Comment

Some thoughts on 'sex by surprise'

6
iceweasel12/07/2010 12:57:47 pm PST

re: #5 LudwigVanQuixote

The point I am making is:

This is why there will never be a solution. Say 9/10 accused rapists are guilty as sin, scumballs who deserve the worst punishments. 1/10 is not in that category. All 10 out of 10 have only one defense option, which is to counter attack the credibility of the woman.

I am not saying that I like the intractable problem and I am not saying that I think it is a good thing. I am certainly very sympathetic to the woman who was victimized and then re-victimized in court. I simply don’t see how this can be avoided.

There’s two different issues here: how an individual criminal defendant responds (attack the credibility of the victim, obv) and how we as a society think of, talk about, and punish sexual assault. The first is the one you’re (probably correctly) pointing out is intractable. The other is not.

And even in re 1— it’s not as intractable as all that. We now have some laws about victim’s prior sexual histories or clothing say being irrelevant. We now acknowledge that prostitutes can be raped, and wives. We now notice media narratives that engage in slutshaming. Things can change, even if slowly.

there’s an awful lot of nutty ‘this is the kinda crazee law you get when you put wimminz in charge!’ going on in the wingnut sphere today, for example. It’s going to be interesting to see how many of the same wingnuts who want to see him assassinated by the CIA suddenly decide he’s a Code Penis Freedom Fighter.

RSM already has a post up about the Feministe post and it’s filled with all the sort of hawhaw, who wants to wear a raincoat good-ole-boy backslapping that you’d expect.

(for the record, i don’t really care about assange at all nor have I been following it— too busy!— but these are important issues).

sorry this is all over the place— multitasking. hope you’re well!