It would appear that each year, the society we live in has a much better attitude towards sex. While the days where sexually active women were seen as pariahs are quite gone, they aren't entirely. One of the first books I read that got me into feminist theory was The Purity Myth by Jessica Valenti. Each chapter is focused on a different aspect of sexuality in modern day America (published in 2010) and starts with a very poignant quote. One of the chapters started with a comment made by former South Dakota Senator Bill Napoli, responding to a question about what kind of woman should be "allowed" to have an abortion:
"A real-life description to me would be a rape victim, brutally raped, savaged. The girl was a virgin. She was religious. She planned on saving her virginity until she was married. She was brutalized and raped, sodomized as bad as you can possibly make it, and is impregnated."
Just... Wow. Let us dissect this quote: to receive this special pardon she must be a rape victim (special status), but also a religious, virginal, 'saving herself' virgin. But not only must she be all of these things, she must have been "brutally" raped, and sodomized. If she was not brutally raped, would she thus not be allowed for pardon? Would her case not be as dire? What does it mean to be 'gently' raped?
We discussed in class this idea of rape victims having a special status and whether it has only a positive effect in society. Now, as Dr. J did before stating her comments on rape victims' status, let me give a comment before I say anything that can be misconstrued: rape victims are indeed violated in a way different than simply being punched in the face, they are traumatized, shamed by society and very typically confused with no idea of what to do after the event occurs. They do typically need help both physically and emotionally and I believe they should in fact get that help. However, I do not think that all rape victims get this status. Look at this quote, as I mentioned in class, the rape victim must be the 'ideal' candidate for preference. She is probably not poor and/or a minority, she can't have had sex before (especially with multiple partners) and she must have been 'brutally' raped. This idea of rape victim status reaffirms some of the traditional ideals of men versus woman: the frail beautiful girl was taken advantaged of in her submissive state and must again be saved.
I do not know what sort of solution there could be to all of these problems other than the initial problem of how our society views sexuality.
(Sidenote: http://thetyee.ca/Video/2012/02/15/SlutShamingUnderstood/ watch this great video by a 13 year old on how slutshaming harms our society. It's nice to see preteens who can reaffirm faith in the future).
Until woman are actually allowed to own their sexuality and not be branded as a slut or 'the angry feminist' there can not be real progress in this. People must be educated and aware of everything involved in sex, not just shoving it under the rug until someone does something without realizing it's implications.
When I read this comment I thought about the Duke lacrosse scandal of 2006. If you're not familiar with it, a black female exotic dancer accused the Duke lacrosse team of gang raping her when she came to dance for them. Because Durham, North Carolina is a lot like Memphis, TN (racially divided) the case sparked a lot of fire on both sides. The media had mixed responses to the case, some being sympathetic to the woman, others doing exactly what Bill Napoli would probably say, assuming the woman was lying because she's A. black B. an exotic dancer and C. been in jail before. The case turned out to be a disaster, resulting in the prosecutor's disbarment, and the courts decided that the woman was lying due to DNA testing. Yet, the way she was portrayed in many media circles, as already guilty, was quite interesting, and I think it speaks to your question of: who can be raped. As a sidenote, I have read Valenti's the purity myth and her other book 'full frontal feminism'. another book i would recommend that deals with this issue is "Yes Means Yes: Visions of Female Sexual Power and A World Without Rape"
ReplyDeleteI feel like our culture is very prone to victim blaming. Whether it is to maintain the idea of our 'pure women' or to try to maintain patriarchal power, I'm not entirely sure why the blame continues to be put on the 'scandalous woman' rather than the rapist. With the shame surrounding rape, many victims do not come forward, which makes it even easier for lawyers/society to call into question the validity of the victim's story. Rape is a very common, yet shameful and hidden practice. Maybe it is another case where talking about the issue could help things get better?
ReplyDelete(sidenote: Yes Means Yes has been on my reading list for awhile now, I'm looking forward to reading it.)
I'm glad that you found that quote. It's the perfect example of how ignorant people can be about violence towards women. I think that one of the most overlooked cases of rape is those on college campuses. We talked about this a little in class but quotes like this anger me because it's so frustrating that a girl that is taken advantage of by an aquaintance when she is drunk is not considered rape by many people. I think we can all agree that girls need to be careful when they drink because it makes them vulnerable, but at the same time, it's horrible that girls even have to worry about this on a regular basis. We live in a rape culture where we blame issues like this on the hypersexuality of men but they have to be held accountable as well. There are times when men regret their actions because they were also too drunk. I never really know how to think about situations like that but I don't think that a drunken frat boy would think it was okay in an inebriated state if rapes like this were not a part of our everyday culture.
ReplyDeleteMichelle, I would hesitate to blame contemporary culture for the prevalence of "date rape." Rape is wrong no matter what the context. Indicating that efficient causality is related to circumstance is, of course, not entirely wrong; however, it displaces the responsibility from the rapist, or, at the very least, muddles the narrative. Obviously, no crime is black in white. There are always extenuating circumstances that tend to contribute toward the decision to commit a crime. I think that the "frat boy" justifies his actions because he believes, in some sick way, that the women actually wants sex. If the victim denies the rapist sexual intercourse, she satisfies the classification of purity or non-promiscuity which makes her to this hypothetical guy more attractive. In the end, he gets to rape someone that ostensibly does not want sex (but, he believes, she secretly does want it). Thus, he has done nothing wrong.
DeleteA man from my home town was recently charged with 39 different counts including murder, child molestation, rape, sodomy, threatening with a deadly weapon, and fraud. Eighteen of his 39 counts were against one victim. Apparently this all started when she was ten years old and continued until she was at least eighteen. I was reading some of the comments on the news article one of which stated : “.And a gun to my head I would be out of there real quick or scream real loud to get someones attention and then leave but either way I would be GONE”. This honestly offended me greatly. I completely agree that some rape victims are not given “special status”, and some are blamed for what happened to them. But I also think that even victims who fit the mold for an “ideal rape victim” are blamed by some. I think it comes down to an excess of judgment and a lack of understanding.
ReplyDeleteMy critique was not saying that everyone who fits these qualifications are treated as ideally possible in their situation, but rather that quotes like these exemplify exactly how victim blaming starts: with the 'ideal' and 'pure' woman becoming something else. I agree, any victim can possibly be blamed (and they often are) and it is always awful. I think it is harder to blame younger girls because most people see them as sexless (the media backlash for the victim blaming would probably be worse) than to blame sexual woman. Either way though, it reflects the nature towards rape victims in our society.
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