Line #39 Main/FalseRapeAccusation


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4	[[quoteright:350:[[Webcomic/{{Biblenauts}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/potipharjoseph.png]]]]
5
6	Someone claims to be raped. However, the accusation turns out to be a lie. Depending on the scenario, it can be a matter of this fact already being known by the audience or a plot twist. In the case of the former, the conflict is about the credibility of the accused instead of whether or not rape ever happened. This is a very specific form of a WoundedGazelleGambit.
7
8	In order to qualify for this trope, the following is required:
9	* There must be an accusation of rape. The alleged victim does not need to be the accuser.
10	* The person accused must be innocent beyond a mere court ruling of "Not Guilty". This is because the "not guilty" ruling could also be played off as the criminal [[KarmaHoudini getting away with their actions]].
11
12	There are also a few ways this can play out:
13	#Mistaken Identity: The accused did not have sex with the alleged victim at the time claimed. They may have had sex with the alleged victim at other times. This is generally seen in fiction with "stranger rape", cases where the alleged victim was too impaired to correctly identify the attacker or cases where the victim was also murdered and is unable to provide an identification. This is also the easiest type to clear up.
14	#Post-coital Regrets: The accuser decides (or has it decided for them) after the case that the sexual encounter was rape based on embarrassment, new information about the accused or social pressure.
15	#MaliciousSlander: The accused is simply accused of having committed rape for the purpose of harming them. For this, there need not have been any actual sex or alleged victim at all. Usually does not involve legal charges, unlike some of the others as it is "just" a rumor.
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17	See also either {{Frameup}} or AbominationAccusationAttack, depending on how the false rape accusation is done. Compare UnprovokedPervertPayback, where an AccidentalPervert moment creates a backlash for the offender.
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19	[[noreallife]]
20	----
21	!!Examples
22	[[foldercontrol]]
23
24	[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
25	* Occurs in ''Manga/BitterVirgin'', by the ClingyJealousGirl. Unfortunately, the one she's telling it to (the girl she's trying to scare away) is an actual rape victim, with good reason to know how victims behave afterwards.
26	* This kicks off the main plot of ''Literature/TheRisingOfTheShieldHero'', with Myne Sophia, a.k.a. Princess Malty S. Melromarc, stealing all of protagonist Naofumi's stuff while he is sleeping and then falsely accusing him of trying to rape her. Most everyone in Melromarc, especially the King and the three other Heroes, believe Malty's lie without question, resulting in Naofumi being branded a pariah in the kingdom and becoming quite emotionally embittered to boot. Because of this, he cannot find reputable companions, forcing him to rely on slaves like Raphtalia and Filo to do his fighting for him. Naofumi is exonerated when the Queen and true ruler of Melromarc returns, puts the King and Malty on trial, and then uses a Slave Crest that zaps its bearer every time they tell a lie in order to expose all of Malty's lies for what they really are.
27	[[/folder]]
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29	[[folder:Comic Books]]
30	* In ''ComicBook/{{XIII}}'', [[GoldDigger Felicity Brown]] gets rid of XIII by ripping the shoulder off her dress and shouting for the guard, covering herself up while claiming he'd tried to rape her.
31	* ''ComicBook/TheSandmanEndlessNights'': Portrait of Despair #2. Dermot Byrne is a priest who is forced to leave the vocation after being falsely accused of molesting young girls, despite the fact that he can prove he didn't.
32	[[/folder]]
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34	[[folder:Fan Works]]
35	* In the ''Series/{{Emergency}}'' fic "[[http://tbillingsemergencyfanfic.com/thelongroadbackpart1.htm The Long Road back]]", a woman with a history of such claims does this to John Gage. They are seen fighting, but it is realized he was trying to push her away as she nearly raped him in a sense. her previous victims resigned, went to jail or committed suicide, but she gets so obsessed with John that she kidnaps him and he later finds the courage to testify so she'll go to jail.
