I am disappointed, though not surprised, that there have been comments on my review of 300 indicating that I am either stupid or didn't actually watch the movie or both, since what transpired between Theron and Gorgo wasn't actually rape. These comments won't be published here at HC, because we've decided there is enough bile spewed on the Internet and it doesn't need to be added to in our space. Feel free to disagree with us in the comments, but do it respectfully, please. Keep an eye out on the sidebar for our new comments policy in the near future.

That being said, the issue that has been brought up is one that is probably worth discussing, as there are apparently a lot of people out there who didn't see Theron rape Gorgo in 300. After all, Theron certainly couldn't be convicted of rape in a U.S. court, right? Well, no, he probably couldn't, but that doesn't make it not rape. When a man forces a woman to have sex with him, with the consequence of refusing being her husband's likely death, and then says "This will not be over quickly. You will not enjoy this" while thrusting into her, that is certainly rape enough for me. Rape is not just what happens when a woman is attacked in the dead of night by a stranger with a mask and a gun. Rape is what happens when a man forces himself on a woman that does not want to have sex with him. She does not have to fight for it to be rape. He does not have to threaten her with death for it to be rape. It does not have to be prosecutable for it to be rape.

What Theron did to Gorgo probably represents one of the most common types of rape around. He had something she needed, and he held it over her head until she "consented." But consent in the face of dire consequences otherwise is not consent. Consent to protect one's loved ones, or in the face of blackmail, is not consent.

It has been suggested that what Gorgo actually sold herself to Theron in exchange for his promise of cooperation in the council, and thus it was more prostitution that rape. To me, this is a pretty meaningless distinction. Theron had already made it clear that he was going to get what he wanted from Gorgo one way or the other, threatening to strangle her only moments before. Gorgo was facing the death of her husband and the fall of her country if she didn't stop it. There wasn't another option. That's coercion.

It honestly blows my mind that people are so confused as to what does and does not constitute rape, in the moral realm if not the legal one. It's very, very simple. Rape is having sex with an unwilling partner. Whether that partner fights, or screams, or cries, or whether you have promised that partner something in return is, in the end, meaningless. And Theron raped Gorgo, just as much as if he'd physically forced her or held a knife to her throat. That a viewer could watch the scene and not see that honestly disturbs and saddens me, and makes me wonder how we're ever going to get to a place where rape is eradicated, when the men and even the women in our society don't even see it for what it is.