Hardly an odd claim. It often comes up in these kind of discussions. Ya know stuff like "forcible rape" "legitimate rape"Originally Posted by gigawuts
Well for a start you could try having an emphasis on consent as part of sex education.
They already teach that. I remember it myself. They also have ads on TV. They also teach us not to steal, not to kill, not to do all sorts of things that are still done.
We don't live in a "rape culture." We don't even live in a culture of "it's only illegal if I get caught." We now live in a culture of "it's only illegal if I get punished." That's the problem. Rape, like many other things, is a symptom, not the disease.
The same "preaching to the choir" argument could be made about the NSA claim (which...really has nothing to do with this topic): it's not like any of us condone the unconstitutional spying on of our citizens. I can't directly do a damn thing about it. But that doesn't mean I can't raise awareness to the problem and the real damage it can cause. That's the biggest way I can fight back against inconsequential attitudes held in this country, and well, I personally can relate to the topic of sexual abuse far more than I can about the fallacies of the US government. I've been personally affected by sexual abuse and the original article hits home with me, and I can speak to it in ways I can't about the NSA. Doesn't mean I don't care about the latter and quite frankly that has nothing to do with anything. I intended this topic merely to raise awareness to how deep and severe our global attitudes toward rape can run.
None of that has anything to do with knowing every single about a case or how I feel about a completely unrelated topic. The fact is that a girl killed herself either directly or indirectly due to sexual abuse, which is NEVER deserved, and the judge's initial reaction sickened me. For the record, that apology just sounds like a bunch of PR bullshit to me,
PSO2: Cocona - GU/HU / FI/HU / BO/HU
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Holy butts, I type words on them there Tumblrs
Oh god look a Twitters too
You're not the one I'm taking issue with, though. There's nothing mindless or regurgitated about what you've said.
Scejntjynahl, on the other hand, decided this was tumblr.
Well, that's a new one. Though I'm not necessarily against the concept - I can see myself applying the term to some people from my last few Falz runs.
Fair enough; sorry for any misunderstanding. I think the ultimate solution will have to come from a long-term cultural shift, which I believe we're already a part of. That includes raising awareness to the issue and making sex-ed actually useful, as a start. There's not a lot we can do in the immediate sense other than this, and of course teaching our future children the right things. Not placing blame on anyone in particular, but throwing around the semantics of terms and other superficial shit accomplishes nothing.
PSO2: Cocona - GU/HU / FI/HU / BO/HU
--AR PHANTASY - PSO2 Fanfic! [Updated 05-21-14]--
Holy butts, I type words on them there Tumblrs
Oh god look a Twitters too
I have to say, I really don't think we know enough about the situation given the article and such. The suicide is irrelevant information that shouldn't even be considered in the case.
"Underage girl raped." From what I read, this would have been "consensual" if of course the victim was old enough to give consent. Though the victim seemed to have regretted this years latter, which could be for any number of reasons, reasons that could be completely unrelated to the rape itself, such as the man no longer wanting to see the victim. Actually, I am wondering if the victim actually approached the man first in this situation.
The judge then decided that the man would not do this again, and preferred for him to seek treatment, thinking that he already knew that his actions were wrong. Simply being put in a situation where he was unable to control himself when the victim was pressuring him to perform the "rape."
Of course, I am just going off of the facts contained in the article, and trying to present them from another angle. I would have to read more to know what actually happened, to know if my imaginary scenario makes sense.
Oh Christ.
Okay, here is everybody's homework: Don't go spouting off about whether or not rape culture does or does not exist until you've done some reading - any reading - on the topic of rape culture. You do not know something about a topic simply because you have an opinion on it. Just because the idea of rape culture sounds idiotic to you does not mean there is no basis of truth behind it.
We live in a culture in which 1 in 4 women will experience a rape or rape attempt in their lives. We live in a culture in which almost 50% of rapes and sexual assaults aren't reported. We live in a culture in which only around 3% of rapists will ever go to jail for their crime. We live in a culture in which male politicians can tell a women whether or not what they've experienced counts as "legitimate rape." We live in a culture in which people who are raped are not treated as victims but instead as somebody who brought this crime upon themselves.
That is rape culture. Yes, most people think that rape is bad (or claim to think it's bad), but that doesn't change the world we live in. By the numbers, we have rape survivors on this forum. By the numbers, we have rapists on this forum. Don't try to belittle the situation. If it doesn't affect you then I don't understand why you're bothering to post.
Choosing to ignore the issue, especially when it is ingrained in our culture, does not fix anything. Talking about the issue and learning how to change attitudes and laws is how we fix it.
But if you want to try and feel like you're above it all and turn this into a pointless semantics argument, then please don't waste our time. Does it really matter so much whether or not we call it "rape culture" or "hey there are still a lot of people in our culture who don't understand that rape is bad"? If you're more upset about the terminology being used than you are about the problem at hand, you are part of the problem. You are sidelining the real issues because you don't want to talk about them. You are not helping.
The same goes for victim blaming. You are not adding to the discussion or making yourself look smart by trying to play devil's advocate or claim that maybe this guy's rape isn't as bad as everybody thinks it is. Moving forward, you should play this game next time you want to blame a victim or try to imply that they weren't as victimized as much as everybody thinks they were: assume that you're wrong. Maybe you're not! Maybe you're absolutely right and everybody is making a big deal out of a false claim or trumped up charge. But just go through the thought experiment and realize this: If you are wrong, you are targeting the victim of an awful, life-changing experience and accusing them of lying about it. If you are wrong, you are contributing to the cultural pressure that makes people feel they shouldn't report a rape because nobody will believe them. You can tell people not to jump the gun before everything has come to light, but if all is said and done and you have to make up reasons for why the crime may not be as bad as it's been publicly reported, you're not helping anybody and at best you're making yourself look like a dolt while at worse you're making yourself look like a sexist idiot. Thinking twice about potentially hurtful claims can prevent you from looking idiotic OR sexist!
I'm going to close this thread for everybody's benefit, but let me be clear here: the above will be true for any future threads on this topic. Do not try to derail these kinds of discussions by trying to make them about something else. Do not try and make this about blaming the victim. Do not try to tell people that this isn't an issue that should be discussed. That's not acceptable in the best of situations, and it certainly isn't acceptable here. End of story.
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