Through the Static

By Hannah Saunders

An online rape academy tied to a porn site, whose primary audience is men in the U.S., was recently exposed through a CNN investigation. Motherless.com had 62 million website visits in February alone, and features “sleep” content with disturbing tags, like #passedout and #eyecheck.

CNN reported footage of men filming themselves raping their partners, and had lifted their eyelids to show that they are truly sleeping or sedated. Furthermore, some within this community would trade advice on how to get away with drugging and raping their wives, and even how to purchase “sleeping liquids,” from one man who sold and shipped to any address in the globe for about $175. 

“[Redacted] ml in a milkshake. She felt nauseous, so gave her a tablet of ‘Imodium’ (was [redacted]). Did f**k her well, but she was not out enough and had no more [redacted] on me,” according to one text. 

Some men profited off of the abuse through live-streaming for $20 per view, and the main form of payment was cryptocurrency. Zoe Watts had been with her husband for 16 years, but then he began slipping their son’s crushed-up sleeping medication into her bedtime tea to rape her as she lay unconscious. On one Sunday in 2018, after the pair returned from church, he confessed to raping Watts. 

Another survivor brought video evidence to local police, but was turned away. 

“I thought, there’s evidence. And the police said to me, ‘Well, we can’t use that, that isn’t clear evidence, because it looks like you’re pretending to be asleep,’” the woman told CNN. 

Like many forms of sexual abuse, drug-facilitated sexual abuse (DFSA) is frequently underreported due to shame or people not knowing they are being assaulted. Men engaged in these online rape academy chat rooms also protect each other and encourage the behavior. Even though some, including on Telegram, have been shut down in recent years, more sprout up and contribute to this repetitive cycle of harm. 

Far-right influencers, like Andrew Tate, have also made an impact on younger men and boys in particular, and through his expressed views, like women should “bear responsibility” for being raped, among other things. 

The Motherless website remains up and active, although it has since removed the “sleep” category. “Sleep content,” and “passed out,” are both banned words on the website now, but “eye check” is still active, with one man having posted a video of himself raping his ex girlfriend, who was visibly incoherent. This content is generally popular and easily rakes in tens of thousands of views.

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