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The sex myth

1235710

Comments

  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 548 ✭✭✭Three Seasons


    Trudiha wrote: »
    It is. It suggests that the sensible don't get raped and that if only the victim had behaved in a different way, she wouldn't be a victim. That's suggesting that the victim had control over the actions of her attacker or was responsible for the actions of her attacker.

    It's like talking to a brick wall at this stage.

    They are just looking out for their safety, they aren't blaming anyone other than the rapist.

    I get the impression there is some sort of guilt complex going on in your head.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,223 ✭✭✭Michael D Not Higgins


    we shouldn't expect no one to Ron either, that's why we should lick our front doors.

    Sorry to make light of this thoroughly derailed thread but

    haha autocorrect fail.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,666 ✭✭✭Rosy Posy


    You're conflating so much there to come up with a ridiculous answer. It's the rapist's fault.
    The reason the other stuff ever comes up is in non- or less-violent cases where there is little evidence other that one persons' word against another and it's a matter of criminal guilt or not.

    Of course it's the rapists fault. But trust me, our society and our communities do not see it that way.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 5,943 ✭✭✭smcgiff


    Trudiha wrote: »
    It is. It suggests that the sensible don't get raped and that if only the victim had behaved in a different way, she wouldn't be a victim. That's suggesting that the victim had control over the actions of her attacker or was responsible for the actions of her attacker.

    It's not. Opportunist Rapists exist. It is no fault of the person raped that that opportunist rapists exist. They have no control over the actions of the rapist, only the rapist has control over their actions.


  • Registered Users Posts: 235 ✭✭Trudiha


    smcgiff wrote: »
    Assange is in the middle of a trial - he'll put forward as best a defence he can to mitigate his sentence. Of course he's going to say he doesn't think it was rape.

    Your logic is flawed re the two teenage boys. They would have known it was wrong, but thought it would be accepted amongst their close circle of friends. Two different things.

    Besides, in your post above you said MOST - I don't believe that for a minute.

    I said that it was my experience with most of the abusers I've worked with. I didn't claim to have worked with all abusers. Of course, I can't look into anyone's soul and tell you want they are really thinking but I'm fairly experienced in calling abusers on their behaviour and I honestly think that the majority of abusers who've told me that they didn't think they were doing anything wrong were sincere.

    Most abusers aren't psychopaths, most have a level of empathy, many have sisters, wives, lovers or daughters who they wouldn't want to see raped. Many think that other rapists are gob****es. They think that they aren't rapists because ...fill in the blank supplied by rape culture...


  • Posts: 25,611 ✭✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    Rosy Posy wrote: »
    Of course it's the rapists fault. But trust me, our society and our communities do not see it that way.

    Oh well when you put it like that...


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 5,943 ✭✭✭smcgiff


    Trudiha wrote: »
    I said that it was my experience with most of the abusers I've worked with. I didn't claim to have worked with all abusers.

    And I was only pointing out that your assertions were not what I expect to be the general case.

    However, you mentioned two cases were you believed the rapist didn't think they were rapists or doing wrong and I think I've debunked your assertions. You might not agree with my analysis of course.


  • Registered Users Posts: 235 ✭✭Trudiha


    It's like talking to a brick wall at this stage.

    They are just looking out for their safety, they aren't blaming anyone other than the rapist.

    You're not looking out for the victim, you're simply trying to change the victim to one that's more exposed or vulnerable. Cover up the woman you know and the attacker will go and find one with a shorter skirt or who's a bit drunker. What do you think is the logical conclusion of this, that women are all held under lock and key?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,812 ✭✭✭✭sbsquarepants


    Trudiha wrote: »
    It is. It suggests that the sensible don't get raped and that if only the victim had behaved in a different way, she wouldn't be a victim. That's suggesting that the victim had control over the actions of her attacker or was responsible for the actions of her attacker.

    You're deliberately missing the point.

    If i bling myself up and hang around some dodgy part of town and then get robbed, it is the fault of the robber but most people (quite sensibly) will say i shouldn't have done that, and whereas it doesn't clear the robber of guilt or lessen his guilt in anyway - i did put myself in harms way and that is a stupid thing to do. The same analogy holds for rape, murder, mugging, assaults, attack by wild animals you name it.
    It is sensible to try to avoid harmfull situations - anyone who has a problem with this advice is deluded! We all have to look out for ourselves, putting ourselves in the way of danger because we should be able to is mad!
    I should be able to move to afghanistan and open a deli called uncle sams star spangled tasty treats - but i wouldn't because it would be dangerous. Surely you can see that point?


