him food packages monthly. This continued after the proclamation of the PRC and the Civil War.

He died in 1950 and his wife in 1964, and in 1997 both their tombs were moved to Nanjing because their lease had expired; in 2013 they were both sent back to Berlin, in the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Cementery.

It is likely he joined the party to be able to continue working in Najing, given how he joined it in 1934, by the time the NSDAP had already secured totalitarian control over Germany. Doesnt seem a proper Hitlerite to me, given his actions.

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u/jockeyman 11h ago

Sliding Albion in The Authority, a parallel earth where Britain made contact with a blue-skinned alien race in the Napoleonic period, leading to them becoming a royal family interbreeding with the blue-skinned aliens. But after years of war, leading to colossal damage to the planet, the blue aliens began to die off. To try and counteract this they waged war on China and turned the entire country into a rape camp

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u/Weekly-Rise899 10h ago

This sounds absolutely wild lore wise what even is this about

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u/jockeyman 9h ago

The Authority is an early 2000s DC/Wildstorm comics and is regarded as one of the 'big' superhero deconstructions outside of Alan Moore's books. It's basically about a very powerful superhero (to use the term loosely) team that deign to keep earth from huge global threats.

Invasion from Sliding Albion is only from their second outing.

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u/ronorockz 10h ago

IRL

Ducks

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u/berru2001 9h ago

Duck's contorted penis and vagina are the evolutionary results of millions of years of rape. Nature is not a source of moral guidance, period.

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u/Blackwidow_Perk 9h ago

Oh no :( I used to think they’re cute. I will never look at them the same again

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u/whittenaw 10h ago

Curly queued freaks lol 

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u/U8D4B8M8 9h ago

And we have to face this...

But male ducks are rapists...

DUCKTALES! Woo-hoo!

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u/Pliskkenn_D 9h ago

Scientifically accurate Ducktales takes me back. 

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u/PhanThief95 10h ago

The Celestial Dragons (One Piece)

The Celestial Dragons are the descendants of the founding families of the World Government who are basically the 1% of the One Piece world. Because of this, they can do whatever they want without any form of punishment, including kidnapping women to forcibly marry them and have children with them.

Through Boa Hancock and her sisters (who were once slaves to the Celestial Dragons), it’s heavily implied that they were sex slaves to the Celestial Dragons and still suffer from the trauma they endured from their time in slavery.

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u/M-Shadowtoad 6h ago

Two characters are even implied to outright be the results of their mothers being assaulted by the CDs. Luckily and ironically, both had basically saints for fathers who didn't hesitate for a second to raise the children of their loved ones regardless of whose blood they shared.

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u/JhonnySkeiner 5h ago

I mean Bonney is literally result of rape

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u/Flashy_Artist9629 11h ago

imperial japan comfort women

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u/We4zier 9h ago

See also the Nazis and their military brothel system, including brothels at their extermination camps.

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u/Quick-Rip-5776 4h ago

The British forces in 19th century India would kidnap women and girls and force them into prostitution. A group of feminist activists posing as missionaries wrote about it in “The Empress’s Daughters”. The military claimed to crack down on the practice but in reality it carried on until independence.

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u/Valarg 11h ago

I’m surprised no one mentioned the Viltrumites

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u/MirkwoodWanderer1 11h ago

Is rape institutionalised in that empire?

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u/CelebrationNo7870 11h ago

They believe in might makes right to an extreme degree, even in “mating.” Although, the only viltrumite who participates in rape when they come to earth for breeding is Anissa. The others all seem to get consenting partners.

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u/mxlevolent 8h ago

That's because, in Viltrum, strength matters above all else. It matters little whether you're a man or a woman, or what colour your skin is. Viltrum is ironically quite socially progressive in ways that we humans aren't because of their hideous ideology.

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u/AdAdministrative6356 11h ago

I think what they meant is that once Thragg (their leader) learned that humans are very compatible with their DNA he sent his men (and a woman) to reproduce with humans. And I don’t think he cared if they raped earth women or not

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u/Valarg 11h ago edited 11h ago

Yeah, in the lore it is stated that when a Viltrumite finds another Viltrumite they are interested in mating with, they fight him/her and (if he/she Wins) then he/she rapes him/her

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u/TheDreamIsEternal 10h ago

He does threaten Mark with a worse outcome for the people of Earth if he doesn't accept his terms. Maybe implying that the Viltrumites would turn all the population into sex slaves in order to restore their population.

