Every year conservative columnist John Leo does a story on the years double standards, and this year (U.S. News and World Report - 6/26/00) he mentioned a story out of Georgetown University:
"Nowadays feminists detect dangerous pro-rape attitudes in jokes, complimentary remarks, and even glances, but the statutory rape of a 13-year-old girl in a popular feminist show has passed almost without comment. The show is The Vagina Monologues, and the reason for the absence of criticism is that the show's fictional perpetrator was a lesbian, age 24. So the all-female rape is described by the victim as "a good rape."(My italics) No word yet from feminist theorists on this new distinction between good rapes and bad. "Why is rape only wrong when a man commits it?" wondered the new conservative columnist at the Hoya, Georgetown University's student newspaper. This is a perilous thing to wonder at a politically correct encampment like Georgetown. His column was killed, and he was fired."
IMO (which I'm sure all of E2 cares deeply about) both are wrong. First: the double standard. See "Women rape too, they just don't get in trouble for it." if you don't believe a woman forcing herself on a man can be a traumatic event for him. Wow. Nevertheless, I've heard (ah yes, now there's a reputable source) that the reason less (for example) statutory rapes of males by females are prosecuted/reported is that the guy doesn't think they've been taken advantage of. Whether this is true or not I don't know. But when I was a teenager, if a 24-year-old woman had wanted to have sex with me, I might have been thinking "Wow, cool!". This does not mean it's not criminal! I can't speak about female-female rape specifically, I don't hear about it that often (I've recently read one account of it happening in jail). However, sex under pressure/coercion is always a bad thing regardless of who does it.
The firing: universities are supposed to be hotbeds of radicalism, but in reality they are chock-full-o'-conformity. At my school, the formerly-very-"alternative" newspaper has had its wings clipped any number of times for saying oh-so-dangerous things. Your beleagured "conservative columnist" merely fell victim to the same thing that has been happening to leftist/feminist/etc. journalists for ages. It's not that there are packs of unshaven, strident lesbians running around demanding the instant expulsion of this fellow. "Political correctness" is a myth, fostered by a few extreme examples that prove nothing but that anyone can be an ass, regardless of politics. U.S. News and World Report was just ensuring that they didn't offend anybody, thus ensuring their bland, crappy existence for another day.
While this is sick, what saddens me even more is that the rape of young boys is publicly defended by groups like NAMBLA, who state in their statement of purpose at http://qpd.tcp.com/qrd/orgs/NAMBLA/statement.of.purpose that "The North American Man/Boy Love Association (NAMBLA) supports the rights of all people to engage in consensual relations, and we oppose laws which destroy loving relationships merely on the basis of the age of the participants." I listened to a NAMBLA spokeperson on a radio talk-show, and he refused to say how young is too young for a child to consent to sexual intercourse. The host pressed. "Twelve? Ten? Is someone who is eight years old able to really consent?" The NAMBLA person would not answer the question but reaffirmed their position that it must be determined on a case-by-case basis. Read: maybe sometimes it is okay for an eight-year-old boy to have sex with an adult man. Excuse me while I go vomit.
No, I'm not forgetting priests, ministers, and other clergy who abuse their postition of trust. They deserve to have a millstone put around their neck as well.
I do not think the topic title is fair, because it seems to imply that the problem of women rapists even begins to compare with the problem of male rapists. The problem is not even of the same magnitude. Men are much worse. In ways and numbers that are not publicized.
Since I am already pontificating, I will echo my mom's sentiment that men who rape should be strung up by their testicles.
No, not all men are evil. But is seems that there are males who are all evil.
The trouble with women raping men is that that situation is even harder to recognize as rape (by others than the two persons involved) than the other way around. There is no tell-tale sperm to be found, often it is done by coercion not force, so there are no physical wounds to be seen. Often the man gets an involuntary erection during the rape, making him wonder himself if he truly does not want what is happening.
For all of these reasons, men find it harder to tell, and to prove, that they have been raped. And then of course there is the double standard that says only women can get raped because men supposedly always want sex with everybody and everything, and therefore never can be forced to do it against their will.
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