The Steubenville rape case highlighted the disgusting phenomenon of men who seem to think that they can do anything to women who are unconscious due to having drunk too much, and of communities who seem to condone such behavior if the perpetrators of such rapes are prominent athletes. It seems as if people think that when a woman is unconscious, she has no rights or dignity.
The group Anonymous was instrumental in creating enough fuss about this incident that it could not be hushed up and as a result at least two of the perpetrators went to trial and were found guilty. A grand jury is investigating further. Here is one such video put out by Anonymous.
A young woman in Nova Scotia recently committed suicide (note: audio begins immediately) following an episode in which she said that she was raped while drunk and then was shamed by the perpetrators, with the authorities not taking any action.
This short video was produced in response to such events and is worth watching.
I am so proud of the Anons for this. You may have come from 4Chan, but you are not like them. Help us Anons, you are our only hope. So sad that they should be the last hope we have.
I’ve never understood the lackadaisical attitude so many Americans have toward rape. What if it were your sister, daughter, wife, mother, etc.?
Matt:
There is so much more going on than this. It isn’t just lackadaisical (if it is at all). This is part of rape culture. Minimizing the harm of rape.
A lack of understanding of the harm of rape.
A lack of comprehension of bodily autonomy.
A lack of understanding of why bodily autonomy is important.
Misogyny.
Inconsistent respect (at best) for human life.
Gender essentialism.
Toxic masculinity.
and so much more.
On a personal level, I never thought much of rape until I came to FreethoughtBlogs. I had no concept of it. I was privileged to never have to worry about it. Rape never entered the sphere of my little world. Then I started reading. I started learning. I started listening. I heard horrific stories women told about their rape. I read stories in the media of rape. I started to actually imagine what it would be like to be raped.
I was horrified.
I *am* horrified.
I am disgusted that anyone would commit such an act against anyone else.
Rape is the ultimate in dehumanization of another person.
I suspect there is no single solution for the prevalence of rape around the world (as an aside, it is not just Americans who face rape as a significant social problem). There are many factors involved in this, and thus, there are many ways to approach the problem.
One of the first is to respect and recognize the full rights and bodily autonomy of women everywhere.
Indeed. Without discounting the deeper issues, I think a lot of progress would be made if everyone just obeyed Wheaton’s Law: Don’t Be a Dick.
What if it were you?
I don’t know what the level of homosexual rape is in US prisons, but there are certainly a lot of jiokes made about it and people seem to think it is a punishment/perk guaranteed by the constitution.
I’ve also come across arguments that if someone is raped while they are unconscious it isn’t really rape as they don’t know about it. Apart from the fact they may find out- see Heinrich von Kleist’s Die Marquise von O-- it raises the question of why we investigate murder- someone who has been murdered, by definition, cannot be aware of it.