She thought he was her friend, but he became every woman's worst nightmare, when he raped her
Without Her Consent is a Lifetime TV movie about acquaintance rape. Melissa Gilbert plays a young woman named Emily Briggs, who is sexually assaulted by a man named Jason Barnes (Scott Valentine) whom she has known for quite some time. She files charges, but he claims in court that she invited the attack. The situation gets more complicated when Trey (Barry Tubb), Emily's boyfriend, decides to take revenge by running her rapist over and getting in trouble with the law for it.
The TV Film had VHS copies released to the public, but no other medium releases. However, the Full Movie is up on Youtube to watch
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Without Her Consent includes examples of the following tropes:
- Blaming the Victim: After Jason assaults Emily, not one man believes that she was raped. Not even her boyfriend.
- Broken Bird: Emily's character changes after she is raped by Jason. We don't know what his third victim Claire was like before the attack, but she gives off this vibe too.
- Date Rape: Of the acquaintance variety. Emily befriends Jason after she moves to town and goes to his house to look at furniture he has for sale.
- Don't Look At Me: Claire Sugarman, Jason's 3rd victim (that we know of), laments the fact that her father can no longer look at her after what's happened.
- Cacophony Cover Up: Emily's screams are drowned out by the sound of Jason's neighbor's lawn mower. It's likely that he intentionally planned the rape for this time.
- Forceful Kiss: Jason does this to her when she refuses to let him touch her.
- I Have You Now, My Pretty: Jason does this to Emily after dragging her to his bedroom.
- I'm a Man; I Can't Help It: Jason's excuse for the attacks he pulled in secret and it comes back in his Villainous Breakdown, where he spouts Incel nonsense as an excuse for raping Emily and the other women. He loses the trial after having the breakdown.
- Lifetime Movie of the Week: It's a Movie made for TV film about a woman who seeks justice after being raped by an acquaintance.
- "Not If They Enjoyed It" Rationalization: When the police come to question Jason, he turns it on Emily and portrays her as cheating on Trey, her boyfriend, willingly.
- Not the First Victim: Emily is stunned when a strange woman comes to see her and bluntly declares "Jason Barnes raped me too."
- Oh, Crap!: Jason has this look on his face when he sees his neighbor come in to see the trial when he is caught in Perjury.
- Paralyzing Fear of Sexuality: Emily freaks out while trying to make love with Trey following her assault, which he's still unaware of.
- Police Are Useless: When Emily goes to report her assault, no one at the Precinct took her seriously and no one directed her to the hospital to get a Rape Kit. Even when the trial began, the police didn't question Jason's neighbor about the attack. Had they gone to get a statement, the trial would have been a quick case. And it's not until a third woman comes forward to accuse Jason Barnes of rape that the District Attorney finally decides to prosecute. And even then, it's only because their own lawyer vows to threaten him with a lawsuit.
- Rape as Drama: It's a Lifetime movie. This is default one of their go to themes.
- Rape Discretion Shot: After ripping Emily's top and tearing her underwear off, the audience is treated to the sound of Jason grunting as Emily sobs quietly. The scene blurs and cuts to Jason dragging Emily out of his home with her clothes ripped, a gash on her forehead, barefoot, and holding her shoes. She can't stand up and walk on her own. So he drags her by the arm, while barefoot, to his car and forcefully shoves her in because he doesn't want a speeding ticket.
- Serial Rapist: Jason's attack on Emily wasn't a one time event. He already raped three other women. They had never met each other until they, combined with a reluctant Emily, press rape charges on him. This happens after Emily contacts the newspaper to accuse Jason of raping her and shaming the police department for not doing their jobs.
- Shower of Angst: Emily is seen taking one.
- Spanner in the Works:
- Emily. After she was assaulted, clear signs that she had been attacked were easily identifiable to Jason's neighbor: Her forehead was bleeding, clothes were torn, she was walking barefoot while carrying her shoes, she was having trouble walking on her own (Most likely from a concussion she got from hitting her head on Jason's dresser), and she was pushed into Jason's truck rather than helped in. Her shoes play an important part to the plot. Despite her purse being bigger than her shoes, her choosing to carry them rather than hug her big purse helped set off the red flags for Jason's neighbor to get Jason caught in perjury during the trial. When she went in, she was smiling and had her shoes on. When she came out, clear signs of struggle were seen and she was barefoot having trouble walking straight.
- Jason's neighbor. Jason's attacks always happened on days when the old man would mow the front lawn. After Jason raped Emily, Jason didn't count on the old man to still be outside his home. When Trey went to question the neighbor, he was able to identify Emily from seeing her photo and then in person. Because of this, it's what leads to Jason getting caught in perjury and being sentenced to ten years in State prison.