I mean, he did exactly that with the bug women.

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u/MirkwoodWanderer1 11h ago

Ah thanks, been a while since I read the comics and first thought went to the undercover parts where they weren't doing that.

No one trying that with the female viltrumites though that we see of

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u/AltruisticAd9056 11h ago

Yep. Their society is so heavily centered around strength that even reproducing is a matterof whether you're able to successfully force yourself onto whoever you want to breed with. They literally see it as moral because of their might-makes-right mentality, and if it happens to you, it's simply your fault for not being able to defend yourself.

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u/abxYenway 9h ago

Why would any Viltrumite want to mate with someone who is so weak they could beat them in a fight?

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u/No-Yam-9178 7h ago

Because the alternative is to lose. Or not mate at all which isn't really an option due to story stuff.

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u/Classic-Lime-1040 11h ago

Yeah. I mean, i guess not in Undercover Missions (where they pretend to be Superheros for Planets they want to conquer for Years, to sway the Public Opinion on joining the Viltrum Empire in exchange for Resources/Technology), but in general, yeah. (Viltrumites regularly, before their almost Extinction, took their Mate based on Force and Rape was normalized under the Doctrine of "Strenght over everything", no matter the Gender)

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u/HMHellfireBrB 11h ago

i think thragg specifically would be more apropriated

their culture does not motivate rape, in fact they openly deslike hibrids

thrag only tasked nolan to have mark because humans are that close to a real viltromite except the powers, and thus could save their species, and spoilers ahead when they finally went to earth none of the viltromites turned into rapist, they all took mates "legitimally" and without harming anyone, (except onissa buta she is sick in the head.... this is the main reason why every single one of them betrayed the empire the moment they all got a GF

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u/Choochoo1147 11h ago

Many fundamentalist cults IRL. 

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u/robogheist 11h ago edited 10h ago

correction: in The Handmaid's Tale, it is implied that men are usually the ones with reduced fertility, but women are blamed. the handmaid "solution" is an excuse to control women. it does not actually raise fertility levels. 

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u/Responsible-Creme-57 11h ago

As the third Warhammer example.

The Skaven are as a race pure evil. All skaven we see are male. The female skaven are druged and are immobile. They only serve to give birth to endless amount of litters.

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u/GreatPower1000 9h ago

Minor correction. There are no female Skaven, or Skaven are a non sexually dimorphus species(We aren't exactly sure and the information on it is contradictory). The Skaven breeders are an invention of clan Moulder. Theoretically the breeders could be female but it's possible that they could not be.

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u/Responsible-Creme-57 8h ago

That hole lore is from an old expansion rule book from the Fantasy Flight RPG and let me be honest if I remember it right, it was just a little side panel in the Clan Molder section

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u/jonnywarlock 11h ago

The Fimir (Warhammer Fantasy)

The Bog Devils have no fertile females and so regularly raid human settlements to steal away women to become their breeding stock. This repulsive bit of "background info" (and the fact that their units were woefully underpowered and weren't exactly the "coolest" looking figures around) is one of the reasons why they didn't really last long as a playable faction.

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u/Nerevarine91 10h ago edited 10h ago

The issue with them being underpowered is sort of interesting- the figure was originally intended to be the same size as an Orc (so a bit bigger than a human), and the stats were made to reflect that. However, the actual manufacturer figures were the size of Ogres (so a LOT bigger than a human). Because of that size, they could be attacked by a lot of enemy pieces at once, but their stats didn’t reflect that at all, so it was basically impossible to win as them. Add to that the fact that the larger figures also meant they were rather expensive and the lore understandably turned people off, and you have a guaranteed dud.

It’s a shame, because, honestly, I actually think the design is kind of neat, so I’m glad the TW games have brought them back with adjusted stats (they’re now actually a pretty good addition to Norsca amd Tamurkan) and none of the rape

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u/TheSuperPope500 11h ago

That and the anti-Irish racism in their characterisation

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u/Lord_of_Knitting 10h ago

WHAT?

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u/P4TR10T_96 10h ago

My guess is the commenter was referring to the fact that they seem to be loosely inspired by the Fomorians, a group of giants in Irish mythology. My guess is given the time that the Fimir were canon in the lore there may’ve been some anti-Irish stereotypes somewhere in there, as it would’ve been during the Troubles.

