Secular Sanity said:Um...we have rape shield laws. You can be a prostitute and still win your case.
I'm pretty sure it was in the twenty-first century, but it's an old reference I'm trying to dig up about a judge in the Seattle area who took heat over dismissing a rape charge because putting a gun to a woman's head and raping her is merely theft of services if she is known or believed to be a prostitute.
And you would think that would be a one-off weird memory from the past, but Mary Mitchell, the Chicago Sun-Times columnist, decided to revive that point in September, stirring the inevitable controversy↱, resulting in a situation whereby the newspaper itself is now shielding the hyperlink under a frame template because of the number of complaints (www.donotlink.com/framed?7777032↱).
A sample of Mitchell's rape advocacy on behalf of a man who raped a prostitute at gunpoint:
I imagine most prostitutes in this situation would have run straight to a pimp. But after leaving Akins' home in the 1100 block of North Lawler, the unidentified 24-year-old woman called the police.
Akins is now being held on $750,00 bail, charged with aggravated criminal sexual assault.
I don't have one iota of sympathy for Akins' plight. But I'm grateful he isn't being accused of snatching an innocent woman off the street.
Akins is now being held on $750,00 bail, charged with aggravated criminal sexual assault.
I don't have one iota of sympathy for Akins' plight. But I'm grateful he isn't being accused of snatching an innocent woman off the street.
Nothing like slut-shaming a rape survivor, you know?
Ms. Mitchell is grateful that Mr. Akins' victim is only a prostitute.
It gets even worse:
Unfortunately, the way this case is being handled makes it look like sex trafficking is a legitimate business.
I'm not one of those women who believe rape victims are at fault because they dressed too provocatively or misled some randy guy into thinking it was his lucky night.
But when you agree to meet a strange man in a strange place for the purpose of having strange sex for money, you are putting yourself at risk for harm.
It's tough to see this unidentified prostitute as a victim. And because this incident is being charged as a criminal sexual assault―when it's actually more like theft of services―it minimizes the act of rape.
I'm not one of those women who believe rape victims are at fault because they dressed too provocatively or misled some randy guy into thinking it was his lucky night.
But when you agree to meet a strange man in a strange place for the purpose of having strange sex for money, you are putting yourself at risk for harm.
It's tough to see this unidentified prostitute as a victim. And because this incident is being charged as a criminal sexual assault―when it's actually more like theft of services―it minimizes the act of rape.
In spirit, your point is correct. To the other, I've seen circumstances in our courts that would dispute it, and just two months ago a signature columnist at one of the nation's journalistic institutions put it on the editorial page.
One of the things I sometimes say about rape culture is that the point is to find any excuse to force a woman to have sex. This is one of those examples.
It's not hard to imagine how someone comes to think like that. To the other, it's also a fairly acute portrait of a key component of rape culture known in my political circles by a derisive name, the Guardians of Female Chastity. The underlying thesis seems to be that if women were more respectable, they wouldn't be raped.
And this is really important; we can file it under "contempt for, or ingrained prejudice against women"↗. And I keep thinking back to a post I wrote↗ in 2013, in which GFC plays a huge role:
(1) Amanda Marcotte considers a juxtaposition of violence against women and violence against animals, suggesting the culture shows greater respect to a cat than a human female.
(2) Simon Tedeschi considers the rape and murder of Jill Meagher in the context of rape culture, including thoughts toward "the inevitable questions about where and with whom she was before it happened", and the point that while we men are "not all rapists" it is still true that "most of us tacitly condone the cultural framework that allows rape to happen". He noted, "Jill Meagher, even in death, was maligned by the protectors of female chastity for daring to venture out by herself at night time".
(3) Daily Kos compiled coverage of how the University of North Carolina told a rape survivor, "rape is like football, and if you look back on the game what would you have done differently in that situation". A senior associate dean of students came to the aid of the accused rapist. Also, the University tried to expel the survivor.
(4) HuffPo reports on CNN's focus, in the Stubenville rape case, on the tragedy of how the rapist's life is wrecked. The survivor and her family, in Poppy Harlow's broadcast, were quite literally an afterthought.
(5) Recollections of a 2008 IPA/GFC discussion↗.
(6) Anna Minard on IPA itself.
(7) A European report on an Italian priest, Fr. Piero Corsi, posting a Christmas message on the door of his church blaming women's lack of respectability for domestic, intimate, and sexual violence.