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,455 ✭✭✭tritium


    Dammit, enough, this is just tiring. Like another poster said it's like talking to a brick wall. Just using the phrase rape culture over and over won't make it any truer. Frankly it's disrespectful to real victims of rape to use them to push an agenda.

    Rape culture as it's being used here is little more than a social engineering term to push a particular viewpoint and frankly the way it's been used is patronising, demeaning and wrong. It's little more than an attempt to perpetuate the all men are potential rapists stereotype that has poisoned so much debate around these issues and kept a slew of academic grant money rolling in. It's a topic that has already received an appropriate academic reposte from feminists such as Christina Hoff.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,812 ✭✭✭✭sbsquarepants


    Trudiha wrote: »
    Of course, I can't look into anyone's soul and tell you want they are really thinking but I'm fairly experienced in calling abusers on their behaviour and I honestly think that the majority of abusers who've told me that they didn't think they were doing anything wrong were sincere.
    ...

    I simply don't believe this. You can not un knowingly rape someone, i'm sorry but you just can't. Anyone who says they did, is talking out their arse.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,666 ✭✭✭Rosy Posy


    Has anyone here said that those girls were sluts? And just to be clear for a second here we're calling cases without convictions rapes? I just want to be clear for the future.

    Both the Steubenville girl and Rehteah Parsons were called sluts to their faces and online after being sexually assaulted while passed out. Rehteah Parsons took her own life.

    Most rapes are unreported because of the fear of not being believed and of having to relive the experience in front of strangers and the social stigma attached. Add to that that cases where obvious violence was not used and only the victim and perpetrator were present and you're down to a tiny percentage of rapists that are actually convicted.

    Here is a graph from an FBI study

    http://jezebel.com/5973904/show-this-depressing-graph-to-the-rape-apologist-in-your-life


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,666 ✭✭✭Rosy Posy


    I simply don't believe this. You can not un knowingly rape someone, i'm sorry but you just can't. Anyone who says they did, is talking out their arse.

    What if the perpetrator is drunk?

    What if the victim too drunk to give consent but is still conscious?

    What if the victim was kissing the perpetrator but then passed out?

    It DOES happen and the reason that this can be unclear to victims and perpetrators is because of rape culture.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 19,341 ✭✭✭✭Chucky the tree


    Rosy Posy wrote: »
    This is a stop gap measure. In the broader sense it is saying 'make sure it's not you that gets raped but that other drunker, less dressed girl', when we should be looking deeper to try and solve the social problems that lead people to rape.



    Why is "victim blaming" only seen as a bad thing when it's sexual assualt? I mean, I'd hazard a guess that it's 99% likely that you lock your front door when you leave your house or go to sleep at night - do you consider that as just a stop gap measure and feel you are encouraging a "burglary culture"?


  • Posts: 25,611 ✭✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    Rosy Posy wrote: »
    Both the Steubenville girl and Rehteah Parsons were called sluts to their faces and online after being sexually assaulted while passed out. Rehteah Parsons took her own life.
    By who? Locals and trolls.
    Most rapes are unreported because of the fear of not being believed and of having to relive the experience in front of strangers and the social stigma attached. Add to that that cases where obvious violence was not used and only the victim and perpetrator were present and you're down to a tiny percentage of rapists that are actually convicted.
    You're describing the law, how would you change it? And would it just be for rape?
    See you might think that by hiding a personal attack in a URL I wouldn't notice it but you were wrong. I'm not a rape apologist and there's point debating you when you're going to resort to petty attacks like that to anyone who disagrees with a single point you make.
    Enjoy your high horse, I'm out before I react and get an infraction or a banning.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 235 ✭✭Trudiha


    tritium wrote: »
    Dammit, enough, this is just tiring. Like another poster said it's like talking to a brick wall. Just using the phrase rape culture over and over won't make it any truer. Frankly it's disrespectful to real victims of rape to use them to push an agenda.

    For a long time, I sat with 'the real victims of rape'* every day. I listened to them blame themselves for the horror that had been imposed on them while I helped them to clean themselves up. I go on about rape culture because I've seen first hand what it leads to.

    Incidental is there a less real victim of rape, are you alluding to the parters or parents or women who've been raped or something else?


