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PaperclipPerfector  3mo ago (text post)   29886 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of July 1, 2024

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Historically seduction of a woman was literally considered a crime, unless she was already the town bicycle. 'She consented' wasn't a defense. Pre-first sexual revolution courting, with the calling cards and chaperones, worked fine before the invention of the telephone.

'She consented' wasn't a defense.

And today, should "she consented" happens to be an effective defense in a similar case (as pointed out downthread, this is basically the Jian Ghomeshi case all over again), the laws will be changed so that it can't be considered a defense (as they were after his exoneration).

Seems like nothing changed after all.

Seduction laws were much more specific, no? They were applied in cases of misrepresentation or pregnancy usually

The victim had to have been moved “by some promise or artifice, . . . by his flattery or deception.” Likewise consent, or failure to resist, or evidence that “she had previously prostituted herself to the embraces of other men” could be a defense for the man

that “the person seduced must have been previously of chaste character — that she has yet preserved that priceless jewel that is the peculiar badge of the virtuous unmarried female.”

Lewd women, bawds and adventuresses were not welcome in courts, nor were prostitutes or immoral characters.

22 of 37 state laws requiring that the “prosecution must show either a promise of marriage or a feigned or pretended marriage.”

https://time.com/5776805/seduction-law-history/

I agree courting works fine.

So having sex with a virgin was only a crime if you misrepresented your intentions or buttered her up first? This seems like it covers most cases. Certainly most cases in which the man is later accused.

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