Lots of my friends are posting about rape and the rhetoric and activism surrounding it. Don't worry, this post is a bit lighter.

A problem which is often raised is the way that we live in a rape culture and the way that this leads to people thinking that it's acceptable to coerce people into sexual activity and not thinking of that as rape or sexual assault. So I thought I'd start a discussion about films buy into and go against that rape motif. I'm thinking of the films I've seen over the last couple of weeks. Three of them (Coraline, The Bishops Wife and Keeping up with the Steines) are kind of neutral, in that they don't involve any hooking up. Star Trek was a bit pro-rapey, in that the hero Kirk harassed Uhura a bit. I was trying to think of a film which was a good example of only having sex when consent is freely and enthusiastically given. Oddly enough the example which came up with was Austin Powers. OK, it's part of the joke that all Austin Powers has to do to get enthusiastic consent is to wiggle about with his shirt off, but there is a lovely moment when his partner who he's been wanting to have sex with and who he ends up having a romantic relationship with, gets drunk and starts flirting with him in the hotel room they're sharing and he makes clear that he's not interested in doing anything like that when she's drunk and might regret it in the morning.

So, what films do you think of which promote rape mentality or an anti-rape mentality?