There is nothing like a good ol’ fashion legitimate rape.
You know, the type of rapes that are well, legitimate. (Not like those other rapes that just try to imitate rapes.)
Not too long ago, Missouri Representative Todd Akin, made a statement about rape that qualified legitimate rapes from other types of rape. Defending his views that women women rarely get pregnant from rape, he stated, “It seems to be, first of all, from what I understand from doctors, it’s really rare. If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut the whole thing down.”
So if it’s not a legitimate rape, the woman’s chances of getting pregnant is much higher because her super power hormones don’t kick in and fight off the non-legitimate rape sperm.
After backlash for his completely insensitive comments, Akin then stated that by “legitimate” rapes he meant forcible rapes. Oh okay, thanks for clearing up the non-forcible rapes from the forced ones.
Rape, according to RAINN is "forced sexual intercourse, including vaginal, anal, or oral penetration. Penetration may be by a body part or an object."
To clarify: "Rape victims may be forced through threats or physical means. In about 8 out of 10 rapes, no weapon is used other than physical force. Anyone may be a victim of rape: women, men or children, straight or gay."
Legally, rape has been categorized in different sects: statutory rape, gang rape, date rape, spousal rape, prison rape, war rape, and corrective rape. While all these different types of rape happen under different circumstances, they all require force.
Sometimes the force is non-physical and through deception. Sometimes the rape involves a young woman getting drugged at a party, only to find herself awake in a stranger’s bed. Sometimes it’s a child who fears his or her own life because an adult tells that child he or she will get hurt if they choose to not comply with the adult’s demands.
When did it become the norm, however, to try to define rape as anything other than forcible? Since when did rape become a grey area of, “Well, it’s not legitimately a rape because you know he didn’t put a gun to her, push her to the ground, pull up her dress and force her to have sex.”
Just recently in 2011, the F.B.I. changed its definition of rape removing the word “forcible” from its definition. Their definition only applied to women and excluded men. This in essence made it appear that “forcible” rapes only happen to women.
Here is the problem with defining rape as “forcible” or “legitimate”: Whenever politicians say that one person’s rape is more valid than another person who was raped, they are belittling that horrific experience the survivor of the rape went through.
And in case there was any doubt, women do in fact get pregnant from rape. In fact, about 31,000 women become pregnant from rape in America every year.
So for women who do get pregnant from rape, does that make their rape non-legitimate? More importantly, does it mean that these women might have enjoyed the rape if they do get pregnant? Does this mean women were asking for it if they didn’t get pregnant?
Politicians also have to think about rape survivors who contract a sexually transmitted disease. 1 in 15 rape survivors contract an STD as a result of being raped. Sure, they didn’t pregnant. But perhaps they contracted an STD that could leave a woman infertile or an STD that such as herpes that will be a constant reminder of the assault that took place. Are those rapes considered legitimate?
The H.R. 3 Bill, also known as the “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortions Act,” (which was supported by Akin and our Republican Vice President nominee, Paul Ryan) would prohibit taxpayer abortions, except in the cases of “forcible” rape and incest. The term "forcible rape" insinuated that women would only be able to get help to obtain an abortion if they were violently raped.
When I was 16-years-old I was raped by a man who was 31-year-old. I did not have a voice in what took place. I told him “no” several times, but I was scared. He had guns in his house. He was much stronger and bigger than me, and if I tried to kick him off me I had to question, “Would he hurt me physically even more?”
I was put in a situation that while he left no bruises or scars, I had the emotional wound of my body being used for someone else’s pleasure. I had the shame that came from the assault. I had the trust issues that came from the assault. I had the fear that it would happen again. No, I didn’t get pregnant. However, that doesn’t mean I enjoyed any second of it. That doesn’t make my rape non-legitimate or non-forcible.
New Mexico recently removed the term “forcible” from its description of rape. "Rape is rape, and there can be no qualifiers attached to it," said Carol McFall, executive director of the Albuquerque rape crisis center. "This is old language that needs to be removed from our discussions of rape. It is a slippery slope in which individuals who are assaulted are re-victimized by the law if they didn't fight back, protest loud enough, or say no.’’
I can legitimately say that no woman or man should ever experience a forcible, legitimate, non-legit, totally legit, whatever you want to call it rape. Rape hurts and is painful under any circumstance. It doesn’t matter if someone gets pregnant. It doesn’t matter if a gun was involved. Rape happens and every experience is different for each individual, but none less horrific.
I can say this, if I ever hear another politician try to classify rape as non-legitimate, I will forcibly kick his or her ass.
And for your viewing pleasure...there is an interesting video circulating on the web that really cuts to the heart of the “legitimate rape” issue. Check it out:
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Check out other similar articles from twoday magazine:
Who Is Responsible For Sexual Abuse? By Anya Alvarez
The Terror of Being Stalked, By Kristen Houghton
10 Signs You Might Be in an Abusive Relationship, By Natalie Bencivenga
erikdolnack
Don’t you get the sense that these radical conservatives who preach strict father morality secretly LIKE that women sometimes get raped?
