1.19.2005

2 women deny rape charges

Grrr. There's no such thing as homosexual rape. Rape is non-consensual sexual intercourse (sex) and that requires all the sexes. Why can't they call this sexual assault? It is really demeaning to people who actually have their reproductive choice taken from them.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

You really are a myopic, insensitive ignoramus.

The first rule about rape is that it's not even about sex.

Rape does not require a penis, rape does not require a vagina for it to be rape. Rape is forced sex against your will. As someone who has worked with rape surviviors, it doesn't matter if it is a penis or fingers or mouth, it is the violence that lingers, it is the violation and degradation that matters-- because that is generally the intent of rape. You're so stuck on the physical act that you don't seem to consider the psychological aspect of rape.

Rape is rape is rape.

John Howard said...

Doesn't forcibly taking reproductive choice away and possibly forcing shared parenthood on someone have alot to do with how degrading it is? And there will have to be a legal term for stealing someone's gamate and making them a parent, say by taking the used condom on your roommates floor while she and her boyfriend are in the shower. Today, I bet that guy would have to pay child support, but I think that is rape. As a rape victim myself, I don't think sticking your finger in someone's mouth compares to rape. It might be a degrading crime, but we should differentiate stealing reproductive choice from assault. Rape is non consensual intercourse, and ought to be expanded to all attempts at forcing parenthood.

Christian said...

Rape is non-consensual sexual intercourse (sex)

Correct. Intercourse means between bodies. That doesn't require a male and a female. That's why even the Bible uses the same expression "to know" to refer to homosexual activity as heterosexual activity. (See the story of Lot's visitors, in Genesis).

[i]there will have to be a legal term for stealing someone's gamate and making them a parent, say by taking the used condom on your roommates floor while she and her boyfriend are in the shower. [/i]

Agree that there should be a legal term, but that term not rape.

If a man tells a woman that he's had a vasectomy, and he hasn't, and gets her pregnant, that also should be a crime, but it isn't rape.

The big crime in the case you described is that the woman after using the man's sperm without his consent, turned around and sued him for child support. You'd have a better argument for enslavement than rape. Since he did not have sex with her, he should not have to pay child support, and given the fraud that she pulled off, she should not be allowed to raise a child. He should sue for custody and then give the child up for adoption with a sane father and mother that can take care of it.

Doesn't forcibly taking reproductive choice away and possibly forcing shared parenthood on someone have alot to do with how degrading [rape] is?

No. You should probably spend a little more time listening to the stories of rape survivors before you try to redefine the word. I say something similar to the so-called same-sex "marriage" proponents that want to redefine marriage. Ever notice how married Americans as a group are the strongest opponents of same-sex "marriage"? Those that best understand a powerful word are the ones most likely to resist its careless redefinition.

Christian said...

The first rule about rape is that it's not even about sex.

If you mean what I think you mean, i.e. that rape is not about making love, then of course you are correct. But to say that "rape is not about sex", without more specifics, is gibberish, since sex itself in our culture is so often about power. The word "to fuck" has both a sexual and a violent meaning in our language, and there are similar homonyms in other European languages. In Spanish, Amar means to love and Amarar means to tie up. Watch a few American commercials and you will see women's bodies used interchangeably with products. Watch the beginning of a James Bond movie and you see nude bodies interchanged with guns, weapons, and other symbols of violence. The word vagina comes from the Latin word for a sheath for a sword and the word vulva comes from the Latin word for a wound. So while I wish that what you said was true, that rape has nothing to do with sex, the truth is that in our culture rape has more to do with sex than most sex has to do with making love.