    Rape culture as it's being used here is little more than a social engineering term to push a particular viewpoint and frankly the way it's been used is patronising, demeaning and wrong. It's little more than an attempt to perpetuate the all men are potential rapists stereotype that has poisoned so much debate around these issues and kept a slew of academic grant money rolling in. It's a topic that has already received an appropriate academic reposte from feminists such as Christina Hoff.

    I'd love a bit of social engineering. I'd love it if we were able to engineer it so that no one ever mention what a rape victim was wearing, that she was walking around like she was a free citizen when she was raped or who she'd had sex with in the past. I'd really love to have a discussion where women's bodies weren't equated with fifty euro notes that needed to be locked up because that's the only sensible thing to do with a woman fifty euro note. I'd love it if we could engineer out of our thinking a hierarchy of victims, if every single rape was taken seriously.


  • Registered Users Posts: 846 ✭✭✭Gambas


    Trudiha wrote: »
    I'm not of the opinion that most rapists are scumbags, there are simply too many of them for that. I'd be the first to admit that it's hard for young men growing up in a culture where they are surrounded by images of women who appear to be available to them, where they are told that women say 'no' when they mean 'yes'. When they are told that women who aren't covered from head to toe are begging for it and that women walking alone at night are fair game. To have all of that ****e fed to you, would obviously mess with your head and, sadly, it's exactly what men hear from other men.

    In a thread full of myths, that's the Daddy.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,455 ✭✭✭tritium


    Rosy Posy wrote: »
    What if the perpetrator is drunk?

    What if the victim too drunk to give consent but is still conscious?

    What if the victim was kissing the perpetrator but then passed out?

    It DOES happen and the reason that this can be unclear to victims and perpetrators is because of rape culture.

    So just to be clear that I'm picking you up right: both the male and the female are too drunk to consent to anything, but if sexual activity happens we'll just assume the male is the principal instigator and therefore a rapist? Have I missed something here? Because I'm really unclear why consent is a one way street in this scenario?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,461 ✭✭✭--Kaiser--


    Trudiha wrote: »

    I'd love a bit of social engineering. I'd love it if we were able to engineer it so that no one ever mention what a rape victim was wearing, that she was walking around like she was a free citizen when she was raped or who she'd had sex with in the past. I'd really love to have a discussion where women's bodies weren't equated with fifty euro notes that needed to be locked up because that's the only sensible thing to do with a woman fifty euro note. I'd love it if we could engineer out of our thinking a hierarchy of victims, if every single rape was taken seriously.

    I didn't equate a woman with a 50 euro note, I analogised one crime with another crime. You seriously lack in reading comprehension and/or rational thinking


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,812 ✭✭✭✭sbsquarepants


    Rosy Posy wrote: »
    What if the perpetrator is drunk? .

    What if they are? I know right from wrong when i'm drunk.
    Rosy Posy wrote: »
    What if the victim too drunk to give consent but is still conscious?.

    If you're too drunk to talk, you're too drunk for sex - that's hardly news to anyone.
    Rosy Posy wrote: »
    What if the victim was kissing the perpetrator but then passed out?.

    If you're unconscious, that's a no - again, it's hardly a difficult concept.
    Rosy Posy wrote: »
    It DOES happen and the reason that this can be unclear to victims and perpetrators is because of rape culture.

    It does happen, all to often unfortunately but it's not because of any "rape culture" it's because some people are assholes. They will be assholes regardless of the world around them (look at john terry for example - scum, and will be till the day he dies, despite having the world at his feet)
    Do you honestly think that someone having sex with an unconscious woman thinks what they are doing is ok? Or is shocked to hear that maybe the woman wouldn't like that? Or thinks wouldn't it be funny if someone done this to my sister? They know well what they're doing is wrong, they just don't care because they are assholes.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 235 ✭✭Trudiha


    --Kaiser-- wrote: »
    I didn't equate a woman with a 50 euro note, I analogised one crime with another crime. You seriously lack in reading comprehension and/or rational thinking

    No, you've suggest that women should be covered up and not 'tempt' potential rapists. You've trivialised rape and you've blamed rape victims.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,666 ✭✭✭Rosy Posy


    tritium wrote: »
    Frankly it's disrespectful to real victims of rape to use them to push an agenda.

    You've already heard from two rape survivors on here already and your post is the one that's being disrespectful.
    tritium wrote: »
    Rape culture as it's being used here is little more than a social engineering term to push a particular viewpoint and frankly the way it's been used is patronising, demeaning and wrong.

