Rape

I agree with you Lesleigh about the whole rape issue. No matter where you look there is always a story about a women getting raped. I can say that I am very lucky that I, or any of my friends, have experienced anything with rape. I feel for the ones that have to deal with something like this. When I was thinking about the news and how they have stories about rape, the Duke lacross players came to my mind. In case you do not remember, there was a party at a lacross house and they had strippers. Well, after the party one of the strippers came forward and accused three of the lacross players of raping her in the bathroom during the party. At first people were looking at the lacross players as the "bad" guys but then after a while the media started getting information from the stripper's past and somehow turned the lacross players into the victims. I agree that she did not have the best past and she probably regrets some of the things that she did but who doesn't. I did not think it was appropriate, even if it was true, to put her out like that and make her seem like the 'bad" guy.

As I was reading Acuaintance Rape by Paula Kamen, I became fascinated by the study that Joe Weinberg conducted. When he asked them to come up with positive words of a female sexually active there was none. Females are usually called "hoes, skanks", and just negatively put down but there were a ton of positive words for the males: "Cassanova, stud, player". I agree that boys probably "feel pressure to "score" and become part of the "boys' club". I think it is a shame that they have to feel that way. I think it kind of comes back to feeling masculine and like that are a man. I know you must be sick of me bringing up my Holocaust class but a lot of these things connect with each other. We were in class talking about what and who go the killers in the Holocaust to kill these women and children. One of the theories was that they were ordinary men that if they did not kill, they would be letting their buddies down and would not be considered a "man" or even called a "sissy". If that is all it takes to get someone to kill innocent children and women, then there is something wrong. I know it is a different world today but it is still a little scarey that there could be people out there that feel and maybe could act the same way.

Lesleigh, you talked about Ann Jones' Battering: Who's Going to Stop It? and I think it is appauling that one of the reasons given is just because they can. It is sad to think that there are people out there that actually think that way. The best sentence, in my mind, from you response was from Ann Jones', "to prevent rape, we have to take it seriously". If we don't then it is never going to stop.

In Michael Scarce's Male on Male Rape, I was glad that they talked about same sex rape and domestic crimes. A lot of times people do not think it can happen to gay men and women but reality is, it can happen to anyone. Rape is rape! No matter who it happens to. Reading this made me think of the boy who was gay and got beaten to death by two other boys. I cannot remember his name but I think his first name was Matthew. I was shocked and did not know how to respond when I heard that.

Sorry for going on and on but I think it is a very sensitive and important issue that gets me upset, especially when I hear it happens to children. There is no excuse for it and it scares me that there are people who have no conscious and think they can rape someone, "simply because they can".