The (Short) Idiot’s Guide to Rape
Published by Antigone July 1st, 2008 in Punkass!I seem to have some difficulty communicating to my friends, and other people online, on what “rape” really is. Rape is when one person is forced to have sex against his/her will. Generally, females are the victims of rape and men are the aggressors, but that is not always true. Men can rape other men. Women can rape other women. Women can rape men.
Rape is not a crime of lust. It is a crime of power and dominance. It is no way a compliment.
It is rape if, even if the person raped:
Was wearing reveling clothing.
Was inebriated
Has had sex in the past
Has had consensual sex in the past with the same person
Was from a lower income strata
Was/is considered promiscuous
Has been raped before
Was/is a horrible person
Was walking alone down a dark street
Was at a frat party
Was passed out
Invited the rapist up to his/her place
There is no guaranteed “safe person” to be around. It is not known ahead of time who will rape, or try to rape you. It is foolish to say that a person “should have known” that the rapist was going to rape him/her, or that s/he was going to be raped if they went to X place.
People who can rape include:
Husbands
Wives
Boyfriends
Girlfriends
Employers
Employees
Coworkers
Friends
Enemies
Pastors
Fellow Church-goers
Fellow Students
Professors
Teachers
Mothers
Fathers
Aunts
Uncles
Grandfathers
Grandmothers
Brothers
Sisters
Cousins
Next door neighbors
Complete fucking strangers
There is no magical block in order to avoid being raped. The only thing that can stop rape is if we stop rapists, not victims of rape.
That is all.
That was succinct yet brilliant. If I wasn’t typing this from my stupid work-issued CrackBerry I’d be even more eloquent about how much I liked it. Awesome!
You’d think this stuff would be fairly common knowledge. When my friends say things like “Well, she shouldn’t have went to the frat party- what does she think happens there?” I always come back with “Yes, you’re absolutely right. Rape is a totally appropraite punishment for wanting to go have fun at a party. And, it’s not like she would have looked like a paranoid nutcase if she said she didn’t want to go because people get raped at parties.”
And, it’s not like she would have looked like a paranoid nutcase if she said she didn’t want to go because people get raped at parties.
She’s probably lying about being raped anyway. She woke up in the morning and decided the sex she had the night before wasn’t good enough, so she’s throwing rape accusations around like bitches do. I know the guys at that party and they would never rape anyone. How dare she call them rapists?
Lying bitch.
Well done. Sad that there need to be so many idiot’s guides in this world, but there you have it.
Luckily, stupid has an interesting tendency to out itself. And with a name like Junk Science, I might almost wonder if that person is simply being extremely sarcastic in the least appropriate setting and time.
Or, you know, they’re just stupid and needing of a beating.
Junk Science is being sarcastic. S/he’s a regular- he talks like that.
Have you submitted this to the Finally a Feminism 101 site?
It’s a shame we still need blog posts like this, but I’m glad you wrote it.
I realize now that it’s not completely unheard of for comments virtually identical to the one I made to be said in earnest. I just wanted to throw out some rape apologist cliches and figured no one would take that level of bare-assed stupidity seriously.
JS,
It’s okay, I knew what you were doing. It’s just sad that people do say that seriously.