    I'm sure it all seems academic to you until you find yourself on the other side of it. Until you have people saying, 'but she was drunk' or 'she slept with him before' or 'well what does she expect the way she dresses' or even 'she's just making it up because she changed her mind when she was sober and didn't want her boyfriend to think she'd cheated on him'. Until you have your sexual history being discussed by the community in your trial by gossip. Or when you have your friends counselling you not to use the word rape lest you be branded a false accuser.

    Everyone is getting all caught up in equating a slap on the ass with rape. But there is a spectrum of sexual assault, and a society that condones laughing off unwanted sexual contact and disrespecting personal boundaries is also a society that leads a woman (or man) to shrug off waking up naked beside someone they have no memory of having sex with as a consequence of a heavy night on the beer.


  • Registered Users Posts: 970 ✭✭✭lemansky


    Trudiha wrote: »
    No, you've suggest that women should be covered up and not 'tempt' potential rapists. You've trivialised rape and you've blamed rape victims.


    Impressive jump there. I genuinely fail to see how you can get that as being the net take home message from the points that the poster you quoted and others are making.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,455 ✭✭✭tritium


    Trudiha wrote: »
    No, you've suggest that women should be covered up and not 'tempt' potential rapists. You've trivialised rape and you've blamed rape victims.

    No he didn't, and I don't doubt for a second that you realise that


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,272 ✭✭✭Henlars67


    tritium wrote: »
    So just to be clear that I'm picking you up right: both the male and the female are too drunk to consent to anything, but if sexual activity happens we'll just assume the male is the principal instigator and therefore a rapist? Have I missed something here? Because I'm really unclear why consent is a one way street in this scenario?

    Ya, that's also a problem I have with the "too drunk to consent" concept.

    If I was in reasonable shape and was with a girl who was extremely drunk there is no way I'd even attempt to have sex with her and no other normal thinking man would either.

    But if two people fall up the road together with one as drunk as the other and end up having sex who is responsible? Either or both could have been the instigator. If the female regrets it in the morning, is it rape on the part of the male?

    What if the male regrets it? What's the story then?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 5,943 ✭✭✭smcgiff


    Trudiha wrote: »
    No, you've suggest that women should be covered up and not 'tempt' potential rapists. You've trivialised rape and you've blamed rape victims.

    You're going out of your way to find fault - in an ideal world everyone could walk around with 50 euro notes hanging out of the arse pockets or women could be safe walking alone.

    But we all accept we do not live in an ideal world and need to be cognisant of that.

    You can argue it's your right to live in an ideal world and that's fine, but in the mean time we need to be careful - all of us.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,666 ✭✭✭Rosy Posy


    tritium wrote: »
    So just to be clear that I'm picking you up right: both the male and the female are too drunk to consent to anything, but if sexual activity happens we'll just assume the male is the principal instigator and therefore a rapist? Have I missed something here? Because I'm really unclear why consent is a one way street in this scenario?

    I don't think that if both the male and female are too drunk to consent that sex could happen.

    When I mentioned the perpetrator being drunk it was in regards to their inhibitions being lowered and their reading of the situation being off.

    I do think that a drunk/unconscious male can be raped by a man or a woman and my heart goes out to these men for the difficulty in speaking out without shame and social stigma.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,812 ✭✭✭✭sbsquarepants


    Rosy Posy wrote: »
    Everyone is getting all caught up in equating a slap on the ass with rape. But there is a spectrum of sexual assault, and a society that condones laughing off unwanted sexual contact and disrespecting personal boundaries is also a society that leads a woman (or man) to shrug off waking up naked beside someone they have no memory of having sex with as a consequence of a heavy night on the beer.

    So what are you supposed to do? Breathalise every man or woman you score with? If two people meet in a nightclub and wake up naked the following morning with no memory of what happened (as has happened me several times and i'm sure happens most people at some stage) what crime has taken place?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,666 ✭✭✭Rosy Posy


    So what are you supposed to do? Breathalise every man or woman you score with? If two people meet in a nightclub and wake up naked the following morning with no memory of what happened (as has happened me several times and i'm sure happens most people at some stage) what crime has taken place?

    I guess it depends on whether one person was significantly drunker, and whether consent was obtained.


  • Registered Users Posts: 235 ✭✭Trudiha


    smcgiff wrote: »
    You're going out of your way to find fault - in an ideal world everyone could walk around with 50 euro notes hanging out of the arse pockets or women could be safe walking alone.

