first period off... what a useless piece.
god. woke up, roads sucked, went to school. late for stat test, so i had to trade fourth off for ungodly first.
So. since everyone's putting their two cents in about the whole assembly thing, i thought i would contribute to the pot.
First off, the senior class had absolutely no respect for Katie. It was rather frustrating, and when certain people started talking, i really just kept thinking "please stop." That's all I could think of. I just wished they would stop. It was embarrassing, and it hurt.
However. About the actual subject of the assembly. A couple things. First off, it was pretty clear that, if, in the story, Todd is sober, he raped Amy. Clear, cut, dry. Case closed. It doesn't matter that Todd says Amy came on to him every time. He raped her because Amy clearly was not capable of a rational decision. Todd raped her by definition.
However, Todd had 5 beers between 10 and 12. I'm not sure of the mechanics of getting plastered, but I'm assuming he could have been somewhat impaired himself. And this case is a "He said, She said" affair. And since the "She said" can't remember anything past the 2nd jello shot, the "He said" should be assumed true unless other evidence says otherwise. I know, he could have knocked her out at the bushes, taken her back to his love lair and ravaged her, and nobody could refute that because Amy couldn't remember anything, but we live in a country where people are innocent until proven guilty, not the other way around. All we know is what Todd says, and nobody can really say anything otherwise. Now, had Todd been drunk, meaning that he couldn't make a rational decision, which is entirely possible, and the facts we have are that Amy grabbed him when he went to leave, kissed him, then puked, and then went to kiss him again, passed out, woke up, and told Todd that they should "do it", then, given the facts, Amy raped Todd. Neither was capable of making a rational decision, and Amy was the initiator ALL 3 TIMES. And, unfortunately, Todd being able to remember is not necessarily an indicator of unimpaired judgement. Todd could have very well been impaired. In that case, Todd got taken advantage of, and then was accused for the crime committed upon him.
Unfortunately, nobody thinks of the guy getting taken advantage of. And I suppose some of that is because Todd was fine with what happened and Amy wasn't. However, part of it is because rape is a VERY female-centric thing. And that's mostly fair. The numbers are something like 94% of rape victims are women, or something like that. However, rape, by definition, is biased against men. Most definitions at the legal level require "penetration". Now, if the definition of rape is that the victim is penetrated without consent, and in normal heterosexual sex the man is never penetrated, a man is, by definition, NEVER the victim of rape. I know it's not the intent of the law, nor is it enforced that way, but the very wording of how rape is defined is female-centric. So, the law is correct in 94% of cases, but is utterly biased in the other 6%. Sucks for the rape victims, huh?
My whole point in this is that when talking about this, people are very willing to see one side of the argument. Yes, under a certain set of circumstances, Todd is VERY guilty of the crime he is accused of. However, under another set, Amy gets away with getting drunk and basically committing two sexual assaults and rape because Todd wasn't considered impaired. She even gets her underage drinking punishment reduced because she implicated Todd. And, yes, Todd was probably just looking for sex once Amy convinced him to stay at her apartment. Yes, Todd probably waited around while she was passed out just to get some. However, Todd could have been making JUST as alcohol-addled decisions as Amy was when she got plastered, grabbed Todd to make him to stay, and initiated sex. Yes, rape is not a crime of intent. However it doesn't only apply to men.
And please. I hope nobody misspells "difference of opinion" by typing "male chauvinist pig".