Doesn’t it almost seem as if these old white men see rape as a sort of check & balance upon womens liberation, much the way that Pat Robertson saw the earthquakes in Haiti as God’s just punishment for supposed historical voodoo practices?
Does a dog lick its own anus?
The answers to all the above questions, kiddies, is a resounding YES.
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Men have a long way to go to view women as precious gifts that can only enhance their manhood. Historically and culturally women are mere property. Liberal men, as well as conservative men, are equally guilty, so I would not throw any bones out there.
If a woman says no, it is rape. It is forced sex any way you look at it. I have always been insulted by the sentences they give to these men that ruin a child or a woman’s life, with or without the visible scars and bruises. And it is almost always men that pass the sentences down.
I think a fair sentence would be that anyone who rapes a child should be castrated, not stoned to death like in other countries. (..oops stoning is only for adulterers or young girls and women who were raped and now are a disgrace…) It is such an unjust system that has been womens’cross to bear over the centuries. I challenge anyone who reads this article to watch the foreign film, Stoning of Soraya. Just because I did not have to grow up under that culture does not mean I have not felt the injustice of each stone. I have felt it for the victims in our country who did not get justice and their rapist and/or murderer was paroled and for the young boys that had to be paraded before Sandusky as he pled innocent and for the prevalent sexual exploitation of our women in the media. We are beautiful and precious and our bodies are a gift to mankind. Without us you could not be throwing stones.
erikdolnack
@Nena77: “Liberal men, as well as conservative men, are equally guilty, so I would not throw any bones out there.”
- This is what Bill Maher calls the “False Equivalency” in the media: this idea that both sides are equally guilty of a given issue and the implication is that moderation is the solution. But the truth is, no liberal politicians defend rape and most all defend the Supreme Court decision of 1973 (Roe vs. Wade) that made abortion legal nationwide. There is no blame to be cast toward the Left on this particular issue and I’m calling bullshit here.
Nena claims that liberal men are equally guilty of defending rape and I want evidence to support such a ridiculous statement.
erikdolnack
@Nena77 - Please understand that I am not attacking you personally. After all, I don’t know you.
But reading your response, one would assume that you are implying that the political outlook of the rapist themselves is your point. If so, that’s not my point.
Rape is a violent crime. There’s been rape on this earth far longer than there ever was a political Right or Left. However, how we as a society police this particular problem in society and how we use law to protect womens rights IS political, and the two dominant political philosophies in America today have contradictory answers to this issue.
Moderates and individuals who tend to be a-political often want to paint with a broad brush and conveniently paint political extremes as biased and not altogether true. These people want to see “the truth” as somewhere in-between the two poles. But is this accurate?
Think about one case in point: racism. We can cite two extreme viewpoints on racism in America in the 20th century; Dr Martin Luther King Jr on one side, and the Klu-Klux-Klan on the other. Do you really mean to tell me that “the truth” lies somewhere in between these two extremes? No. The truth in fact lies overwhelmingly on the side of MLK and the Civil Rights Movement while the Klan are uneducated, racist bigots.
Take another example: Climate Change. The scientific community today around the world line up overwhelmingly on one side of this issue while billionaire industrialists and their lobbyists lie at the polar-opposite extreme. Again, do you really expect us to believe that “the truth” lies in the middle of these two factions? Of course it doesn’t. Conservatives often use Orwellian language to claim that there exists a “liberal agenda”. This language masks the underlying fact that liberals often have no agenda other than doing what their conscience tells them is the right thing to do, while it is conservatives that have the agenda, which is to decrease business taxes, decrease regulation of business and increase profits to maximize their bottom line.
If you read the above article carefully, you’ll see that all the offenders against womens rights are all conservatives. You would be had-pressed to find any liberal in government today that wants to take away a woman’s right to choose, especially in cases of rape. I personally have never met anyone of a liberal persuasion that would sacrifice womens rights and womens safety to protect their own beliefs and belief systems, whereas most conservatives will. Again, the truth does not lie in the middle of these two extremes but with one or the other. You make the choice ladies, after all, that’s what us liberals want you to have: the empowerment of CHOICE while the other side wants to take that away from you.
erikdolnack
@Nena - “Liberal men, as well as conservative men, are equally guilty”
- You could just say that you feel that it isn’t politics at all, but rather men in general that is the problem. But this of course is a sexist view and highly unfair.
Men don’t rape women, rapists that happen to be men rape women. Most men don’t rape women. And the policemen that arrest rapist men, and the law courts that put them away in prison are largely conducted by men. The lawyers and politicians that create the laws that protect women from rape are also often men.
We also often forget that women can be rapists. It’s more rare, but there exist women in our prisons who are guilty of raping others. Children are often molested, and the molesters aren’t always men. Homosexual men can also be as guilty of rape as their heterosexual male counterparts. Take Jerry Sandusky and Micheal Jackson as two examples of homosexual men who raped other unwilling partners.
It’s unfair and sexist to assume that all heterosexual men are rapists or closet rapists. We’re not. More of us than not love the women in our lives and our communities and want to protect them and give them the power of choice and equality in society.