    But we all accept we do not live in an ideal world and need to be cognisant of that.

    You can argue it's your right to live in an ideal world and that's fine, but in the mean time we need to be careful - all of us.

    To be honest, I don't have to go far out of my way to find fault with a society in which so many women are raped or suffer sexual violence. I don't have to go far out of my way to be offended by the idea that this world is far from ideal and that there is nothing we can do about it. If we changed our attitudes towards sexual violence, less of it would happen. If we changed out attitudes about where women can walk and what they can wear, more rapists would be convinced and there would be fewer rapes.

    I find it frustrating to hear, over and over again from seemingly decent people that rape is wrong but that some women are more rapable than others and we just have to accept that.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,812 ✭✭✭✭sbsquarepants


    And if neither can remember? Then what.
    Also the whole if consent was obtained thing is a bit dodgy - i don't think i've ever obtained consent from anyone in my whole sexual history. I assumed it was given based on their actions, if anyone said stop or didn't seem too keen, i certainly stopped but i honestly can't remember ever asking anyone for permision. Does that make me a rapist?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,461 ✭✭✭--Kaiser--


    Trudiha wrote: »
    If we changed out attitudes about where women can walk and what they can wear, more rapists would be convinced and there would be fewer rapes.

    No, no, no. It's not 'attitudes' that cause rape, it's rapists. Someone thinking walking a dodgy area on your own is not a good idea (for men or women) does not create rapists, murderers or muggers. You are really not the best person to be working in a rape crisis centre.
    I find it frustrating to hear, over and over again from seemingly decent people that rape is wrong but that some women are more rapable than others and we just have to accept that.

    Never heard anyone say that


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 5,943 ✭✭✭smcgiff


    Trudiha wrote: »
    To be honest, I don't have to go far out of my way to find fault with a society in which so many women are raped or suffer sexual violence. I don't have to go far out of my way to be offended by the idea that this world is far from ideal and that there is nothing we can do about it. If we changed our attitudes towards sexual violence, less of it would happen. If we changed out attitudes about where women can walk and what they can wear, more rapists would be convinced and there would be fewer rapes.

    I find it frustrating to hear, over and over again from seemingly decent people that rape is wrong but that some women are more rapable than others and we just have to accept that.

    Where you're wrong is that you think certain people can change their attitude. It's a bit like psychopaths - there's no reasoning with a psychopath.

    There are simply people out there that will consider rape as an option. What can we do about that?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 10,076 ✭✭✭✭Czarcasm


    One expression in common everyday use that I personally find particularly disgusting and trivialising of the act of rape is the use of the word "frape", as in somebody else having accessed your account on facebook and posting on your behalf.

    The casual use of the word rape in itself in everyday common language use is trivialising the act of rape.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 43,311 ✭✭✭✭K-9


    Rosy Posy wrote: »
    Yes. It's about a culture where there is a lack of respect for personal boundaries. I find that that ladette culture of 'if you can't beat them join them' deplorable. It has done nothing for the feminist cause, or the humanist cause for that matter.

    If I could thank this a thousand times I would, so true and valid not just with the groping thing.

    Mad Men's Don Draper : What you call love was invented by guys like me, to sell nylons.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,461 ✭✭✭--Kaiser--


    Czarcasm wrote: »
    One expression in common everyday use that I personally find particularly disgusting and trivialising of the act of rape is the use of the word "frape", as in somebody else having accessed your account on facebook and posting on your behalf.

    The casual use of the word rape in itself in everyday common language use is trivialising the act of rape.

    This I agree with


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,812 ✭✭✭✭sbsquarepants


    Trudiha wrote: »
    . If we changed our attitudes towards sexual violence, less of it would happen. If we changed out attitudes about where women can walk and what they can wear, more rapists would be convinced and there would be fewer rapes. .

    I don't know a single person who doesn't view rape or sexual violence as abhorrant. Except rapists!
    Good luck changing their views, in the mean time i'd advise women to try minimise their risks!
    Trudiha wrote: »
    . I find it frustrating to hear, over and over again from seemingly decent people that rape is wrong but that some women are more rapable than others and we just have to accept that.

