Blade Runner and Film Noir:
The Hollywood Sex + Violence + Othering Nexus = Rape

Blade Runner as representation and critique of film noir:

"Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize moral ambiguity and sexual motivation. Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as stretching from the early 1940s to the late 1950s. Film noir of this era is associated with a low-key black-and-white visual style that has roots in German Expressionist cinematography, while many of the prototypical stories and much of the attitude of classic noir derive from the hardboiled school of crime fiction that emerged in the United States during the Depression."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_noir

Also see: http://www.filmsite.org/filmnoir.html

Iconic Examples:

The Maltese Falcon     Maltese Falcon Preview/Trailer

The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)

The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981)   1981 Postman Preview/Trailer

IMDB Listings

For a modern twist on the genre, check out the brilliant Brick

Film Noir, Othering, Sexual Violence

Note there are three female characters in the film version. Note that they are all:
1) Not human
2) Perceived as posing an extreme threat to the norm/society
3) That threat is a nexus of sexuality and violence (created for the sole purpose of sex and violence); shown throughout the film as only relevant in terms of sex and/or violence; often engaged in sexual violence

Therefore, based on these three "Monstrous" qualities, the "normal" society feels justified controlling their threat through the use of extreme violence (Deckard (a human and a man) representing the moral ambiguity of that society's law).

But I argue that both PK Dick and Ridley Scott -- the latter also famous for directing Alien, Thelma And Louise, and GI Jane -- is interested in critiquing this nexus of gender-sex-violence. He does so, however, not by finger-wagging but by representing it:  viewers are first seduced into sympathizing with the protagonist, Deckard, and then shown that his cultural values are in fact the real "monster".  Deckard -- and through him the audience -- learns that we must empathize, not kill, the Other.  At the film's conclusion, Deckard learns that the Rutger Howard character, Roy Batty, actually has more natural empathy than does Deckard himself; Batty is capable of love and grief, which Deckard is not, and Batty performs the ultimate act of empathy for Deckard himself, allowing Deckard to have that thing which he himself wants most and cannot have: life.   Deckard represents his learning of this lesson by then empathizing with Rachel Rosen, who he has now learned is not "the Other" and thus deserves his own empathy.

In this way, Scott critiques the normal Othering of women in traditional film noir.

Discuss Rape in Course Context:
1) Classical Conditioning (Pavlov's Dog) and Hollywood sex/violence nexus.

2) Othering on two levels:
    a) rapists Other women (like Deckard)
    b) society Others rapists (as in Little Red Riding Hood, as with Hitler)

Rape Statistics