36	* In the ''{{Series/Firefly}}'' fic “[[http://www.fireflyfans.net/bluesun.aspx?bid=6858 Scars]]'', Kaylee spots a scar on Jayne’s stomach and recognizes it as a Chinese mark meaning “rapist”. He won’t tell the story but recalls finding a girl he liked being raped by another kid, who he pulls off and punches.The problem is that the other kid is more popular and when he says Jayne raped her, the locals believe it and they hold Jayne down and give him the MarkOfShame instead, despite the girl’s protests. Kaylee doesn’t get the story but says she isn’t buying that he’s a rapist.
37	[[/folder]]
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39
40	[[folder:Film -- Animated]]
41	* ''WesternAnimation/JosephKingOfDreams'': Zuleika invokes this trope when she doesn't get her way with Joseph and tells Potiphar that he raped her. She regrets it when Joseph is set to be executed and begs her husband not to kill him. Potiphar quickly realizes that Joseph is innocent, but circumstance forces him to punish Joseph regardless to preserve his wife's honor.
42	[[/folder]]
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44	[[folder:Film -- Live-Action]]
45	* ''Film/TheCrush''. A 14 year old girl named Adrian develops a crush on an adult man named Nick. When he declines her advances she tries to get him in trouble, including using semen from one of his condoms as evidence to falsely accuse him of raping her.
46	* In ''Film/TheHunt2012'', a small girl's angry comments are misconstrued, and suddenly the protagonist has to flee for his life from a murderous mob convinced he's a pedophile (he's not, for the record).
47	* In ''Film/WildThings'' two teenage girls falsely accuse their high school guidance counselor of raping them in order to get revenge on him for various slights. [[spoiler:Later on we find out that the guidance counselor was in on it; he sued the parents of one of the girls for a hefty sum after the false accusation and then the three of them split the money.]]
48	* In ''Film/TheWizard'', one of the main characters, a young girl, falsely claimed that a man touched her breast as a distraction so that he would be tackled by nearby bystanders and they could escape. The kids had run away and were on their way to a video game tournament and the man in question was sent to take them back to their parents.
49	* ''Film/TheLifeOfDavidGale'': One of the reasons David loses his job as a college professor. A female student who was failing his course for not showing up for classes later meets him at a party, seduces him, and then collects his semen so she can file rape charges against him. She doesn't even follow up on them since she has already left the country before it can go to trial, she just wanted to tarnish his reputation. It also makes him more plausible as a rapist and murderer later than otherwise he might be.
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51
52	[[folder:Literature]]
53	* In ''Literature/{{Atonement}}'', Briony Tallis thinks her older sister Cecilia is being sexually harassed by their childhood friend Robbie Turner. (The sex they had was consensual.) When her cousin Lola gets assaulted at night and doesn't remember anything, Briony concludes that Robbie must be her attacker, even though he's innocent. Only Cecilia and Robbie's mother believe him. Briony's accusation and testimony drive the plot of the novel.
54	* Both played straight and thoroughly {{subverted}} in the book ''Factoring Humanity'' by Robert J. Sawyer. The main character is accused of molesting his daughter, and he is known to the reader ([[DramaticIrony but not the other characters]]) to be [[spoiler:innocent]]. However, a significant plotline involves him striking up a friendship with another teacher on the same university campus who was falsely accused of raping one of his students. They discuss how their allegations have affected them and the older peer comforts the main character. Near the end of the story, however, [[spoiler:the other character admits that he actually did it]].
55	* ''Literature/{{Holes}}'''s back story involves a man getting lynched because he was accused of rape by a third party. His partner was consensual.
56	* ''Literature/OfMiceAndMen'': shortly before the action in the story, Lenny had caressed a woman's dress - not the woman, just the dress - and she ran to the sheriff's office claiming rape. Lenny & George barely escaped town with their lives.
57	* ''Literature/APassageToIndia'': During a trip to the Marabar Caves, Adela accuses Aziz of attempting to assault her. Aziz's trial, and its run-up and aftermath, bring out all the racial tensions and prejudices between indigenous Indians and the British colonists who rule India.
58	* ''Literature/ToKillAMockingbird''. During the Great Depression, a black man in [[DeepSouth Alabama]] is falsely accused of raping a white woman. Even though his innocence is proved during the trial, he is convicted anyway by a racist jury. He is later killed while trying to escape prison.
