"Is Rape Serious?" A New York Times Opinion Piece

[Jacqueline Hynes]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/30/opinion/30kristof.html?th&emc=th

I stumbled on this article this morning and was absolutely floored! Rape kits, which involve hours of invasive examination, are just sitting around in storage while perpetrators run loose. It's hard enough as it is to prosecute sexual offenders, but when there is evidence to support an investigation? What does that say about how society views rape cases...

[Lois Brown]

Very interesting J.

[Sharon]

Its not surprising as men continue to run the world and many of the women in charge are "skirted" old boys. Nothing changes. Yea laws are created due to the incredible diligence of justice advocates, but then what - enforcement is a whole other matter. Cavalier attitudes abound. If men were raped like women, would we perhaps see different end results.

Its interesting how women are still judged harsher and incarcerated longer than men for protecting themselves against abusers. I say hang or publicly flog the rapists or raise their vocal pitch level and publicize their crimes of rape. Deterrents, deterrents, deterrents folks. Create a reality show - anything but the current lack lustre, cavalier attitudes that continue to plague women's lives.

[Lori-Ann Campbell]

Extremely disturbing article. Demonstrates exactly how cavelier an approach is being taken to the issue of sexual assault. I know of many instances here in St. John's where women have had their drinks laced with 'dape rape' drugs, and by the time they 'come to' their is no forensic evidence that can used to charge the perpetrator. Further, on a cultural note, there are more and more 'rape scenes' in popular movies these days and there is even a video game titled 'rape play' where players are rewarded for raping 'virgins'. Michel Foucault talked about how discourse makes previously taboo actions more acceptable. Are we losing ground on how discourses around rape are shaping attitudes towards the act?

[Lois Brown]

Something that has distrubed me recently is how the term "ho" is being used by young men to refer to their girlfriends. It doesn't imply that the girl in question is a prostitute, but rather than any disrespect, any sexual objectification of any sort - mild or extreme - heaped upon her is acceptable. I remember the fight in the 70's to reclaim language - sometimes it seemed silly, but here is an example that gets right at my gut. How did this happen?

[Missiz]

Thanks for posting this Jackie. It confirms a suspicion that I have been holding for quite some time that, as the article says, when it comes to rape, the justice system is " a throwback to the same antediluvian skepticism about rape as a traumatic crime."
I can't help but connect this to the ubiquity of internet porn and in particular, the over-riding "narratives". It seems to me that we have a whole generation of young people who are being taught that "gag on it you filthy whore" is the standard for a sexual interaction, and that the extent of a woman's "hotness" lies in the extremity of what she can handle having done TO her.

There are studies that show that teenage boys after looking at even images as benign as playboy-style photos are significantly less likely to believe a rape victim's story.

It seems like there is a continuum between these things and what Lois has observed about the word "Ho" and any disrespect being acceptable - hey, in the language of present-day porn scenarios, that could be considered foreplay.

[Sharon]

Hey Gals - its time to reign in "free" everything. Freedoms in speach, action, etc. also require RESPONSIBILITY. Censor I say, censor, until responsibility is learned. And I can just hear the comments about that. But our almighty deifying of "free speech" is has gone a muck and rapes and objection of the femme gender continue to abound! Hell, somebody put the breaks on.

[Jacqueline Hynes]

I stood trial for my abuser when I was ten years old and was grilled, berated, attacked full on by the defense lawyer. Now, I'm sure he was 'just doing his job' but is making a child cry and trying to twist their story around a part of the job? We all have rights, the accused have rights, and lawyers have a right to defend-Absolutely! My question I suppose is to what extent is the law utilized to achieve justice and why on one end are we forsaking evidence and on the other, pulling out the big guns to put a child accuser in their place in the name of law? How can their exist such a disconnect in how we achieve justice? We are innocent until proven guilty and this is upheld to the highest degree...However, in persecuting those who break the law, bureaucracy and an unspoken hesitation to condemn guilty parties, is the status quo...It feels (to me anyways) that as a society we are still afraid to accuse sexual predators and find them guilty. What does it mean when a rapist is found guilty? Does it reflect poorly on us as a society? Are we afraid to admit to such atrocities, wishing and hoping that if we ignore them then they don't exist? Are we, as a society, perhaps too sympathetic to sexual offenders? And I mean on a subconscious level....
(I hope my spontaneous rant makes a little sense...I've been away from the site too long and felt the urge to contribute...:)

[Sharon]

I hear ya loud and clear. I stood up to my child's pediatrician who sexually assaulted me while my son, who was in my arms at the time was in cardiac distress. And what was the focus throughout the entire proceedings at the College of Physicians & Surgeons of Ontario? Why myself of course and my sexual history. Oh and the poor doc was having marital difficulties at the time so what else was the poor guy to do but assault more than 7 moms with handicapped youngsters. And after all was said and done and I was suffering PTSD & Fybromalgia because of legalized public emotional gang rape, he was found guilty he got a whopping 3 month suspension of license, whereby he went immediately into the Ontario Court of appeals and continued to work as Head of Pediatrics at Toronto East General Hospital.

I believe as a society we just don't want to hear the not so nice stuff of life. What really enrages me though is its many of our own gender that betray us with their "oh I don't know much and you are so much smarter than I" attitudes - and I do mean a lot of femme fatales at the top of the trough too.

And had I not followed up after 18 months when I got back on my feet, he would have continued to work because as the CEO of the hospital stated "if the court of appeals overturned the tribunal (I find it interesting that you can jump from a tribunal system to a criminal system and back again - depending on how it suits you) then the hospital could be sued for wrongful dismissal. And yet at no time did the hospital warn any patients that this man was found guilty of sexual impropriety.

And I say besides eradicating our entire legal system and starting over, everyone should be considered neither guilty nor innocent until proven. That makes far more sense to me.

OK time to get off my soapbox and attend to making a living.

[Missiz]

I definitely think we are too sympathetic to sexual offenders and I think it's the simple fact of the boys club in charge. It breaks my heart to see so many of us wasting energy (financial, mental, emotional) and time responding to our anxiety about aging and weight - understandable giving the relentless onslaught of judgement thrown our way - instead of opening up more pathways of communication and support that would help us lift the cone of silence on the prevalence of this. I am now staring down my 45th birthday and at this stage, after so many quiet conversations with SO MANY women with an ugly secret to share, I believe that the real numbers are well beyond the one-in-ten reported cases and that it is probably true that one-in-two women have been raped or "sexually assaulted" in their lifetimes.
No wonder we're having trouble getting to the top of the corporate/political ladders! Anyone who knows anything about the psychological effects of rape knows how it leaves you thoroughly disarmed, colonized and crippled and with a life-long task of recovery on your shoulders.

What to do? I don't know. Take over the courts and rewrite the laws? Form a vigilante group and kill the MFs? They would surely not be missed, and their removal would certainly be best for the the overall health of the tribe.

[Lois Brown]

This seems very insightful to me

[Lois Brown]

Can this change in the political arena, when for example, models still walk the runway, looking like they are in pain? A pained expression, a sense some how that this beautiful woman is trapped - the ultimate in sexual attractiveness.

[Sharon]

Yes Lois and as long as we/our gender/females/femmes continue to buy the bulls***t that magazines offer and deifize "Sex in the City" approaches to all things successful in the femme world then nothing changes. Its up to us damn it.