Virginia Law Fail
Virginia's been letting me down lately - first a state senator claims that women whose children are disabled are being punished for previous abortions, and now this latest debacle:
The Virginia law is being interpreted to state that if a woman has consented to sex at any point in the proceedings, then it's not rape.
Ugh. I know the specifics of this case would be pretty hard to tease apart, evidence-wise: it's a he-said/she-said sort of thing, with the added complication that the sex act involved bondage, so there's no way of looking at physical marks like bruising or contusions and deciding it that way. I get how this is a hard case to crack proof-wise, but there's still a stalemate there. You don't just say "oh, she said 'yes,' our work is done here," you say "she has been truthful about the fact that the act started out consensually, let's hear the rest of the story and question the guy further."
I also recognize that in the midst of sex it can sometimes take awhile to register that your partner is hurt, or has changed their mind, especially in a bondage case. I'm willing to accept that there has to be a window to allow the other person to cotton on. You can fit a lot of "no"s and "stop"s into fifteen to thirty seconds, which seems like a reasonable window to me for someone to figure out that something is wrong and get the hell out of Dodge, so to speak. But sex is (hopefully) an act that goes on for several minutes, and one "yes" at the beginning should in no way give a green light until the deed is done.
But then, as in so many cases, it doesn't sound like it's entirely about the practical problems in prosecuting rape cases. It seems like it also has a lot to do with the male perogative to ejaculate and not be led on by pesky sluts who get a man all excited and then try to back out. Robert W. Lawrence, the defense attorney in the case, opines that "My position, personally...would be if the female consents and they start having intercourse, he has a right to finish."
A right to finish.
The reporter didn't mention what medieval Virginia law was cited, but I've sent her an inquiry by email and hopefully she'll let me know.
The Virginia law is being interpreted to state that if a woman has consented to sex at any point in the proceedings, then it's not rape.
Ugh. I know the specifics of this case would be pretty hard to tease apart, evidence-wise: it's a he-said/she-said sort of thing, with the added complication that the sex act involved bondage, so there's no way of looking at physical marks like bruising or contusions and deciding it that way. I get how this is a hard case to crack proof-wise, but there's still a stalemate there. You don't just say "oh, she said 'yes,' our work is done here," you say "she has been truthful about the fact that the act started out consensually, let's hear the rest of the story and question the guy further."
I also recognize that in the midst of sex it can sometimes take awhile to register that your partner is hurt, or has changed their mind, especially in a bondage case. I'm willing to accept that there has to be a window to allow the other person to cotton on. You can fit a lot of "no"s and "stop"s into fifteen to thirty seconds, which seems like a reasonable window to me for someone to figure out that something is wrong and get the hell out of Dodge, so to speak. But sex is (hopefully) an act that goes on for several minutes, and one "yes" at the beginning should in no way give a green light until the deed is done.
But then, as in so many cases, it doesn't sound like it's entirely about the practical problems in prosecuting rape cases. It seems like it also has a lot to do with the male perogative to ejaculate and not be led on by pesky sluts who get a man all excited and then try to back out. Robert W. Lawrence, the defense attorney in the case, opines that "My position, personally...would be if the female consents and they start having intercourse, he has a right to finish."
A right to finish.
The reporter didn't mention what medieval Virginia law was cited, but I've sent her an inquiry by email and hopefully she'll let me know.