(8) News reports regarding rape in India, including an attorney explaining, "Until today I have not seen a single incident or example of rape with a respected lady", and, "Even an underworld don would not like to touch a girl with respect". In that case, the woman was raped to death. Another infamous case from the same period heard a police spokesperson actually blaming a rape victim for being in an area where there aren't enough women.
(2) Simon Tedeschi considers the rape and murder of Jill Meagher in the context of rape culture, including thoughts toward "the inevitable questions about where and with whom she was before it happened", and the point that while we men are "not all rapists" it is still true that "most of us tacitly condone the cultural framework that allows rape to happen". He noted, "Jill Meagher, even in death, was maligned by the protectors of female chastity for daring to venture out by herself at night time".
(3) Daily Kos compiled coverage of how the University of North Carolina told a rape survivor, "rape is like football, and if you look back on the game what would you have done differently in that situation". A senior associate dean of students came to the aid of the accused rapist. Also, the University tried to expel the survivor.
(4) HuffPo reports on CNN's focus, in the Stubenville rape case, on the tragedy of how the rapist's life is wrecked. The survivor and her family, in Poppy Harlow's broadcast, were quite literally an afterthought.
(5) Recollections of a 2008 IPA/GFC discussion↗.
(6) Anna Minard on IPA itself.
(7) A European report on an Italian priest, Fr. Piero Corsi, posting a Christmas message on the door of his church blaming women's lack of respectability for domestic, intimate, and sexual violence.
(8) News reports regarding rape in India, including an attorney explaining, "Until today I have not seen a single incident or example of rape with a respected lady", and, "Even an underworld don would not like to touch a girl with respect". In that case, the woman was raped to death. Another infamous case from the same period heard a police spokesperson actually blaming a rape victim for being in an area where there aren't enough women.
And that last, actually, really does seem to call out another point; as I recently noted↗, "If you set a low enough bar, everyone and everything passes". It is easy enough to say one has "not seen a single incident or example of rape with a respected lady" if one sets a high enough bar for what counts as a respected lady, and a low enough bar for disqualifying that respectability.
And as one of our neighbors recently advised↗, "Sometimes it's easier to see in a foreign culture, sort of training your ear by starting with jarring or obvious examples rather than the stuff you've grown used to as background in the US, like in your church".
In truth, I think what makes it stand out so strongly in memory is the nature of recent↑ inquiries↗ seem to be taking place within a pretense of ignorance, as if none of this is going on.
There is a reason why our inquiring neighbor is ignoring what people tell him; I mean, look at this thread. If he is so unfamiliar with the proposition of rape culture, as he implies in his topic post, then why ignore people's responses in order to post well-worn talking points?
I call it square zero, when dragging everything back to square one is insufficient becasue we need to regress even further. The topic post inquires according to a pretense of ignorance about a subject. Responses are given, but ignored; rather, the allegedly ignorant topic poster starts deploying arguments against the proposition of rape culture based not on the answers people are offering, instead looking to long-familiar denunciations, a spectral caricature custom-built so they can wail about #NotAllMen.
To wit―
• "Rape culture is a term to describe collectively beliefs and behaviors within a societal culture contributing to rape."↑
↳ "I believe we are entering a radical element with the "Rape Culture" rally call. It truly makes men, all men, look like savages by nature. It's an insult to our gender and to our culture. I don't buy into it. Nonetheless, thank you for citing your examples in contrast."↑
Notice how the reply ignores the offered definition in order to assert a pre-existing outlook on rape culture that betrays the pretense of ignorance.
The purpose is to spend as little effort as possible shouting variations on #NotAllMen, while you do all the work.
You and I have disputed aspects of these issues before, and one difference 'twixt then and now―it seems important enough to note―is that you didn't bother pretending to have no clue what I was talking about.
It's kind of hard to figure the current discussion some of our neighbors are trying to foster; it seems, approximately, "I don't know what this is, but let me tell you all about it."
Except, well, that can't possibly be.
Can it?
Because that would be stupid.
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Notes:
Image note: Detail of cover art for Appetite for Destruction by Guns 'n' Roses (Geffen, 1987).
Hanson, Hilary. "Columnist Calls Gunpoint Rape Of Sex Worker 'Theft Of Services'". The Huffington Post. 14 September 2015. HuffingtonPost.com. 14 September 2015. http://huff.to/1Muaihu
Mitchell, Mary. "Rape case sends mixed messages on prostitution". Chicago Sun-Times. 12 September 2015. Chicago.SunTimes.com. 14 November 2015. http://bit.ly/1NT01QC