Pornography, especially violent variants, furthers rape culture...

[Scootaloo]

30. Well, there were only two roles for women in that period of westerns

Either they could be the victim, or they could be the reward. And since the whole idea of "Gritty westerns" was to abolish the "fairy tale" vibe of older films, the latter was actually kind of rare, leaving all the weight in the "victim" category.

The abused woman was basically scenery; she served to tell the audience that this was a dangerous and morally void society where life and honor are both cheap - again, as a direct challenge to the earlier works in the genre, with white hats and silver stars. With the abused woman in this role, you didn't have to put any writing into setting the environment, you didn't have to establish, you just had to have a victim get victimized and that was it.

Basically rape was utilized for budget concerns and to spare the audience about twenty minutes of exposition and development.