Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: colorcountry
How sorry do I need to feel for a woman who placed herself in the position in the first place.

You are spot-on. Determining each person's accountability in this situation includes this question: "In whose care, and under whose authority are you willingly placing yourself, and to whom are you granting access to the body God gave you?"

Protecting an individual woman against an individual man's intentions is a huge undertaking for the rest of society, and doing justice is complicated by subtleties, mixed motives, changes of heart, dishonesty, betrayal, and all the other vagaries of the human spirit. That is why, until the 1970s (if I recall correctly), a man could not be prosecuted in any state for "raping" a woman whom he had legally married. She consented to be his wife, and enjoys a legally enforceable right of support from him—therefore, she knew sex was part of the bargain.

And claims of rape in other circumstances were looked at in light of whether the woman had taken reasonable measures to protect her virtue. In far less serious matters, the logic of this is understood: Your insurance company, if you want them to pay for a stereo stolen from your house, demands two things: 1) proof that the stereo was not the property of the "thief," through sale or gift; and 2) some sign of forced entry.

A woman is accountable for the company she keeps because, even though she is the weaker party, in the larger sense, she is not. We are all there—the rest of society, with armed police—to intervene, through measures we would extend to protect a grown man. Her side of the compact is that she will not call on our aid for capricious reasons, and that she treat the gift of life-creation God gave her as something worthy of respect and protection. A prostitute is taking this gift, which has the power of changing history itself, and selling it cheaply. That is why society at large is disinclined to value it more highly than she herself is wiling to do.

I'm not a lawyer, but I suspect that in earlier decades, the woman in this case would have no standing to file a criminal complaint in this situation at all. This does not mean I endorse what was done to her. The men are thieves, brutes, and fornicators. But if an adult refuses to protect herself, it is impossible to protect her.

53 posted on 11/01/2007 6:26:51 AM PDT by SamuraiScot
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies ]


To: SamuraiScot

Interesting. I think you make some good points. Thanks.


54 posted on 11/01/2007 6:29:44 AM PDT by trisham (Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 53 | View Replies ]

To: SamuraiScot
"But if an adult refuses to protect herself, it is impossible to protect her."

So if they shot her between the eyes, no crime?

56 posted on 11/01/2007 6:30:36 AM PDT by Enterprise (Those who "betray us" also "Betray U.S." They're called DEMOCRATS!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 53 | View Replies ]

To: SamuraiScot

Re: A prostitute is taking this gift, which has the power of changing history itself, and selling it cheaply. That is why society at large is disinclined to value it more highly than she herself is wiling to do.

That is why YOU are disinclined to value her.

There. Fixed it.


60 posted on 11/01/2007 6:41:30 AM PDT by Red in Blue PA (Truth : Liberals :: Kryptonite : Superman)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 53 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson