Posted on 08/15/2003 7:38:41 AM PDT by Scenic Sounds
There is a movement in this country to push women towards a victim status, towards an attitude that implies that a woman is simply a passive person, someone whom men can and will always take advantage of, both in public and private life. This movement is fomented and spearheaded by the liberal feminists, who believe that men are monsters and women are powerless victims against them (a clear contradiction to true feminism).
The symptom of this movement is that the liberal feminists have taken hold of the word rape and its connotations and associations and twisted it to mean something that it was never meant to. Rape, by definition, is anyone forcefully, through harm or threat of harm, forcing another person to have sex with them - there must be a clearly expressed lack of consent and/or coercion by force or threat of force. According to New York law, "forcible compulsion" ( i.e. rape) is defined as "to compel by either the use of physical force or a threat express or implied which places a person in fear of immediate death or physical injury to himself, herself, or another person."
However, this definition, which is widely mirrored in all fifty states, has been watered down. According to Dr. Andrea Parrot, a psychiatry professor at Cornell University who specializes in studying date rape, "Any sexual intercourse without mutual desire is a form of rape. Anyone who is psychologically or physically pressured into sexual contact is as much a victim of rape as the person who is attacked on the streets."
Now university counselors can convince twenty year old girls that since their boyfriend whined until they finally had sex with them, they’ve been raped. After all, under Dr. Parrot’s definition, that is classified as psychological pressure.
In many studies performed, especially those that focused on date rape or acquaintance rape, the women who were interviewed said that they did not realize that they had been raped until the interviewer described rape scenarios involving psychological pressure. These women did not feel violated, and the counselors and interviewers have to convince them that they have, indeed, been raped.
For example, the most comprehensive and most widely stated study for on-campus sex crimes is Mary Koss’s Ms. Campus Project on Sexual Assault. It was conducted through surveys, and it speculates that 1 in 4 women have been sexually assaulted. However - Koss obtained her data concerning the "incidence and prevalence of sexual aggression" with a 10-item survey featuring questions such as, "Have you given in to sexual intercourse when you didn't want to because you were overwhelmed by a man's continual arguments and pressure?" and "Have you had sexual intercourse when you didn't want to because a man threatened or used some degree of physical force to make you?". Questions 9 and 10 (which also refer to the use of force or threats of violence) seem to fit the conventional picture of rape, but consider question 8: "Have you had sexual intercourse when you didn't want to because a man gave you alcohol or drugs?" According to psychiatry, this question would be "double-barreled": What, exactly, is it asking? The meaning could change simply by what questions were asked leading up to this specific one. Does this mean that after a man buys you a drink and then you have sex with him, he has raped you? Did the girl express that she “didn’t want to,” or did the “didn’t want to” feelings come after the fact?
There has to be a clear boundary between what is and isn’t rape. Rape is not confusion or negative feelings after sex. Rape is not feeling that you don’t want to have sex, but giving in to please your boyfriend. That simply isn’t rape. Rape is when you are forced to have sex with someone, against your will, and when you clearly express that you are not complying with the situation.
This new way of defining rape, the feminist version of rape, gives women a way to simply be a passive victim, externalizing any feelings of guilt and shame about the sexual encounter and forcing responsibility onto the other person involved. Sadly, because of this attitude, rape is becoming just another everyday occurrence, something that some girls say with a shrug, as though it’s a normal part of life and is no big deal. Date rape has become the new campus hot button, and it has become so normal that girls discuss it as though it’s a trivial, almost normal thing to experience.
This attitude not only cheapens the value and independence of women, it sets women up for failure, and teaches them that they are victims of predatory men. More importantly, it trivializes sexual violence by making it something that is no longer horrible, but something that is typical and representative of the whole of society. It has become an expectation, and when true sexual trauma occurs, it gets swept away in the tide of indifference that this attitude has fostered.
Cathryn Crawford is a student from Texas. She can be reached at feedback@washingtondispatch.com.
