This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.
Silent Hunter: Aren't Love Potions really just date-rape drugs by another name?
Sci Vo: Date-rape-by-mind-control, so not just date-rape, but there was definitely some Values Dissonance going on when I watched the Love Potion #9 movie. I was simultaneously amused, titillated and appalled.
Jordan179: Yes, the use of love potions really is basically a form of rape, and the reason why the movie Love Potion #9 is "apalling" is that, in a montage sequence, the protagonist (who we are expected to sympathize with) essentially rapes dozens of women, including most of the occupants of a college girls dormitory, and it is treated as pure screwball comedy. To make matters worse, consider that the victims of the potion retain full memory of what they've done — they just don't know why they've done it. Realistically, he left a trail of emotional anguish, and possibly some insanity and even suicides, in his wake. I am pretty sure that the writer didn't get what was wrong with this, either.
joeyjojo: Well it’s highly immoral. But I wouldn’t say it’s “date-rape” as such because strictly speaking the ‘victim’ isn’t forced. Anyway how it is now seems fine to me. If we start going into the finer ethical details we will get a flame war on our hands.
Violet: If were going to be legally pedantic: using large amounts of alcohol is considered date rape (In the UK at least) because the victim is too drunk to give proper consent. If you can't meet the legal requirements for consent when intoxicated, you obviously can't do so when under mind control so love potions are date rape. As for the Flame War, I can't see anyone but the trolls arguing love potions are ethical so I wouldn't worry about one.
whatever: Man, how disturbing does it make some examples once you realise this? Poor Tom Riddle Sr. I think he was supposed to be unsympathetic, but waking up one day normal and from what Dumbledore said, knowing that he'd spent the last year or so being married to and banging some girl he wouldn't have touched if she hadn't kept giving him the potion... It must have felt like rape to him then. BTW, even if the victims enjoy the sex at the time, to be blunt, unconscious people don't feel the sex at the time, so in my mind it's only a couple of steps up from that.
Ace Of Scarabs: I see nothing wrong with married couples using a little Wild Side #69 to liven up the bedroom aspect of their marriage.
Tabby: Been a long time since I read any of the Dresden Files, but I thought it was Murphy who accidentally got dosed with the love potion.
The Colour of Heartache: I'm pretty sure it wasn't.