59	* ''Literature/UnderTheDome'' by Stephen King, the main character, Dale "Barbie" Barbara, is working as a short order cook at a grill when one of the waitresses starts hitting on him. He rejects her advances, but she keeps at it. Eventually it culminates in her cornering him in a backroom and groping him, while he angrily tells her off. The next day, the waitress's boyfriend storms in, demanding that Barbie come out into the parking lot to fight him. The reason? The waitress, angry at being spurned, lied to the boyfriend and claimed that Barbie had raped her, all in order to get the boyfriend to kick Barbie's ass.
60	[[/folder]]
61
62	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
63	* The ''Series/Adam12'' episode "Day Watch" has a teenage hitchhiker who tells the men who pick her up that she'll accuse them of rape if they don't give her twenty dollars. The first guy pays up, then immediately calls the police. The second guy doesn't pay, and Malloy and Reed arrive to find her loudly accusing him of trying to molest her. Luckily he recorded their conversation.
64	* There was a ''Series/{{Baywatch}}'' episode where one of the male lifeguards caught one of the female lifeguards using drugs and she accused him of rape when he threatened to report her.
65	* In ''Series/{{CSI NY}}'', the rapist who was let off after Jo reported a fellow FBI agent for botching evidence turns up in New York and a woman comes forward to say she was raped by him. However, her story falls apart when Lindsay's tests reveal that the levels of GHB in her system are still so high that she'd be dead if she ingested the levels she was supposed to have at the time she was raped. Eventually, it is revealed that the senator whose daughter was the victim of Jo's FBI case hired the woman to frame the guy and try to get him arrested. When it went bad, the senator killed her, hoping to frame the guy for murder, but that failed as well.
66	* In the Creator/{{Netflix}} original series ''Series/{{Dark\|2017}}'', [[spoiler:Hannah accuses Ulrich of raping Katharina after she sees them having (consensual) sex, to [[WomanScorned get back at Ulrich for rejecting her]]. She then pins it on the school's resident nerdy wallflower Regina.]]
67	* ''Series/{{Dexter}}'':
68	** In season 2, Lila falsely accuses Batista of rape (in actuality, they had consensual sex before she took a dose of rohypnol and injured herself in order to frame him) in order to pressure Dexter into getting back together with her, implying that she will drop the charges if he does so.
69	** One of Dexter's prospective victims, a female police officer who murdered her own husband and daughter, quickly catches on to his surveillance and confronts him in a gas station restroom. She threatens to kill him under the cover of self-defense by falsely claiming that he attempted to rape her, but he points out that the ballistics would not support her story.
70	* In the episode "A Minor Operation" of ''Series/HettyWainthroppInvestigates'', DCI Adams is accused of attempted rape to conceal a larger crime.
71	* ''Series/ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphia'':
72	** The [=McPoyle=] twins falsely accuse their elementary school gym teacher of having molested them as children, forcing Charlie to get involved in the debacle.
73	** Dee's "insinuation" is her immoral strategy for picking up men, similar to her brother Dennis's "implication." If a guy flirts with her but doesn't want to go all the way, she'll [[SexualExtortion pressure him into sex]] by insinuating she'll accuse him of rape if he leaves.
74	* ''Series/LasVegas'': A privileged woman claims that Danny forced himself onto her after she came onto him while they were both drunk. She then tries to blackmail Ed, Danny's boss and a former CIA agent, into using his worldwide contacts to get several of her company's overseas development projects approved in exchange for dropping the false charges against his employee and protégé. Ed blackmails her right back by using these same contacts to cancel most of her company's projects, and generally make her life a living hell, after which she backs off.
75	* The last episode of the original ''Series/LawAndOrder'' features several teachers--[[spoiler:including the VillainOfTheWeek]]--whose lives were ruined by false accusations of molestation from their students. This includes a guy who tried to stop a student from taking a leak in front of the class, and was accused of sexually assaulting the boy.