"These women did not feel violated, and the counselors and interviewers have to convince them that they have, indeed, been raped."
When did you hold interviews or read independent interviews with these women to find out that they initially did not feel violated?
From what I'm reading, it sounds like merely a conclusion you jumped to because it fit your thesis. I'm not saying your conclusion is right or wrong. Just that you don't have the cites to back it up.
It is too easy to pass off speculation as fact. If you are obviously doing so, the credibility of the rest of your work suffers. Is she telling me facts, or is she just generating BS?
Yea but if it turns out to be a zircon...is it rape?
I just mentioned "Women Against Rape" to one of my coworkers. She said "Who isn't against it?". Good Point.
So if someone sees a drunk lying on the sidewalk, they can shoot him/her in the head -- and get away with it?
True; such as alcohol and cocaine abuse, for example.
As for you being raped, I'm assuming you're a man, and there is always that anatomical hurdle to get over.
If you become intoxicated or influenced by narcotics of any type, only you are responsible for what occurs.
Under the law, a woman that is "asleep" or "unconscious" is unable to give consent, and therefore sex would fall under the umbrella of rape.
This is an important aspect of the law when you begin thinking about GHB - the date rape drug - and it being administered to an unknowing woman.
Nah, he's just in serious trouble. :-)
What if the persuer was Janet Reno, would that change things according to them.....
Oh, okay. You can't shoot a drunk to death, but you can beat him to death. Got it.
Don't scare me like that, Dan. :-)
And then later on, if she decided to tell the authorities about a 'forced' encounter? Then she claims it was not consential, I claim it was -but admit that a 'restrained' encounter did take place... I would say that this definition is unhelpful in such an instance.
As for you being raped, I'm assuming you're a man, and there is always that anatomical hurdle to get over.
Well, sleepily protesting the entire time without effect did not seem to improve matters, so I would not count too heavily on that 'anatomical hurdle' you refer to.
If I get so drunk that I black out and do not remember things, and My girlfriend does as well, and then the next morning find out that we ummm... 'had an encounter', which one of us is 'guilty' of rape? From what she told Me, we were both more than half asleep, and things just progressed, er, 'naturally'. Mind you, I did not remember it until the next day when she made mention of it, so I am somewhat confused.
Did you notice that the fact pattern changed here? Initially, you suggested that you both "blacked out" (i.e., that neither of you had any memories of the events) and then later you suggested that both of you recovered your memories of the events (which suggests that you both were at least conscious enough to participate) and that your conduct had progressed "naturally," (which suggests that they were as consensual as drunks can get).
Your second hypothetical:
I became so inebriated that I lost consciousness, and wound up either on someone's bed or with someone in bed with Me that when I was totally sober would never DREAM of having intercourse with them, but it happened. Do you think I could claim 'rape'? Would you not imagine instead that I might be laughed out of court if I tried to pursue it?
The common law crime of rape is a crime against a woman. A woman could be convicted of rape, but only by participating in the rape of another woman.
Your third hypothetical:
Next we come to the definition of 'forced', or what exactly it means to be 'taken advantage of'. I have had occasion to encounter members of the opposite sex that preferred things done a certain way (who doesn't, eh?), and sometimes that rather stretched the boundaries of your definitions to date. Some preferred, ummm... a bit of 'restraint' (no, not bondage) being placed on them, some preferred MORE restraint, and some preferred... the element of surprise. Did a crime take place on those encounters, even if they were the preferred method? And if it did not, could not charges still be brought up later if your definitions are taken wholly at face value?
The way to handle these situations is to discuss and consent to them in advance. Then there's no problem. ;-)
There's some good ideas!!
Then it boils down to the evidence, as in every rape case.
Well, sleepily protesting the entire time without effect did not seem to improve matters, so I would not count too heavily on that 'anatomical hurdle' you refer to.
I don't think that's rape.
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