The time Riker was raped
Posted by Big_Significance_498@reddit | TNG | View on Reddit | 50 comments
Remember that episode Riker was trying to escape death and that Alian said she would only help him if he seeped with her? He declined and she insisted. He eventualy had to in order to survive. Messed up!
BigMrTea@reddit
Yeeeaaahhh, that's definitely one of those "it was a different time" moments.
One slightly more charitable interpretation could be that he's definitely down to bone, but he's on the job in a crisis situation, so it would be inappropriate to do so. But if she insists...
But yeah, she's 100% coercing him because back then, men couldn't be raped.
regicide_2952@reddit
So sad they invented man rape in 2007 š
Inevitable-Charity91@reddit
They did not. It's older than the Dark Ages.
regicide_2952@reddit
Forgot everything needs a /s on reddit to be comprehended
Inevitable-Charity91@reddit
No. I didn't.
BS-Calrissian@reddit
Wait, just cause it happened doesn't mean that they didn't understood what they was doing? I'm convinced they knew.
Being_Time@reddit
Nobody back when that episode aired felt bad for Riker and considered him being raped. People just didnāt think that way back then, it was comedy and a happy ending for Riker.Ā
Inevitable-Charity91@reddit
I thought that was back then. I had already been a victim. And worse, nobody believes you.
bookant@reddit
I see what you did there.
coffee_map_clock@reddit
I feel like a depressing number of people would still think that way now.
secondtaunting@reddit
Yeah and the running gag is that Riker is always down for sex, so nobody batted an eye. Poor Will.
CodeCleric@reddit
I guarantee you everyone involved in the writing/production of the episode saw this as an absolute win for Riker
AlteranNox@reddit
Most guys would still consider it a win if that happened to them now.
BS-Calrissian@reddit
Maybe that's true but that doesn't change that the depiction of that situation seemed realistic and didn't feel like one of these "over the point" "men can't be raped" 90's messed up stories. What she did was messed up, it was sexual assault and I 100% agree that there should never be a double standart but the way it happened in the episode is realistic and "on character" for Riker. The way Riker looks is on point. It's not depicted as "haha nice" it's depicted as a thing he has to go through in order to escape.
CodeCleric@reddit
Frakes played it straight because Riker he had more important things to consider in the moment, but it's also pretty apparent in the rest of the episode he isn't exactly upset about it. That's Bebe Neuwirth playing the lovestruck alien/rapist, a famously gorgeous Hollywood actress. That's like to getting Sydney Sweeney to play the part today.
Looking at the episode with 2024 glasses on it's a messed up scene, but in 1991 I guarantee you it never even crossed their minds this would ever be considered problematic.
BigMrTea@reddit
Keep in mind that the writers aren't bad people, nor did they mean harm. It just wasn't how these things were understood then. They definitely thought of it as a win for Riker because culture hadn't evolved to see why this is wrong too.
freylaverse@reddit
Exactly. It's like how in the TOS pilot, Pike is like, "I'll never get used to having a woman on the bridge." That's not in good taste today!! But at the time, it was very progressive - not only did they have a woman on the bridge, but they were deliberately calling attention to that fact.
RecidPlayer@reddit
Are things really so different now though? Obviously, we have redefined term to include men, but has male behavior really changed much since then? I don't think so. There are droves of men who would be in that situation and wouldn't even consider it rape. All they would be thinking is, "fuck yeah I'm getting laid"
BigMrTea@reddit
The idea that men can be sexual assaulted has moved from the fringes of progressive politics to society more generally. I imagine those who think men cannot be sexually assaulted are becoming the minority. Maybe not a fringe yet, but certainly not the majority.
As to your last statement, is it rape if the guy wants it too? Remember, he also needs to believe his rights have been violated. It's super fucked up to apply coercion, but if the guy doesn't feel coerced and wants it too, then it's technically not coercion. I would argue that Riker's case is a clear cut case of assault because her coercive power was considerable. Then again, he also had that boyish grin that said "ah shucks, if you insist."
Inevitable-Charity91@reddit
I don't remember that one. Episode name?
PuzzleheadedCook4578@reddit
You know how Riker is a heartbeat away from being the captain of the Federation's flagship? Presumably due in part to his ability to make good decisions.Ā
Yet he turned down Bebe Neuwirth?
Whole story just lacks credibility!!!Ā
AlwaysSaysRepost@reddit
Well, you have to remember how prudish Will Riker was in the series.
PuzzleheadedCook4578@reddit
Are we including the time he got with a hologram?!Ā
AlwaysSaysRepost@reddit
That doesnāt sound like the Will I know. Maybe it was Thomas.
Aware-Courage1208@reddit
That's how he knew the Romulans had him trapped in a holodeck, they probed his memory and she was there and he knew she was the holodeck he fell in love with in a previous episode
UrguthaForka@reddit
So stolid! He wasn't like that before the beard!