    Well we all realise that some people are more robbable than others, think american tourists with bum bags stuffed with cash and thousand quid cameras hanging out of them walking around the inner city??
    You hear of people going off to war zones etc and think, they are just asking for trouble.
    How can you not see the similarities?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,455 ✭✭✭tritium


    Trudiha wrote: »

    Incidental is there a less real victim of rape, are you alluding to the parters or parents or women who've been raped or something else?

    Ooh nice twisting i words to try to find the offence. You'll notice I never mentioned any other type of victim but you somehow managed to find some outrage in there. Oh most definitely I mean something else, since all of these are also in some way victims.

    I'm actually referring to the academic industry to make the statistics look "right" and ensure that the slew of grant money keeps flowing. A good example is detailed in the following

    http://www.leaderu.com/real/ri9502/sommers.html

    By the previously mentioned dr Sommers. In effect once the right message is given, the attitude is utterly indifferent to the victims


    I'd love a bit of social engineering. I'd love it if we were able to engineer it so that no one ever mention what a rape victim was wearing, that she was walking around like she was a free citizen when she was raped or who she'd had sex with in the past. I'd really love to have a discussion where women's bodies weren't equated with fifty euro notes that needed to be locked up because that's the only sensible thing to do with a woman fifty euro note. I'd love it if we could engineer out of our thinking a hierarchy of victims, if every single rape was taken seriously.

    again you go looking for the offence. All of the points you mention above have been fairly effectively dismantled by other posters


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 24,269 ✭✭✭✭Sleepy


    In fantasy land everything is black and white, unfortunately, we live in the real world where everything is in shades of grey.

    The commonly accepted usage of the term "sexual assault" implies prolonged molestation or the forcing of a sexual act that doesn't quite qualify as rape. Using the term to describe a fleeting unwanted sexual advance such as a hand on your knee is equating these acts and either trivialises one or sensationalises the other. Associating sensationalist words with acts that don't adhere to the common use of those words makes one out to be a screeching lunatic that's easily dismissed.

    Teaching your daughter that certain routes aren't safe to walk at night, that she should be aware of her surroundings, that she should keep a close eye on her drink and not accept one from someone she doesn't know isn't in any way condoning sexual violence or engendering a belief that such things are okay. It's preparing her for the real world and no different to teaching your son not to walk home from a night out or not to take a particular route.

    If the former is part or "rape culture" the latter logically becomes part of "violent assault culture".

    The problem people have with the term "Rape Culture" is that it's hysterical. There is no equating an unwanted pinch / grope / slap on the arse (whether you consider it to be sexual assault or not) with rape. While neither are acceptable behaviour in civilised company they are at very different ends of the spectrum of unacceptable behviour.

    Working in bars throughout my college years I'd have been groped, pinched or felt up on a weekly basis. Once I even had a woman walk up to me and unzip my fly observing that there was nothing I could do about it without dropping the large stacks of glasses I was holding at the time. TBH, I found that one amusing even if she wasn't someone I'd have welcomed a sexual advance from. Were I to categorise those incidents as sexual assault, and on the basis of assessment being espoused by some in this thread I should have, I believe I'd be trivialising "real" sexual assault.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,461 ✭✭✭--Kaiser--


    Sleepy wrote: »
    In fantasy land everything is black and white, unfortunately, we live in the real world where everything is in shades of grey.

    The commonly accepted usage of the term "sexual assault" implies prolonged molestation or the forcing of a sexual act that doesn't quite qualify as rape. Using the term to describe a fleeting unwanted sexual advance such as a hand on your knee is equating these acts and either trivialises one or sensationalises the other. Associating sensationalist words with acts that don't adhere to the common use of those words makes one out to be a screeching lunatic that's easily dismissed.

    Teaching your daughter that certain routes aren't safe to walk at night, that she should be aware of her surroundings, that she should keep a close eye on her drink and not accept one from someone she doesn't know isn't in any way condoning sexual violence or engendering a belief that such things are okay. It's preparing her for the real world and no different to teaching your son not to walk home from a night out or not to take a particular route.

    If the former is part or "rape culture" the latter logically becomes part of "violent assault culture".

    The problem people have with the term "Rape Culture" is that it's hysterical. There is no equating an unwanted pinch / grope / slap on the arse (whether you consider it to be sexual assault or not) with rape. While neither are acceptable behaviour in civilised company they are at very different ends of the spectrum of unacceptable behviour.

