I'm grateful that you're exposing the pernicious and debasing legacy of women as property as manifested in "marital exemptions" to rape.
Though I've not seen the film, your deliberation on reluctant consent is on-point. When Gerald's character says to Jess "You'll like this," it is a command couched as a beneficent act. In that way, it is all the more dehumanizing an specious.
Thank you so much for your comment--I think you've hit the nail on the head. "The debasing legacy of women as property" is right on, and Gerald's patriarchal framing of what is, ultimately, coercion.
I'm grateful that you're exposing the pernicious and debasing legacy of women as property as manifested in "marital exemptions" to rape.
Though I've not seen the film, your deliberation on reluctant consent is on-point. When Gerald's character says to Jess "You'll like this," it is a command couched as a beneficent act. In that way, it is all the more dehumanizing an specious.
Thank you so much for your comment--I think you've hit the nail on the head. "The debasing legacy of women as property" is right on, and Gerald's patriarchal framing of what is, ultimately, coercion.