I often hear the argument “Don’t tell women what not to wear, tell men not to rape.”
I think this is retarded.
People (yes people, it isn’t just men) who rape are not the kinds of people who work well with logic and reason. I mean, they’re fucking raping people. Telling a rapist not to rape is like telling a murderer not to murder. I think we could achieve much better results by teaching people how to 1. Avoid situations where rape is possible and 2. what to do in the event of someone trying to rape you.
Call me crazy but this sounds like a much more plausible solution than trying to talk it out with the nation’s rapists.
I’m ignoring most of the trash, but Mr. Kelly raises an important point (admittedly, it’s only by mistake)- why would telling criminals not to commit crime be different in the case of rape than it is in the case of homicide, or larceny?
The answer is that many rapists don’t understand that they are rapists. If you ask people, “have you ever raped someone,” the answer will overwhelmingly be in the negative. However, if you ask questions like, “Have you ever had sexual intercourse with someone who did not want you to because they were too intoxicated to resist?” or “Have you ever had intercourse with someone by force or threat of force?” then the answer drastically changes.
Thomas at Yes Means Yes has the run down on the numbers, but Amanda Hess has some important insight into the data:
What does this mean about our “accidental” rapists?
a) The vast majority of acquaintance rapes are committed by the same people;
b) These people don’t see themselves as “rapists”;
c) They are, however, able recognize that they regularly threat, force, and intoxicate women in order to have sex with them.
When we say, “teach rapists not to rape,” we’re not saying to sit people down in a room, look them sternly in the face and say “do not rape anyone,” we’re advocating teaching people from a young age about the concept of consent, how important it as, and that any sexual interaction without consent is rape.
As far as avoiding situations where rape is possible, 26.6% of all rape occurs in the victims’ home, another 30.9% occur in the perpetrator’s home [PDF], and 45% of all rape victims were family or friends with their assailant, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. How do you think these people feel when they read people on the internet saying how we need to teach women how to avoid situations they can be raped in?
(Source: antigovernmentextremist)
