Sunday rape linkspam
It's Sunday, guys.
Disclaimers!
1. Trigger warning! Links deal with rape; click with care.
2. I don't always agree 100% with everything contained in the links.
3. Give any comments a read-through if you have the chance.
TSA:
PNC-Minnesota Bureau's Rape Survivor Devastated by TSA Enhanced Pat Down - 11/2010
"An area Wiccan discovered first hand what most of us are still unaware of - many flyers are now being forced to choose between allowing a TSA agent to see them naked or to have their genitals touched and squeezed as part of what the TSA terms “enhanced pat downs.” Celeste, a survivor of rape, described her experience with the new TSA procedures as devastating."
The legal system:
Columbia Journal of Gender & Law's To catch a sex thief: the burden of performance in rape and sexual assault trials - 6/2006
"The exclusive focus on statutory tinkering of rape law is doomed to fail. As requirements such as the utmost resistance standard have receded, they have been replaced with cultural norms that have the same effect. (239) As long as jurors are free to inject their prejudices into rape trials, their attitudes will trump rulemaking. The jurors of today's rape trials have been molded and constructed by an array of rape stories and imagery in mainstream and pornographic media. These formative factors mean that there has been a shift from a problem of rape unawareness to rape over-awareness. Society has become saturated with rape narratives in all media forms, creating a substantial presumption against the stories of complainants. The over-signification of rape means rape myths have taken hold in virtually every prospective juror and any decent defense attorney can take advantage of those hidden attitudes. As Susan Ehrlich noted, "interpretation of progressive statutory laws is impossible to separate from the cultural backdrop against which it is interpreted." (240)
This inculcation of jurors places a burden of performance on the accuser. While the prosecution should certainly bear the burden of proof, a separate burden should not fall on those with the least advantage in a criminal trial, the complainants. Without legal representation, unless they pursue a separate civil suit, and without belief by society, accusers must put their very gender identity on trial. At the conclusion of the proceedings, the jury will not only render a verdict, they will decide if the accuser is a whore, a tease, mentally unstable, or one of the other socially-defined characters."
Alas' Rape Trials Are Gender Performances - 9/2006
"There’s a crowd of independent actors standing in between a rapist and the inside of a prison cell, and any one of them has the ability to make sure that the rapist never sees the cell. The cops who perform the arrest - or choose not to. The supervisor cop at the station, who can order the (alleged) rapist let go. The prosecutor, who can decide not to bring the rapist to trial - or to do so only on a lesser charge. The grand jury. The jury. The judge.
If the written law moves in a direction that strikes any of this crowd people as unfair or unjust, that person can resist by finding excuses not to implement the law as written. This is why the frequent suggestion (often from conservatives) that sentencing for rape be made “tougher,” or be made a capital offense, is a bad idea. If the sentence for rape is harsh enough so that many people see the sentence itself as unjust (“you can’t put a boy in jail for 30 years just because he went a little too far”), the result will be that fewer rapists will be convicted of rape."
Washington City Paper's Test Case: You're Not a Rape Victim Unless Police Say So - 4/2010
"On Saturday, Dec. 9, 2006, Hannah* woke up in her Howard University dorm room with a piece of her life missing. Hannah, a 19-year-old sophomore, had unexplained pain in her rectum and hip. Her panty liner, which she had worn the night before, was missing. Vomit dotted her gloves and coat. Her friend Kerston lay beside her in the skinny dorm room bed. Kerston told Hannah not to shower-they had to go back to the hospital to secure a rape kit. That weekend, Hannah claims that she was provided the following excuses for why she could not receive a sexual assault medical forensic examination: She was drunk; she ate a sandwich; she was a liar; she didn’t know her attacker’s last name; the police had to authorize the exam; she was outside the hospital’s jurisdiction; she wasn’t reporting a real crime; she was blacked out; she changed her story; her case was already closed. "
Consent:
SMH's It takes two... - 11/2010
"Some people want to insist consent is complicated, but it does not need to be. Most of the ''what ifs …'' evaporate when you think about sex as a collaboration rather than a battle. If the desired outcome is mutually enjoyable sex (however the participants define that), then only enthusiastic participation throughout will do. I am not suggesting anything other than that is rape, but not-rape should not be the ethical standard we set ourselves or teach to young people.