    Working in bars throughout my college years I'd have been groped, pinched or felt up on a weekly basis. Once I even had a woman walk up to me and unzip my fly observing that there was nothing I could do about it without dropping the large stacks of glasses I was holding at the time. TBH, I found that one amusing even if she wasn't someone I'd have welcomed a sexual advance from. Were I to categorise those incidents as sexual assault, and on the basis of assessment being espoused by some in this thread I should have, I believe I'd be trivialising "real" sexual assault.

    Great post. But be prepared to be accused of being a rape apologist or something similar from some of the pitchfork wielding nutjobs in this thread


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,061 ✭✭✭Uriel.


    ...


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,453 ✭✭✭Ray Palmer


    Date rape drug myth:

    How often have we heard somebody say their drink of friends drink was spiked? Yet the rape crisis centre came out and said they have yet to find a case where a date rape drug has been used and said alcohol is the real danger.

    I am sure people will come out and say it happened to a friend that they didn't drink that much but were suddenly plastered so it must have been a spiked drink. Yet alcohol can have a sudden impact on a small amount dependent of what the person ate and drank in the last 24 hours.

    So what is likely? Person is the first person to have a recorded instance of a date rape drug in Ireland or they got drunk as they have been on batter for a few days?


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 548 ✭✭✭Three Seasons


    Trudiha wrote: »
    To be honest, I don't have to go far out of my way to find fault with a society in which so many women are raped or suffer sexual violence. I don't have to go far out of my way to be offended by the idea that this world is far from ideal and that there is nothing we can do about it. If we changed our attitudes towards sexual violence, less of it would happen. If we changed out attitudes about where women can walk and what they can wear, more rapists would be convinced and there would be fewer rapes.

    I find it frustrating to hear, over and over again from seemingly decent people that rape is wrong but that some women are more rapable than others and we just have to accept that.

    Can you clarify what it means to be more
    Rapable?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,681 ✭✭✭Standman


    The term 'rape culture' is an irritating buzz-phrase that needlessly polarizes people who might otherwise agree with each other.


  • Registered Users Posts: 235 ✭✭Trudiha


    Can you clarify what it means to be more
    Rapable?

    I can't see any real point in that. All I'm seeing is a bunch of men who don't seem to have any investment in changing the status quo. It's like being in a room with a bunch of rednecks, shouting 'racism, what racism?


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 10,076 ✭✭✭✭Czarcasm


    Can you clarify what it means to be more
    Rapable?


    I imagine what she means is that some women are classed as "asking" to be raped or assaulted given their behaviour or the way they carry themselves or their appearance.


  • Registered Users Posts: 26 wetfoot


    --Kaiser-- wrote: »
    And what relevance does this have to your average non-rapist?

    I think the Steubenville case is a very good example of rape culture. The first thing to remember is that the perpetrators were examples of your average high school student. There is nothing particularly evil or different about them. They, like their peers used social media, were interested in sports and were also very popular, not only with their friends but also young women and their teachers.

    These same young men thought it appropriate to take an extremely drunk young girl from party to party, sexual assault her, rape her and publicise it via social media. The only consequence of this behaviour in their minds was the kudos they received from their friends for being a pair of studs. At no point did any of those young men stop and think that they were doing anything wrong. The very fact that they described their behaviour while it was happening on social media proves that.

    The case was only brought to the attention of the media via a female blogger who had seen the social media activity of that night. She has since been subject to appalling abuse as has the victim of the attack. Mostly from other young women who feel she asked for it, should have been grateful to get the attention from those young men and has ruined the lives of promising, popular students.

    On the day of the verdict, the Fox and CNN reporters were nearly in tears about those boys and the loss of their futures. The outpouring of support for the perpetrators and the outpouring of vitriol against their victim is a perfect example of rape culture.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,061 ✭✭✭Uriel.


    hmmm

    Does The Gentleman's Club's Thread "tGC Easy on the Eye Thread"


    classify as being a component of the rape culture? :pac:


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 19,802 ✭✭✭✭suicide_circus


    just so I'm clear, promoting caution and awareness to potential threats is the same as blaming a victim when something happens to them? is that right?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 10,076 ✭✭✭✭Czarcasm


    Standman wrote: »
    The term 'rape culture' is an irritating buzz-phrase that needlessly polarizes people who might otherwise agree with each other.


    This exactly. It's the same as the "slut walk" nonsense- their intention being to "take the power out of the word" "slut".

    A rapist isn't going to give a shìte about what society chooses to call their behaviour, much less what society chooses to call their victims, or "survivors" is the new buzzword apparently.


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