ABSTRACT
What women know and say should be authoritative enough for the law to ensure that rapists are charged and convicted. Often, it is not. One reason the law fails women is that rape law reflects and reifies a hierarchical gender binary that is deeply connected to Christian views on gendered humanity. Because the law is governed by this gender ideal, the law denies the moral authority of women, girls, and gender non-conforming people. This ideal contributes to the incidence of rape and permeates the content and application of rape law. The gender hierarchy embodied in rape law is the idea that males have authority and females must be obedient to them. The working gender binary of the law is the idea that all persons are opposites based on their gender. The law is meant to reflect individuals’ moral authority over themselves as total persons, so the law ought to function to support the moral authority of women, particularly in sexual violence. Feminist Lutheran values and insights disrupt these harmful Christian hierarchical gender binaries, including those embedded in U.S. rape and sexual assault law, and afford insight into possible legal reforms that could offer greater justice for women.
