Posted on 09/20/2014 5:15:17 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
In the emotionally charged conversation about rape, few topics are more fraught than that of false allegations. Consider some responses to the news that singer-songwriter Conor Oberst had been falsely accused of sexual assault. Last December a woman writing in the comments section of the website xoJane, going by the name Joanie Faircloth, claimed Oberst raped her when she was a teenager.
The charge spread across the Internet; Oberst denied it and brought a libel suit against Faircloth when she refused to retract the story. In July she completely recanted, admitting that she had made it all up to get attention. Yet instead of showing sympathy for the ordeal of the musician—one known for being supportive of feminist issues—some chided him for taking legal action to defend himself against a false, career-damaging charge. In the Daily Dot, pop culture critic Chris Ostendorf decried the lawsuit, arguing that it could intimidate real victims of rape and that it promoted the idea of men as victims of false accusations—even though that’s exactly what Oberst was. After Oberst dropped the suit, Bustle’s Caroline Pate praised his decision and referred to the saga as “a roller-coaster for both parties”—treating the false accuser and the wrongly accused as morally equivalent—and called the revelation of Oberst’s innocence “crushingly disappointing.”
False rape accusations are a lightning rod for a variety of reasons. Rape is a repugnant crime—and one for which the evidence often relies on one person’s word against another’s. Moreover, in the not-so-distant past, the belief that women routinely make up rape charges often led to appalling treatment of victims. However, in challenging what author and law professor Susan Estrich has called “the myth of the lying woman,” feminists have been creating their own counter-myth: that of the woman who never lies.
(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...
Well, maybe your co-workers are on to something.
I’ll pray for you. My brother-in-law was in the same situation. I wish there were clear answers to this situation. I’m a bit biased because of my experience, and you are (rightly so) biased because of yours. My posts are simply to show FReepers that not all rape situations are Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton money making schemes. They are real. So are male victims.
What I’m most concerned about are the child vics that are too ashamed, thanks to victim blaming, to come forward. FReepers should be aware of this frightening issue.
I don’t know anyone who would assign a stigma for someone having been raped decades ago.
I don’t know anyone who wouldn’t assign a stigma for someone who had been convicted of a rape decades ago.
The raped person and the person accused falsely, will carry scars for the rest of their life.
The falsely accused, will have his rights taken away for ever.
The victim of rape won’t.
The falsely accused will lose every family member, every friend, his employment, his civil rights, and the ability to continue on his career path.
I don’t seek to minimize the damage done to a rape victim, but in some ways the damage done to the falsely accused person can be much worse in some says, less in others.
Please research the Steubenville rape case, and then reference this direct quote from a coworker: “I heard she’s the type of girl that would like this sort of attention.” You’re one sick puppy. Seek help.
Two rapes from the Bible come to mind. Dinah was raped by Shechem. He must have liked it as he tried to get her father to allow her to marry him.
The other is Potaphar’s Wife who made advances to Joseph and when he refused, she cried rape. The innocent Joseph was sent to prison just based on her false testimony.
This is exactly why I refuse to date. The last one I dated did a websearch on my name and found a similar name of a white supremacist. She was convinced I was him, and merely touching her arm was considered sexual assault. That was 1997.
It’s an even bigger problem with accusations of child molestation. My default position on those is to believe they are false. We’ve gotten past the dark ages of twenty years ago, but still, if a screwed up kid (or a kid with a screwed up Mom or therapist) says “the man touched me” your picture is on the front page of the local paper and your life is over.
Yeah, if you say so. I guess, unlike you, I've actually had personal experience and done the research.
But, I guess that won't prevent you from making insults and personal attacks against those that disagree with you.
When I was 17 years old an older woman made sexual advances on me, did sexual activity, including intercourse. I didn't consent and I was confused and scared, and so didn't stop her. Was that rape? Feminists now tell us is would be - but only if I were a woman.
For some reason, only women are permitted the courtesy of being asked for consent.
