Saturday, February 26, 2011

No Means No, but Does Rape Mean Rape?

A young woman is getting off work from her job as a waitress at midnight one Friday night. She is walking to her car in the parking lot. She fumbles for her keys as she approaches her vehicle. Just as she is about to place the key into the lock, a stranger abducts her and pulls her to the bushes at the side of the parking lot.

He cups his hands over her mouth so she can’t scream. Then he ties a scarf around her head, stuffing part of it into her mouth while he proceeds to have his way with her. When it is all over, he leaves her lying on the ground, half conscious and terrified.

A witness sees the man fleeing the scene and calls 911. An hour later, the suspect is apprehended as he was stalking his second victim of the night. He was arrested, tried, and convicted of rape. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison.

The victim of his crime was left with the awful memory of what happened that night. She couldn’t work for weeks afterward. She was terrified of the dark and of being alone. She even felt ashamed. After months of counseling, she was able to function normally again, but the memory of that night still haunts her dreams.

Another young woman feels up for a night out on the town. She slips on her barely-there pink dress that is just long enough to cover her thong. She dances out her apartment door and heads for the club.

She hooks up with a guy who was already at the event. He buys her a few drinks as he flirts with her. She flirts back. After about an hour of dancing and flirting, he suggests they go for a walk to his car out back. She puts up no defense. So moments later, they are in the back seat of his SUV, partially undressed, heavily engaged in foreplay. He, wisely, remembers his condom and starts to slip it on. But the young lady has a change of heart and tells him she doesn’t want to go all the way.

At first, he thinks she is just playing. So he proceeds to put his condom in place and then approaches her. But he quickly finds out she wasn’t kidding when she slaps him. He calls her a bitch and a tease. He makes her feel ashamed of herself, so she finally relents. But as he enters her, she again changes her mind and flees the SUV. She calls 911 and tells them the guy forced her to have sex with him.

Police arrive and arrest the man. He was tried and convicted of rape and sentenced to 25 years in prison. The young lady went out to a club the following week, but this time she swears not to take it that far.

Two teenagers are in love. They have been dating each other for more than a year and have been having consensual sex for nine months. She is 15 and he is 17. The next day is his birthday, so she plans a birthday surprise for him. She is going to get dressed up in the sexiest lingerie she can buy from Victoria’s Secret, then after the cake cutting, she plans to excuse herself while she slips it on, then invite him into her bedroom.

She is only a week away from turning 16 and she is hoping for a present from her friend that is commensurate with what she plans to give him.

On the night of his private party, she fulfills her plan to seduce him. But her over-protective mother walks in on them as they are engaged in coitus. In a rage, she kicks the young man out of her house and calls 911, claiming her daughter has been sexually molested. The daughter pleads to her not to take it this far, but the mother continues.

The boy is arrested and charged with statutory rape. He is 18 now, and she is not yet 16. He is tried and convicted and sentenced to 25 years in prison.

The obvious question is: Does rape mean rape?

5 comments:

VetVoyeur said...

Good questions Jerry and I wish I knew all the answers. However, guys need to be taught (by parents or schools or someone) that when a gal says 'no' that he'd better stop because the situation is already bad and could get worse. 18 year old men (boys) need to be taught that when it comes to 16 year old girls, it doesn't really matter what she wants, the law is the law, he is responsible for the consequences of breaking that law. Of course I don't know the men, or all the circumstances of the cases you mentioned, but it is my hope that stiffer sentences for crimes of personal violence will make guys think twice before taking advantage of a young woman's poor judgement. Poor judgement is not necessarily a crime, but having sex with someone without their consent, or who is underage, is.

Anonymous said...

My concern is when a woman (girl) consents and then changes her mind and considers it "rape". When rape IS rape punish the bum... male or female.

+mf said...

@VetVoyer:
I believe you are missing the point. We all know "the law is the law." The question is, do these three young men all deserve the same fate? Do they all deserve 25 years in prison and a lifetime on the sex offender registry?

If we say they are all guilty of rape, that sort of diminishes the powerfulness of the word.

When a woman says she was raped, we shouldn't need to ask (or wonder,) "Yeah, but were you raped? Or were you RAPED?"

Unknown said...

That last story, the guy shouldn't have gotten 25 yrs. Yes the law is the law but they've been together all this time and the mother blames him because she doesn't want to believe her baby girl is having sex. For all we know, the mother never liked the guy and couldn't wait to set him up. But the law is the law, right?

Unknown said...

There are really a lot of flaws in the law, and I think it's time to do something about it. This only show unjust judicial system. -Gwyn