For those still confused about the difference between collaborative, enthusiastically engaged-in sex and possibly-legally-defensible-not-rape, consider the words of ''Clare'', the young woman who unleashed a storm of debate when she spoke about her experience in a New Zealand hotel room with 12 rugby league footballers: ''They never spoke to me, they spoke just to themselves, amongst themselves, laughing and thinking it was really funny. When you have sex with someone … it's nice and you talk and you touch and this was awful. This was nothing like that.'' A human being was ignored, talked over, laughed at and about during ''consensual'' sex. A human being was left traumatised and suicidal after ''consensual'' sex. Does the fact that the police decided not to press charges against the men make this OK? What if she said yes? What if she did not struggle? What if she was drunk? What ''what if'' would make you feel OK about having this kind of sex?"
Reproductive coercion:
The Curvature's Reproductive Coercion is Sexual Violence - 1/2010
"Yes, reproductive coercion is an indicator of an abusive relationship.
How can I say that with certainty? Because reproductive coercion is abuse. It’s abuse because taking control of another person’s body (without their free and enthusiastic consent) is always abuse. And the last time I checked, abuse within a relationship made that relationship abusive. Indeed, the last time I checked, abuse which took on a sexual nature was sexual violence."
The Problem:
"As for the rape charge -- meh, I'm inclined to believe his story, it took two to tango, etc. " - (link)
"rape is never the victim's fault. that being said, I do think everyone should be more on guard and aware to protect themselves better." - ( link)
"We don't know all the facts, and WEIRD things happen. I served briefly (as an enlisted assistant lawyer) in the Judge Advocate General's office at Fort Lee, VA about 15 years ago. They had a gang rape case against 4 enlisted men. Facts of the case were that the girl had let about 12 guys pull a "train" on her, and decided afterwards that she did not want to have sex with #4, #7, #9, and #11. When I expressed shock at the seeming inanity, and they told me that it is actually fairly common for it to go down like this, and that these things are ALWAYS murder to prosecute." - (link)
Disclaimers!
1. Trigger warning! Links deal with rape; click with care.
2. I don't always agree 100% with everything contained in the links.
3. Give any comments a read-through if you have the chance.
TSA:
PNC-Minnesota Bureau's Rape Survivor Devastated by TSA Enhanced Pat Down - 11/2010
"An area Wiccan discovered first hand what most of us are still unaware of - many flyers are now being forced to choose between allowing a TSA agent to see them naked or to have their genitals touched and squeezed as part of what the TSA terms “enhanced pat downs.” Celeste, a survivor of rape, described her experience with the new TSA procedures as devastating."
The legal system:
Columbia Journal of Gender & Law's To catch a sex thief: the burden of performance in rape and sexual assault trials - 6/2006
"The exclusive focus on statutory tinkering of rape law is doomed to fail. As requirements such as the utmost resistance standard have receded, they have been replaced with cultural norms that have the same effect. (239) As long as jurors are free to inject their prejudices into rape trials, their attitudes will trump rulemaking. The jurors of today's rape trials have been molded and constructed by an array of rape stories and imagery in mainstream and pornographic media. These formative factors mean that there has been a shift from a problem of rape unawareness to rape over-awareness. Society has become saturated with rape narratives in all media forms, creating a substantial presumption against the stories of complainants. The over-signification of rape means rape myths have taken hold in virtually every prospective juror and any decent defense attorney can take advantage of those hidden attitudes. As Susan Ehrlich noted, "interpretation of progressive statutory laws is impossible to separate from the cultural backdrop against which it is interpreted." (240)
This inculcation of jurors places a burden of performance on the accuser. While the prosecution should certainly bear the burden of proof, a separate burden should not fall on those with the least advantage in a criminal trial, the complainants. Without legal representation, unless they pursue a separate civil suit, and without belief by society, accusers must put their very gender identity on trial. At the conclusion of the proceedings, the jury will not only render a verdict, they will decide if the accuser is a whore, a tease, mentally unstable, or one of the other socially-defined characters."