76	* ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'': On a rare occasion, the character accused of rape will turn out to be innocent after all. One example is "Dissonant Voices," where a preschool music teacher named Jackie Walker is accused of molesting his students, and he loses his rising stardom as a TV music coach on an ''Series/AmericanIdol''-type show. However, it comes out that [[spoiler:his main alleged victims were fed stories by their older sisters, former students of Walker who were jealous that he chose another girl to take onto the show instead of them]]. At the end of the episode, Walker chews out the SVU team for ruining his reputation and job over false accusations while his accusers [[KarmaHoudini only get probation]].
77	* In an episode of ''Series/{{MASH}}'', a formidable and high-ranking nurse accuses [[JerkAss Frank]] [[ButtMonkey Burns]] of attempting to rape her when she gets caught trying to seduce him.
78	* In the ''Series/{{Monk}}'' episode "[[Recap/MonkS8E6MrMonkAndTheCritic Mr. Monk and the Critic]]", Julie Teeger falsely accuses theater critic John Hannigan of sexual assault. Hannigan, flustered, defiantly claims he does not recognize Julie, especially after police produce evidence. Little does Hannigan know, the false accusation was to break his alibi and prove he had the opportunity to murder his girlfriend. Julie was dressed and styled in the same way she was for her solo act in a theater performance Hannigan wrote a critical review on. By admitting to not recognize Julie as she is, he basically confessed to not seeing her solo act.
79	* ''Series/TheWire'': In season 4, Randy agrees to act as a look-out while two other boys from his grade, Monell and Paul, have sex with another eight-grade girl named Tiff in the boy's bathroom. Later on, after word of the encounter spreads, they [[SlutShaming dismiss her as a slut]] in the hallway. Tiff responds by accusing the two boys of rape and filing a police report, which inadvertently implicates Randy as an accessory. Tiff later drops the charges, but this incident creates further problems for Randy, who confesses to being a ''murder witness'' in a misguided attempt to get out of trouble.
80	[[/folder]]
81
82	[[folder:Religion and Mythology]]
83	* Literature/TheBible: In the Literature/BookOfGenesis, Joseph is the slave of the Egyptian Potiphar, a captain in the royal guard, Potiphar's wife wants him to sleep with her. Joseph runs away from her, but the wife tries to hold him back and tears off his garment. She immediately calls for help and claims that Joseph has assaulted her (as she now needs a cover-up that explains how she comes by Joseph's garment). Potiphar believes his wife and has Joseph thrown into prison.
84	* Literature/TheQuran (surah 12): When Yusuf (= Joseph in the Bible) is the slave of a rich Egyptian (only referred to as Al-´Aziz, "Mighty One"), the wife of his master tries to seduce him. Yusuf refuses her and tries to run away, and as the wife is trying to hold him back, she rends his shirt from the back. Her husband comes by and she explains the situation as Yusuf trying to assault her. However, 'Aziz does not believe her, because he notices that Yusuf's shirt is torn from the back, not from the front. As a result, 'Aziz' wife is mocked by the other women of the city for being attracted to a slave. She retaliates by inviting the other women to their house so they can see Yusuf themselves, with the effect that all of them now want Yusuf. Yusuf again rejects them and is eventually thrown into prison on account of the scorned women (although the Quran does not say under what accusation he is imprisoned). More so than the Biblical account, the Quran is somewhat sympathetic to 'Aziz' wife because it makes clear that Yusuf is incomparably beautiful, and that Yusuf is also attracted to her in turn and rejects her only because adultery is a sin. Yusuf even prays to be thrown into prison because he fears otherwise he might eventually give in to seduction.
85	* Myth/ClassicalMythology:
86	** Proetus, King of Tiryns, takes in Bellerophon in his exile; Proetus' wife, Stheneboea, takes a shine to him and tries to seduce him. When Bellerophon refuses, she tells Proetus that Bellerophon has tried to rape her. Proetus, not wanting to take revenge openly because of SacredHospitality, sends Bellerophon on a mission to his friend and father-in-law King Iobates [[PleaseShootTheMessenger with a letter that asks Iobates to kill Bellerophon]]. Since Bellerophon stayed under Iobates' roof before he read the letter, Iobates was also bound by SacredHospitality not to kill him, so he [[UriahGambit asked Bellerophon to kill the Chimera]], only for him to succeed. In some versions, Bellerophon eventually either killed or humiliated Stheneboea for what she did.
