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The Feminist Version of Rape (Cathryn Crawford)
The Washington Dispatch ^ | August 15, 2003 | Cathryn Crawford

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.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Front Page News
KEYWORDS: cathryncrawford
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To: gogeo
????????

I don't know either - I was just quoting from the WAR website. I certianly don't agree with it.

181 posted on 08/15/2003 3:57:43 PM PDT by Cathryn Crawford (Traficant is a real conservative who will stomp out the socialist rats but good!)
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To: quant5
I've heard a lot of horror stories like this. I hesitate to ask - but was CPS involved in your case in any way?
182 posted on 08/15/2003 3:58:32 PM PDT by Cathryn Crawford (Traficant is a real conservative who will stomp out the socialist rats but good!)
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To: hopespringseternal
If you boil down the feminist thinking on rape, it often seems to reduce to "sex with men." As often as not, they promote the message that sex (with men) is not meant to be enjoyed, or that the woman should at least feel guilty for giving a man pleasure.

Is it possible it's all about being a lesbian?

183 posted on 08/15/2003 4:01:04 PM PDT by gogeo (Freedom of speech does not mean freedom from consequences.)
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To: Amelia
Yes, we have to find some level of balance between a woman being taken advantage of, and a woman taking responsibility for her actions.
184 posted on 08/15/2003 4:08:36 PM PDT by Cathryn Crawford (Traficant is a real conservative who will stomp out the socialist rats but good!)
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To: quant5
By the grace of God, I was given enough wisdom to catch her lying under oath this time and spent many hours of research to back it up, so the final custody court date is next Thursday...

Pray very hard. In My case, My ex was ordered to undergo a drug screening no later than 3:30pm that day. She arrived at five minutes before they closed and told them that she was passing blood. They told her that that would invalidate the tests, and to reschedule. She never did.

Result? Absolutely nothing. The whole thing was completely ignored, and still is to this day. As much as it angered Me, however, My attorney warned Me not to attempt this Myself -as I would find Myself in jail so fast the scenery would blur about Me. And yes, I was furious. My friends merely shook their heads knowingly and reminded Me: "There is no 'Justice' in the american 'Judicial' system". As in: "There is no 'Truth' in 'Pravda'".

185 posted on 08/15/2003 4:14:01 PM PDT by Utilizer
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To: Cathryn Crawford
I see a pendelum swing to the extreme here. In my life, I know of four rapes....and one attempted. Only one was ever reported.

I still believe it is a very under-reported crime.

I also agree with your article. To allow "gee, I was pressured" to be rape weakens the case for those that truly were.

As for men whining for sex....
Youngun's, get used to it...just keep a lot of cheese around to go with the whine. ;)
186 posted on 08/15/2003 4:19:12 PM PDT by najida (What handbasket? And where did you say we were going?)
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To: Amelia
I think I might be in the same age range...I was also told that if I let myself become inebriated, men might take advantage of that situation.

Bravo. Thank God that a few of us 'get it'.

187 posted on 08/15/2003 4:19:52 PM PDT by Utilizer
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To: Cathryn Crawford
Try this one -it is worth the read, and it might better explain some things to you:

'Honey, You Repel Me': Advice For Couples in a Sexless Marriage
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/912234/posts

188 posted on 08/15/2003 4:29:03 PM PDT by Utilizer
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To: Scenic Sounds
feminists will never be happy until ALL heterosexual sex is rape. (s)Next all heterosexual sex will be outlawed. Only a "woman" of welsly knows what a woman wants sexually. (/s)
189 posted on 08/15/2003 4:35:41 PM PDT by longtermmemmory (Vote!)
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To: longtermmemmory
feminists will never be happy until ALL heterosexual sex is rape. (s)Next all heterosexual sex will be outlawed. Only a "woman" of welsly knows what a woman wants sexually. (/s)

Go get em, buddy. Make em happy. ;-)

190 posted on 08/15/2003 4:37:25 PM PDT by Scenic Sounds (All roads lead to reality. That's why I smile.)
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To: hopespringseternal
The irony is that they create an atmosphere of politically correct sexual prohibition that inhibits women sexually as much as the Catholic church or aberrant puritanism ever did.

Now that's one of the more profound statements I've heard in awhile ...!

191 posted on 08/15/2003 5:31:56 PM PDT by Catalonia
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To: Scenic Sounds
Man, is this article behind the times...

In 1991, according to my Sen. Babs Moo-cow-ski (Peoples Republic of Maryland), Anita Hill was "raped" by then nominee Clarence Thomas. She was using the term to imply sexual harassment.

It's the damned RATs who have dumbed down the language. But isn't that the way Orwell said it needed to be done with 1984's NewSpeak?
192 posted on 08/15/2003 5:37:30 PM PDT by XEHRpa
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To: Cathryn Crawford
I am arguing that the attitude that is being fostered among women by liberal feminists is wrong

I like the conservative feminists viewpoint better, too.

193 posted on 08/15/2003 5:42:41 PM PDT by RedBloodedAmerican
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To: RedBloodedAmerican
I like the conservative feminists viewpoint better, too.

Some people don't think that there is such a thing as conservative feminists.

194 posted on 08/15/2003 5:44:08 PM PDT by Cathryn Crawford (Traficant is a real conservative who will stomp out the socialist rats but good!)
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To: XEHRpa
While there has been a lot of loose talk, rape laws haven't changed much. Most of the changes have involved procedural protections for alleged victims such as limiting the scope of admissible evidence regarding an alleged victim's prior sexual history.
195 posted on 08/15/2003 5:44:43 PM PDT by Scenic Sounds (All roads lead to reality. That's why I smile.)
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To: Cathryn Crawford
I know. It's an uphill battle, isn't it? Give them time. Patience persuades.
196 posted on 08/15/2003 5:59:13 PM PDT by RedBloodedAmerican
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To: RedBloodedAmerican
I know. It's an uphill battle, isn't it? Give them time. Patience persuades.

Yeah, but I'm impatient and short-tempered, as you know. :-)

197 posted on 08/15/2003 6:00:06 PM PDT by Cathryn Crawford (Traficant is a real conservative who will stomp out the socialist rats but good!)
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To: Agnes Heep
Uriah will be happy to know he's a rapist.

Oh, Agnes!

198 posted on 08/15/2003 7:20:04 PM PDT by UnklGene
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To: Cathryn Crawford
You've done it again, Cathryn. You light up a room and then leave!
199 posted on 08/15/2003 7:25:13 PM PDT by UnklGene
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To: UnklGene
I'm here. :-)
200 posted on 08/15/2003 7:33:07 PM PDT by Cathryn Crawford (Traficant is a real conservative who will stomp out the socialist rats but good!)
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