Spamcan81@reddit
Well he had a number of choices, he could have turned her down or even knocked her out and ran. He was coerced but this is Riker weāre taking about, dudes got no problem getting freaky with random alien women. Iām sure it was more about the ethical implications of having sex with an alien species before official first contact. Thatās got to break the prime directive.
TheHylianProphet@reddit
Even progressive shows don't always age well.
henryhollaway@reddit
At the end of the day, no matter how progressive youāre trying to be, itās still created within that period of time, with all of the beliefs and perspectives that go with that.
BS-Calrissian@reddit
I'm really not getting why you guys see it that way. When I saw it, I absolutely understood what was happening and thought about it. By no way, shape or form, did I think that the show makers didn't knew what they was doing. It was actually a super realistic situation because irl, when a person forces another person into sex, it also rarely has consequences.
TheHylianProphet@reddit
In that episode, the woman coerced Riker into sex. He didn't want it, and she threatened him with calling the authorities unless he fucked her. That is, at the very least, sexual assault.
In the 90s when the show aired, it wasn't really seen as a problem if a woman treated a man like that. Hence, the poor aging. It was a darker time. People thought men couldn't be raped, f*g was a very common insult, and trans people were barely even acknowledged as people.
BS-Calrissian@reddit
I absolutely know and agree with all of that. You did not reply to what I said.
I said, I think that the show makers did not see it that way just cause the word sexual assault hasn't been said in the episode. I think, they knew
TheHylianProphet@reddit
Sorry, I haven't been awake very long. Misunderstood what you were saying. I do disagree, though. I think it was one of those things that the writers knew was technically wrong, but due to the general vibe of the times, didn't really think or present it as an issue.
But that's the beauty of art. It speaks to us all in different ways.
BS-Calrissian@reddit
Maybe I'm giving the show makers too much credit here.
I'm wondering tho, what would you change about that episode. Cause even if we say that the show makers wasn't conscious enough, the situation would still have happened that way. Do you agree that the depiction was still valid?
henryhollaway@reddit
If he didnāt want to, he wouldnāt have. Riker fucks. š¤·āāļø
(My head cannon, at least lol)
MinkyTuna@reddit
Yeah, while I sorta agree and he didnāt have the option to say ānoā, I think the implication is that heās Will F*cking Riker, of course he wants to sleep with you but his job comes first.
RecidPlayer@reddit
ITT: A bunch of terminally online incels pretending like they wouldn't have fucked the brains out of that woman if in that situation.
ninjamullet@reddit
The Doylist explanation from 1990 is that it's not rape if the alien is hot.
ElectricOrangutan@reddit
Wouldāve been a different story if it had been a sentient pile of goo (then again, we ARE talking about Riker here š¤)
I_lenny_face_you@reddit
Riker and Armus at Tanagra, if you know what I mean
jchester47@reddit
My problem with that plotline is not necessarily that it exists - but that it's played off nonchalantly for laughs.
Yeah, maybe Riker is a sexually nonchalant guy and blew it off, but she still raped him and a spade should have been called a spade.
It was a record scratch moment of tonal dissonance in an otherwise stellar episode.
Civil_Nectarine868@reddit
alian? seeped? do you even read when you write?
jwrado@reddit
Uno reverse - Riker has a rape fetish. This can be assumed because he likely has all the fetishes.
jaynabonne@reddit
That's not what the Federation meant by "first contact"...
Unit_79@reddit
Iām just going to throw this out there. The 80s and 90s were a time of massive attention being paid to the possibility of aliens visiting Earth, of abduction conspiracy theories, cover up theories, etc. In those groups of people discussing it, there was very much a group that fetishized aliens. They wanted to be abducted. They wanted to hook up with an off world life form. Basically, it was not unheard of, in the UFO community, to find people who were there to bone down an alienās bones.
This episode is flipping that script. This alien is obsessed with the idea of UFOs and alien visitations to her planet. And she wants to fuck one. At the end of the day, thatās all this is. Itās satire. Itās an acknowledgement of the desires of some people who were almost certainly watching TNG. Iām not defending it, I think it was ham fisted like so many other things Star Trek has depicted, but at the time? Thatās all it was.
natronmooretron@reddit
Remember the time he was trying to holler at Dataās daughter Lol?
Zyffyr@reddit
I am sure he was just playing hard to get.
CuddlyBoneVampire@reddit
No.
the_elephant_stan@reddit
Lots of episodes where Riker is raped in various ways. Iām rewatching the series with my wife and we joke about whether Riker or Troi will be raped in the episode, they seem to trade off.
chilling_hedgehog@reddit
I mean, you could see it as a meta joke, as the alien in question was Frazier's frigid wife that was famously impassionate about sex. But yes, you're right.