MovieChat Forums > Love Potion No. 9 (1992) Discussion > Rape!

Rape!

posted 13 years ago by bransrubar
21 replies | jump to latest

I can't help liking this movie a bit but I don't like it nearly as much as I used to. I really thought about Paul playing with the potion, espcially the sorority house, and I realized just how utterly wrong it was. Paul goes into that place and magically removes the free will of those college girls; they had no choice but to have sex with him. Now what if one of them was a virgin who wanted to wait until her wedding night? Paul has stolen that special night from her. He effectivly raped them. Considering that you remember what happened under the potions effects how are these women going to feel when it wears off?

I realize that we're not supposed to think about it this deeply but I couldn't help it. I disgusts me that this sort of thing, this deep violation of other human beings, is passed off as comedy. It's really sad; we can actually have a really enjoyable movie without sex jokes that are just wrong.

[–] amathus 13 years ago

Interesting that you don't seem to care at all about the men that Diane uses her potion on. They were just as "raped" as the women Paul has sex with.

[–] bransrubar 13 years ago

I didn't think of that; if she had sex with them then yes they were raped. And that is equally disgusting!

[–] ryansassy1 12 years ago

We have no knowledge of whether or not Diane actually had sex with those men. We just see her dating them.

_________________________________
"I'm sorry, but.." is a self-contained lie.

[–] Livana_Faolan 8 years ago

She's still guilty of removing their free will, even if she didn't have sex with them.

"Never mind walking a mile in my shoes. Try thinking a day in my head."

[–] crysjumar 13 years ago

sometimes, zhit happens.

- C'mon back to my room and I'll give you a Rusty Venture.

[–] Blueghost 11 years ago

That's essentially why they reserved themselves as test subjects, instead of using a group of test subjects. Paul may not have known that a woman had suppressed her inner desires under the influence of the potion, and remember what Anne Bancroft's character said about True Love and love potion #9. But "rape" is a very serious charge. It usually involves exercising power over the subject, and is often coupled with violence. Seducing a woman because your voice sounds sexy and charming, however pissed off it may make me and other men (we've lost women to musicians), it is NOT rape.

Get a life.

[–] bransrubar 11 years ago

Maybe rape is a bit strong here but they were seriously taking advantage of those people they used the potion on. It's a magical hold that they can't resist; look at how Gary was utterly controlling Diane using it. I think Love Potion No. 8 is a very dangerous thing.

"My best friend was born in a manger!"

[–] lara33 10 years ago

Actually it is rape. It's just like giving someone a roofie - a lot of times, there is no actual violence in raping someone once you have drugged them. They will just go along with everything you're doing because a drug is interfering with their ability to make decisions for themselves. You're messing with their brain, and that's just as bad as literally pinning someone down.

The only question you have to ask is: Would these women have slept with Paul without the drug? I would say that 95% of them would not have. Then, it is rape.

Also, you seem to be a bit confused - they didn't sleep with him because his voice was sexy and charming; that's just how the chemical was administered, through sound waves.

[–] Blueghost 10 years ago

Give. Me. A. Break.

HE and BULLOCK were the ones TAKING the drug. Not their "victims".

Is your logic always this flawed?

[–] Limeginger 7 years ago

The person who took the potion was not compromised.

The people who inhaled their breath and heard their voice had their free will subverted.

Sandra Bullock's characters took advantage of men for money and prestige.

The guy used it to sleep with women.

Neither is cool, but the "date raping" was weird to see in the 21st C.

[–] werecow2003 9 years ago

Would these women have slept with Paul without the drug? I would say that 95% of them would not have. Then, it is rape.

By that logic, being physically attractive is rape, so long as someone sleeps with you because they are physically attracted to you. Which is clearly silly.

I'm not saying that the way they behaved in the movie is ethical (I think that was kind of the point of the story), but calling it rape is rather insulting to actual rape victims.

[–] lara33 9 years ago

I don't understand what physical attraction has to do with anything, particularly rape. What I'm saying is that the love potion worked pretty much exactly like a roofie - although they did not administer it to the girls physically, it was able to travel through sound waves into the girls' brains, making them want to have sex with him. They made it a point to show that most of these girls were completely disinterested to him, until he spoke (thus, sending the love potion through sound waves). That means that they weren't going to have sex with him, until their brain chemistry was altered. I don't know most girls originally didn't want to have sex with him; it might have been his looks, clothing, financial situation, personality, etc. It doesn't really matter why, just that they didn't want to originally.

[–] werecow2003 9 years ago

I don't understand what physical attraction has to do with anything

You were saying that if someone would not have slept with person X if it hadn't been for circumstance Y, then the sex constitutes rape. I'm saying your definition of rape is too broad.
The potion simply makes one physically attractive to the opposite sex. Well, if its the fact that the attraction is artificial that makes it rape, then what about other means of making oneself artificially more attractive? What about perfume, makeup, plastic surgery, physical fitness, or just having good genes? Where do you draw the line on what is rape, and what is still acceptable?

