Multiple historical and social layers of interpretation of marital rape in England
Résumé
This paper sets out to examine the way in which legal reasoning constructed marital rape and eventually officially recognized it after centuries of men’s ascendency over women. Understanding the multiple layers requires cultural and historical awareness of the traditional concept of “marriage” and the practice of religion as well as the very different conditions in which marital rape was envisaged. The main contention of this paper is to show that legal knowledge derives from a patriarchal tradition where the processing of marital abuse and rape hovered between cultural and subjective realities contrary to objective rationality.