87	** Queen Astydameia of Iolcus tried to seduce Peleus, but he refused because he was already married to Antigone of Phthia. After tricking Antigone into killing herself, Astydameia told her husband, King Acastus, that Peleus tried to rape her. Acastus tried to kill Peleus by taking him on a hunting trip, then stealing his sword and abandoning him when they got attacked by marauding Centaurs. However, Peleus escaped when either Chiron or Hermes returned his sword. Later, with the help of Jason, Peleus invaded Iolcus and killed Acastus and Astydameia.
88	** Theseus' wife Phaedra tried to seduce Hippolytus, Theseus's son with Antiope, but he refused. Pheadra told Theseus that Hippolytus tried to rape her, but in some versions, she committed suicide and left a note saying Hippolytus had raped her. Either way, Theseus believed her and prayed to Poseidon to punish Hippolytus. Poseidon obliged by sending a sea monster to spook Hippolytus' horses, causing him to fall out of his chariot and [[WhatADrag get dragged to his death]].
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91	[[folder:Theatre]]
92	* In Seneca's tragedy ''Phaedra'', Phaedra, wife of Theseus, accuses her stepson Hippolytus of rape after he has spurned her. Theseus calls on his father Neptune to punish Hippolytus, and Neptune causes Hippolytus to be dragged to death by his own chariot-horses. Phaedra mourns for Hippolytus and admits her accusation was false, then commits suicide. Not to be confused with Euripides' ''Hippolytus'', in which Phaedra hangs herself right away, and Theseus just misunderstands the suicide note.
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95	[[folder:Video Games]]
96	* ''VideoGame/{{Kindergarten\|2017}}'': If the protagonist insults [[AlphaBitch Cindy]], she will ''loudly'' accuse him of raping her to get back at him. Since Cindy and the protagonist are both [[TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior kindergarteners]], neither the teacher nor the principal take the accusation very seriously, though that doesn't stop you from getting shot by the principal if you don't deny it. She tries to pull the same thing again in [[VideoGame/Kindergarten2 the sequel]], only for Ms. Applegate to cut her off.
97	* ''VideoGame/DragonsDogma'': Princess Aelinore, the new wife of Duke Edmun Dragonsbane, is smitten with the Arisen from the moment she lays eyes on them and sends her handmaiden Mirabelle to invite them to her bedchambers at night, kicking off the quest "Arousing Suspicions". If the Arisen shows up, she throws herself at them and confesses her love to them, only for Duke Edmun to show up and try to strangle her in a trance. If the Arisen saves her, Aelinore saves face by accuses them of breaking into her bedchamber and trying to force themselves on her, then calls for the guards to have the Arisen tortured and imprisoned.
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100	[[folder:Visual Novels]]
101	* In ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavoc'', ConsummateLiar Celestia Ludenburg convinced {{Otaku}} Yamada to team up with her to kill straight-arrow Ishimaru. Yamada was already not on good terms with Ishimaru, as they both believed that a laptop (with an advanced and friendly [[ArtificialIntelligence AI]] on it) belonged to them, and now it had gone missing, with each one blaming the other (this was a very serious problem for the entire cast, but they just took it personally). She did this by telling him that Ishimaru had raped her, took pictures and then blackmailed her into stealing the laptop and giving it to him.
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104	[[folder:Webcomics]]
105	* In ''Webcomic/ScandinaviaAndTheWorld'', Sweden once accused Australia of raping him and his sister to get him to stop telling America's secrets.
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108
109	[[folder:Western Animation]]
110	* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'', "Wacky Molestation Adventure." The boys, upset at their parents' being too strict, call the police on their parents saying they "molestered" them. The parents are taken away. Soon there are no adults at all in South Park and they descend into a ''Literature/ChildrenOfTheCorn''-esque society.
111	[[/folder]]

Context Main / FalseRapeAccusation