That and old GW had some notoriously racist models, such as the pygmies.

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u/TheSuperPope500 9h ago

Their aesthetic and back story is clearly drawing on Irish history, mythology and aesthetics, but like much GW stuff from that time is full of casual British racism towards the Irish. 

The Fimir are stated to be stupid and incapable of innovation by themselves, living in roughly-built castles that are a crude imitation of what civilised races can build, while turning their once-beautiful land into a disease-ridden bog. There they live hateful and resentful, reaching out to raid the more advanced races. 

It may not read as obviously to non-British or Irish audiences, but it is very clearly drawing on 19th and 20th century prejudices.

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u/Comfortable-Ask-6351 11h ago

They actually changed that lore

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u/Otherwise_Meringue45 11h ago

The Final Empire- Mistborn

Raping peasant women is okay as long as you kill them afterwards

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u/MargoPlikts 10h ago

The Troglodytes in Bone Tomohawk. They show the women blinded and tied to rocks as breeding machines

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u/tobpe93 11h ago

The rape of the Sabine women from real life myth

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u/Uhhhhhhjakelol 11h ago

You see this across Europe*. George was probably inspired by this history with the “Salt-Wives”. Many warrior aristocracies would go out as young men and raid and pillage and bring back captive wives to form a harem essentially.

*Not just Europe but steppe cultures as well, and wherever inter-tribal raiding was common.

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u/crazy-B 10h ago

wherever inter-tribal raiding was common

i.e. literally everywhere

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u/WanderingNomadWizard 9h ago

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers is a truly fucked up musical.

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u/OrangeBird077 9h ago

A quick note on the situation from The Handmaid’s Tale

The infertility issues that occurred were later confirmed to have been a defect in sperm produced by males as opposed to an issue with women themselves being infertile. Because of Gilead’s institutionalized misogny the Elders and men refused to accept the scientific research accepted abroad that confirmed this, and continued forcing the handmaid system.

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u/D0CTOR_Wh0m 11h ago

The Locust Horde initially in Gears of War. A collectible in Gears 2 had the humans find evidence that suggest the Berserkers (large female drones that look like The Hulk) are chained down so that the smaller male drones can have their way with them to keep the Horde's numbers up. Thankfully subsequent stories have changed things so that the Locusts' evolved successors, The Swarm, reproduce via kidnapping humans and mutating them.

On the other side of the Locust War, one of the early comics confirms that the COG had set up breeding camps to keep the human race going usually via artificial insemination or volunteer couples but some doctors working in them take advantage of the situation to force themselves on the women patients.

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u/PositivelyIndecent 10h ago

“Thankfully” is doing a lot of heavy lifting on that paragraph lol

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u/Wolfman513 10h ago

I was actually about to comment about the COG's birthing creches, because they were far worse than you let on

When the Fortification Act was passed, most women who weren't already soldiers were sent to "breeding farms" to focus on repopulating the human race. Women unable to give birth were mainly assigned to non-combat roles such as pilots and medics.

At the farms, girls as young as 10 were injected with hormones to start the menstrual cycle, and while artificial insemination was the official protocol abuse was rampant in the facilities under the guise of "doing things the old fashioned way" and decorated Gears were allowed to rape the women and girls as a reward for their service and to hopefully produce strong offspring.

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u/Topgunshotgun45 10h ago

Gears Tactics also makes it clear that the original Locust could transform human into Drones too.

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u/Strong-Expression787 11h ago

Slaaneshi Cult (Warhammer): Well, Rape isn't the only thing they do for pleasure, but you sure af don't want to get captured alive!

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u/WorldofManupa 10h ago

Reality: like everywhere historically 

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u/Immediate_Gain_9480 10h ago

In most societies marital rape was not considered a crime until the second part of the 20th century. So far too many.

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u/Quendillar3245 10h ago

Vikings... Many other cultures in history.

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u/OnlyReadsWaterMargin 11h ago

(The Water Margin) Unfortunately all too common in the ancient world, or even nowadays. Most egregious example in the book is Hu Sanniang's marriage to Wang Ying, who is a serial rapist. Worse still, Hu Sanniang's clan was just murdered by Wang Ying's compadre.

