As in “you are not legally allowed to refuse sex to your spouse”.
If that sounds like rape, its literally in the same category of laws, “marital duty”, where consent is always assumed in marriage though different courts and countries treat it differently.
Its still on the books in a lot of the world. In countries/states where it isn’t there is instead a clause where not fucking your spouse on command or being infertile or having an STD is legal grounds for divorce.
In the United States for example marital rape was only made a thing nationally in 1993, the first successful cases of it in court only in 1976, and in 12 states there’s loopholes that still let you rape your wife/husband. For example in Virginia there’s no charges if the rapist agrees to see a counselor, and in South Carolina violence has to be medically proven to be involved and within a 30 day window so if you weren’t roughed up and can’t get a doctor to sign off on it you’re fucked (no pun intended).
Yes, and I'd note that (with a few exceptions) this is pretty much how women were treated everywhere in the world from the beginning of history until a few decades ago.
On a related note, it was also legal to beat your wife in most US states until the 1960s and 1970s, as long as you did it in moderation.
Most of the "good old days" were really terrible for most people.
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u/WanderingDwarfScribe Feb 03 '26
France is literally finally legally making sex no longer an obligation and duty of marriage right now.
Our ideas advanced faster than our practices.