Alas' Rape Trials Are Gender Performances - 9/2006
"There’s a crowd of independent actors standing in between a rapist and the inside of a prison cell, and any one of them has the ability to make sure that the rapist never sees the cell. The cops who perform the arrest - or choose not to. The supervisor cop at the station, who can order the (alleged) rapist let go. The prosecutor, who can decide not to bring the rapist to trial - or to do so only on a lesser charge. The grand jury. The jury. The judge.
If the written law moves in a direction that strikes any of this crowd people as unfair or unjust, that person can resist by finding excuses not to implement the law as written. This is why the frequent suggestion (often from conservatives) that sentencing for rape be made “tougher,” or be made a capital offense, is a bad idea. If the sentence for rape is harsh enough so that many people see the sentence itself as unjust (“you can’t put a boy in jail for 30 years just because he went a little too far”), the result will be that fewer rapists will be convicted of rape."
Washington City Paper's Test Case: You're Not a Rape Victim Unless Police Say So - 4/2010
"On Saturday, Dec. 9, 2006, Hannah* woke up in her Howard University dorm room with a piece of her life missing. Hannah, a 19-year-old sophomore, had unexplained pain in her rectum and hip. Her panty liner, which she had worn the night before, was missing. Vomit dotted her gloves and coat. Her friend Kerston lay beside her in the skinny dorm room bed. Kerston told Hannah not to shower-they had to go back to the hospital to secure a rape kit. That weekend, Hannah claims that she was provided the following excuses for why she could not receive a sexual assault medical forensic examination: She was drunk; she ate a sandwich; she was a liar; she didn’t know her attacker’s last name; the police had to authorize the exam; she was outside the hospital’s jurisdiction; she wasn’t reporting a real crime; she was blacked out; she changed her story; her case was already closed. "
Consent:
SMH's It takes two... - 11/2010
"Some people want to insist consent is complicated, but it does not need to be. Most of the ''what ifs …'' evaporate when you think about sex as a collaboration rather than a battle. If the desired outcome is mutually enjoyable sex (however the participants define that), then only enthusiastic participation throughout will do. I am not suggesting anything other than that is rape, but not-rape should not be the ethical standard we set ourselves or teach to young people.
For those still confused about the difference between collaborative, enthusiastically engaged-in sex and possibly-legally-defensible-not-rape, consider the words of ''Clare'', the young woman who unleashed a storm of debate when she spoke about her experience in a New Zealand hotel room with 12 rugby league footballers: ''They never spoke to me, they spoke just to themselves, amongst themselves, laughing and thinking it was really funny. When you have sex with someone … it's nice and you talk and you touch and this was awful. This was nothing like that.'' A human being was ignored, talked over, laughed at and about during ''consensual'' sex. A human being was left traumatised and suicidal after ''consensual'' sex. Does the fact that the police decided not to press charges against the men make this OK? What if she said yes? What if she did not struggle? What if she was drunk? What ''what if'' would make you feel OK about having this kind of sex?"
Reproductive coercion:
The Curvature's Reproductive Coercion is Sexual Violence - 1/2010
"Yes, reproductive coercion is an indicator of an abusive relationship.
How can I say that with certainty? Because reproductive coercion is abuse. It’s abuse because taking control of another person’s body (without their free and enthusiastic consent) is always abuse. And the last time I checked, abuse within a relationship made that relationship abusive. Indeed, the last time I checked, abuse which took on a sexual nature was sexual violence."
The Problem:
"As for the rape charge -- meh, I'm inclined to believe his story, it took two to tango, etc. " - (link)
"rape is never the victim's fault. that being said, I do think everyone should be more on guard and aware to protect themselves better." - ( link)
"We don't know all the facts, and WEIRD things happen. I served briefly (as an enlisted assistant lawyer) in the Judge Advocate General's office at Fort Lee, VA about 15 years ago. They had a gang rape case against 4 enlisted men. Facts of the case were that the girl had let about 12 guys pull a "train" on her, and decided afterwards that she did not want to have sex with #4, #7, #9, and #11. When I expressed shock at the seeming inanity, and they told me that it is actually fairly common for it to go down like this, and that these things are ALWAYS murder to prosecute." - (link)