That said, this particular scene is different than the others. Prior sex scenes in The Handmaid’s Tale took place between adults who remembered what sex was like before Gilead. The participants stiffly act out rituals, realizing — no matter how pious they are — these are unnatural, manufactured pairings. Eden, however, does not know this. Eden was raised to be a Gilead automaton, and she doesn’t know what has been taken away from her: the gift of saying no, of choosing partners, of pleasure. So The Handmaid’s Tale didn’t, technically, show statutory rape within the confines of the on-screen, very fictional universe. Instead, The Handmaid's Tale shows the erasure of the concept entirely. But even if statutory rape was wiped from Gilead's lawbooks, the audience is right to be deeply uncomfortable watching this scene — the youngest age of consent in the United States is 16. In no state would Nick and Eden's pairing be legal.