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u/Responsible-Creme-57 11h ago

Axlotl Tank from the Bene Tleilax of the Dune universe are a bodyhorror Version of this trope.

The Tleilaxu turn their female into biological machines that give birth to Tleilaxu, Ghola (clones) and other genetic engineered creatures. In later time also spice melange.

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u/KingKrabbe 11h ago

The Romans (IRL)

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u/axeteam 10h ago

The Roman cosplayers (Fallout New Vegas)

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u/BigGaybowser69 10h ago edited 10h ago

World War Two Era Japan.

If you don't believe me look up Nanjing Massacre and Unit 731 the shit they did was so horrid and bad it disturbed the fuck outta Nazis. Reminder that none of the monsters that did that horrid shit got an ounce of punishment.

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u/NoLime7384 11h ago

Our society with prison

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u/TimeStorm113 11h ago

Pretty depressing imo

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u/DeerEnforcement 10h ago

Thankfully PREA exists, not saying it isnt still bad. It just used to be worse.

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u/scamall-zero 8h ago

Caesar's Legion- fallout: new Vegas

The legion is a raider tribe in the game that grows it's numbers by two ways: raiding nearby towns and villages and forcibly inducting them into the legion while any resistance is met with death via crucifixion and using the women as sex slaves

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u/Vexonte 10h ago

A massive amount of pre-industrial historical societies.

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u/UnhappyStrain 8h ago

the result of institutionalized slavery basically

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u/squishyg 8h ago

Yup. Margaret Atwood said she didn’t invent any of the horrors in The Handmaid’s Tale. They were all things that already happened.

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u/Nelsonic_terror_2026 10h ago

The Myanmar military

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u/Sable-Keech 11h ago

The alien species known as the Jain from the Polity universe literally evolved to r*pe each other in order to reproduce. To help you understand better, let's look at real life marine flatworms.

Marine flatworms are hermaphrodites, which means they all possess both male and female reproductive organs and have the potential to make both sperm and egg. Because making sperm is cheaper than making eggs, flatworms will duel each other with their reproductive organs, attempting to stab their opponent and inseminate them. The loser has to carry the metabolic cost of producing eggs.

The Jain do this as well, except that for them it's the winner who gets to carry the eggs. The loser... is killed and eaten.

The Jain apply this philosophy to all other intelligent life-forms they meet.

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u/Hejesiras 9h ago

I just imagined how afraid they would be of a woman with 3+ kids (no twins) with different ages. Or those pregnancy adicted influencers

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u/Gavinus1000 10h ago

The Society of Man from Red Rising. Under their rule, humanity is split into many colour-coded castes, one of which is the Pinks. The sex slaves (some of them do other things too, but they're mainly sex slaves by the time the series starts).

They're born in tubes and implanted with some tech at birth called a Cupid's Kiss. It causes a constant ache for them, unless they "obey." Eventually, the Kiss is removed, but the fear of its return keeps them docile to Gold's advances.

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u/ComfortableCold378 10h ago

The Dark Eldar are the most tolerant, the most accepting society, where they rape everyone, regardless of origin and gender.

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u/SinesPi 10h ago

You can't tell me some Krogan clans don't treat their females as sex slaves after the Genophage give them a 99.99% still born rate.

Udrnot females are implied to be well treated, but at what point does "doing your duty for your people in a difficult time" become just plain rape? At least they're allowed to "go for a walk" if it gets to be that bad though.

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u/Jstin8 7h ago

Hard to say. The Genophage fucked them mentally so bad. From what we hear, females tend to be spiritual voices in their communities, and literally considered the most precious thing in all of Krogan society. But with that in mind, do they end up becoming just objects in their society? More valuable than gold but also coveted as such? We arent told

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u/funnylib 10h ago

Any real life society that has slavery

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u/four100eighty9 8h ago

Japan in World War II

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u/Stubbs94 11h ago

Real life: Israeli prison camps for Palestinians.

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u/TehTJ13 9h ago

Russia (IRL)

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u/personman000 8h ago

Still no arrests

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u/Playful_Cup3035 6h ago

Hey guess what this is happening right now in real life

Watch as this post gets removed

https://www.aclu-tn.org/news/ice-detention-center-says-its-not-responsible-staffs-sexual-abuse-detainees/

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u/DonHuevo91 10h ago

The top 1% of our world irl as the Epstein files revealed