Why is it if a man and women have been drinking and have sex - it is considered non-consentual sex by the man only?
The diminishing credibility of rape accusations hurts actual victims. I therefore believe that if those who claim they want to "protect women" would address those claims.
But they don't.
I therefore conclude it is a POLITICAL matter, and the protection of women has nothing to do with their motivations. s
Proof and Campus Rape: Standards for Campus Disciplinary Proceedings
http://www.thefire.org/proof-and-campus-rape-standards-for-campus-disciplinary-proceedings/
““Preponderance of the evidence” means that if a school thinks there is as little as a 51 per chance that the accused is guilty, the accused must still be disciplined.”
And the student can be barred from campus, lose scholarships, denied a graduation, have a horrible record - even in cases where the police didn’t pursue rape charges but the school punished him.
Unfortunately, the Justice Department is altering the already low standards for students charged with rape on campus to an even lower standard.
“The mere existence of harassment by students isn’t enough for liability under Title IX. More is required. The school’sown actions in response to the harassment must be culpable. As the Education Department admitted in its 1997 “Sexual Harassment Guidance,” “Title IX does not make a school responsible for the actions of harassing students, but rather for its own discrimination in failing to remedy it once the school has notice.” (62 FR 12034 (1997)). So to violate Title IX, an institution’s own actions must be proven culpable under a “preponderance” standard — not the mere occurrence of harassment.”
I see you never read any of the early threads on the Sandusky scandal.
I’d be up for that. False accusations damage far more than the real thing. It gives real victims a shadow of doubt; it destroys an innocent person’s life and career and reputation; and it sets one group of people against another over nothing real, jsut a lie. It stirs up bad feelings among people over a lie.
No, I didn’t follow it word for word. Certain things interest me, but I don’t feel the need to hear every morsel of information. The guy was damaged goods. That’s about all I know. It rather depressing to dwell on it. You just hope the guy gets what is coming to him.
Explain to me the angle on a woman being assigned stigma for being raped decades ago.
...please.
In the Sandusky case, we had boys who were raped. Some of them over a decade ago.
There were Freepers who said some nasty things about the victims right up until Sandusky was convicted.
As for the continuing expressions of that attitude, well. .. look at post 67 of this thread. The rape of a child will always be an unfounded allegation to some people. Examination of corroborating evidence not required. That is stigma.
goodwithagun, you seem to be basing this on one case which I've never heard of, some "training" you had following that case, and some internet searches which you keep telling people to do, as if the internet contains no misinformation. In other posts you admit there are gray areas. Here is the problem with your claim: there are rapes without your specified evidence. There are non-rapes even with your specified evidence. They may be rare but they exist. I require only common sense to know that, not an internet search.
If you post claims like the quote above, you are claiming, falsely, that there is a forensic formula for roughness. We all agree that getting a victim to a medical exam will lead to better outcomes in such cases. But nobody agrees with you that it is a sure thing. Nobody agrees with you that there is formula for rape roughness vs consensual roughness, except for general guidelines. Perhaps if you link an actual site, I will look, but most likely it will be a categorical screed like your "training".
Um, I’ve made no such claims that you are attributing me to. I’ve been quite fair regrading both sides of the coin. I’ve never claimed there is a “formula” for rough sex. If you’ve not heard of the Steubenville rape case you are sheltered. It became an international news story two years ago.
Why do people get so butt-hurt when the other side of this issue is presented? If you don’t want to do simple searches to educate yourself, well, that’s your prerogative. You wrote on your post that you might not even look at links if I post them. I’ll not waste my time on you.
Have a blessed Sunday.
Exactly - Janet Reno got he fame by prosecuting Fathers for child abuse that never happened by getting "experts" to testify that, after leading the children on and putting ideas into their heads, they finally got them to make comments that might indicate some form of abuse. I say that those who make such false claims either be locked up for life in a mental institution or be executed by firing squad - flip a coin.
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