Then I found this iste – - hooray!

What did they warn him about, to not damage public property next time he’s attempting rape? *shudder* So sorry to hear about this, Angry.

Brilliant post. The notion that the maintenance of a person’s idea of herself, that she is a person “of conscience,” for example, should override the suffering of the oppressed is a pervasive one. It amazes me that people can honestly believe that their entitlement to enjoy their life fully satisfied with themselves is worth the forced silence of the exploited. It must be nice to be able to think so highly of oneself, while being so dismissive of others.

I agree more with poster who said that if men accepted the validity of 99 pct of rape accusations they would be forced to re-examine their own sexual encounters and ask whether they had been consensual, or rape.

ralated discussion, excerpt: the haunting question for men under patriarchy, as for any privileged class, is an uncertainty about the honesty and genuineness — the authenticity — of their sexual experiences with women. the price of power is the loss of authenticity, much as the price of microcontrol is the loss of robustness and diversity; the traditional power of men to compel women to submit, or to “fake it,” persists enough that unless the connection with a partner is very strong, very genuine, very honest, deeply trusting, the paranoia of aristocracy (does my butler really respect me, or just pretend to because I am his livelihood?) must endure.

men know that they enjoy unilateral sexual privileges under patriarchy, as their use of language and their physical behaviour both attest. men with any conscience know that oppressed people shuck-n-jive — or fake orgasms, or go along with the program out of fear — when coerced by their oppressors, even if said oppressors do not actually wave a loaded gun.

therefore men know that unless they make a serious effort — and maybe not even then — they may never know whether a sexual encounter was truly consensual, or whether the woman just “put up with” them, or humoured them, or was in fear of violence, or was reliving past trauma. any more than a wealthy aristo knows for sure whether his valet really respects him.

men of conscience don’t want to believe that they may have been coercers, bullies and thieves (rapists) even without a conscious effort to intimidate, any more than guilty white libruls want to believe that we may have made ugly racist remarks in our time and offended or wounded friends or strangers of colour. it’s a lot easier to believe that PoC are all oversensitive and excessively “politically correct,” and that women lie about rape (or there is “miscommunication”) — anything to erase the gendered power of patriarchy…

ah, that spray can of “Patriarchy-B-Gone” that Librul/Lefty men carry around with them at all times! so many times I’ve gagged on its pleasant floral scent.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/1238845.stm

–I remember this case. What didn’t make it into the story:

1. The victim in question had been very ill, and was on a combination of antibiotics, painkillers and antidepressants which, by her own and her doctor’s testimony, left her unable to muster the physical energy to fight or to scream. She was crying and begging the man to stop and leave, but she _did not scream or attempt to fight_.

2. The man admitted that he _knew_ that she didn’t want to have sex, and that he raped her.

3. The judge dismissed the case as “no case to answer” (i.e. “no crime was committed”) because the law required the victim to scream and try to fight, and to have been forcibly physically subdued.

Shades of Biblical law…but this travesty, at least, prompted a change in the law so that all that is required for a definition of rape now is “lack of consent”. It’s a shame that such changes have to come about at the cost of a victim.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6237480.stm

80% sounds painfully plausible.

& you *know* they’d be reporting it differently if the victim was a 10 year old boy.

Twisty’s recent post and a couple of cases I’ve been reading lately have really got me thinking about consent……