What I'm saying is that the love potion worked pretty much exactly like a roofie

A roofie simply makes you forget what happened. It does not actually make you want to have sex. This is more like having sex with someone who is drunk and therefore sexually uninhibited, has beer goggles on, and is trying to jump you for that reason. That may be morally questionable, but I think actual rape is different. Rape is having sex with someone against their will. In this case, that is not the issue, since the act is perfectly in line with their will at the time. In fact, calling it rape is be kind of missing the point of what the actual reprehensible act was. It's not the sex itself, but the fact that they are basically manipulating people into doing their will - whether that was having sex with them, or letting them out of parking tickets.

[–] Doc80 8 years ago

Very true. All the potion did was make you attractive to the opposite sex. Humans have the ability to act on their desires or not. Just because you find someone "hot" doesn't mean you will have sex with them right away. So in that regard what they do, while unethical for sure, especially when they know the power of the potion, isn't rape.

[–] imdb-6674 9 years ago

I saw this movie as a teenager and really liked it... but you're right. What Paul did in the sorority house is clearly, unequivocally, rape. He used mind control on them.

Is what Marisa did stealing? Of course. But they gave her all their possessions willingly! No, they didn't. They were under the effect of mind control. They were not themselves. They had lost the ability to give meaningful consent. She stole their stuff. She couldn't claim she didn't do anything wrong because they said okay and helped load the car. As soon as the potion wore off, they were angry with her. That wasn't them having a change of heart. They had never consented in the first place. Their ability to do so was compromised.

The movie understands that what Marisa did was stealing... and what Gary did was wrong... but why give Paul a pass? It's just kinda funny that he got "carried away"...

The potion doesn't make people just sound sexy. It allows them to alter people's minds through a sound wave. (As opposed to doing it by spiking their drink or something.) It's mind control. That ALONE is a horrible violation. (Was Paul more upset he got robbed, or that he got controlled like a puppet?)

To then actually have sex with someone who is being controlled that way is definitely rape and definitely disgusting.

I get that Paul didn't *think* it was rape, but that doesn't mean it wasn't. I wonder how he'd feel if he ever realized that's what he actually did. I think if he actually thought about it, he'd be horrified.

It's fascinating there are people who are defending this!

Using mind control is wrong. What Diane did was wrong too. But we don't know if she actually raped anyone, or just used them. Presumably she herself was raped by her ex-boyfriend. She didn't seem to happy about that at the end when she was no longer under the effects of the mind control.

[–] dylan1669 9 years ago

What I find most interesting about the reasoning of yours and other people on here with your opinion, is that it's not rape because the potion made the other person unconscious or unable to resist even though they *didn't* want to have sex, but because the potion made the other person unable to resist what they *wanted* more than anything else in the world at that moment.

In other words, a lot of people (religious people especially) have this view of human sexuality that it must be repressed at all costs, and you must resist the temptation to sin or act on your inhibitions until you're married and you do it with your husband, and if you don't resist, it's bad because, "you have free will, so there's no excuses!!". So anytime a hypothetical comes along that abridges an individuals will to resist what they want (even if it's only for one night because the person has swagger or charm or smells good or seems unbelievably confident or attractive and you just can't resist them), they suddenly freak our and start trying to make connections to rape, which is absurd.

Rape to me has one very simple definition... making someone do what they don't want to do sexually. Wanting it more than anything, but forgetting the fact that your faith or philosophy or shallowness dictates that you're supposed to say "no" as opposed to "YESS!!", doesn't meet the definition of "rape" to me, no matter how convoluted your reasoning might be.

[–] bransrubar 8 years ago

Rape to me has one very simple definition... making someone do what they don't want to do sexually.

Then we agree that Paul raped those women. They did not want to do anything sexual with him until the potion activated. He altered their ability to even think the word "no" let alone say and act on it.

[–] robken0174 8 years ago

But you hypocrites ignore what Bullock's character did to men. Typical. If you're a guy and crying rape here, you're a eunich. If you're a woman criticizing the man but not the woman, you're a sexist hypocrite. Not suprising though.

Oh, and to remind you whiners crying rape, this is a silly comedy. I'm sure though that you idiots call every guy a rapist in any film like this. Ridiculous.

[–] Limeginger 7 years ago

You're kinda scary, dude. Your logic is not logical. It sounds like an apologist, predator, or creep.

[–] 7 years ago

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[–] venusthrow 8 years ago

I agree completely if you sit and think it out, they use mind control to get whatever they want and if that included sex, then it was rape. I think that in this movie it is more than just influence as they have the one guy at the insurance company, where they imply that he is gay (the YMCA part with the 1/2 naked men pictures) and he still seems to fall head over heels with Diane.

That being said, I will give it a bit of a pass due to the timing of the film. And also the characters. I firmly believe that if either of them had been confronted with evidence of the repercussions of their actions, they would have stopped. It appears that they stopped the moment that they got together. While Diane ended up getting some nice stuff, ultimately they seemed to be taking the love potion to help them find love or at least not to be unattractive.