Date Rape Victims and Aftermath

Getting past rape by forgiving the rapist?
Many times those trying to help rape victims will push the survivor to forgive the rapist when that is not an appropriate solution to the survivor's lingering trauma.

Example of devastation rape can cause
A woman's family didn't learn that their daughter was raped while at college by a man she thought of as a friend until the rape victim committed suicide.

Busting the regret not rape myth
A response to the argument that a girl who doesn't break up with her pushy boyfriend couldn't be subsequently raped by that boyfriend who refuses to take no for an answer.

When a power imbalance is used to commit rape
The case against a priest who exploited a mentally ill woman who contacted him for spiritual advice was dropped because the woman didn't say no enough times.

Consent

Is agreeing to go all the way a binding contract?
When it comes to evaluating rape cases some people seem to view consent as unrelated to mutuality.

Objective consent vs. enthusiastic consent
Many people dislike the concept of enthusiastic consent because it reveals that much of what they call consent, such as an absence of screaming or scratching, is no such thing.

Date Rapists

Break-up rape so common we don't have the jail cells to hold all the rapists
A discussion of a juror's belief that a defendant was only guilty of rape on a technicality since just that one time at the end of a relationship he proceeded without consent.

Acquaintance rapist followed up on that crime by murdering teens
In contrast to the description of acquaintance rapists as being otherwise harmless, a man who raped a woman he knew waited at the crime scene hoping to shoot police investigators. When no investigators arrived, he shot and killed local teens at a popular swimming spot.

He just thinks he's been wrongfully accused of rape
A required corollary to the claim that some girls and woman who report rape only think they were raped.

Man's statement shows how date rapists can rationalize lowering their standards of behavior
One man's comments shows how rapists can think of themselves as morally superior to those they rape and the use of that comment shows how acceptable that rationalization is to some people.

Victim Blaming

Deserved rape? and Digging a deeper hole
A discussion of advice given by Aaron Taylor for how he believes women can avoid "deserved" rape. This advice is dangerous because it calls active flirting consent when it is no such thing and he does nothing to actually prevent rape while explicitly supporting the rationalizations of most rapists. In Taylor's rebuttal, all those angered by his calling some rapes deserved are dismissed as lacking civility.

Swiftboating rape survivors and alleged victims
A discussion of smear campaigns against rape survivors including the common statement, "Women lie about rape," which ignores that men also lie about rape and most of those who lie are also rapists.

Victims listed as partly to blame for nurse's 20 year pattern of sexual abuse
Women patients who were victims of abuse were faulted for not reporting immediately despite evidence that hospital staff deliberately ignored signs of abuse.

If it wasn't brutal you are wrong to report it
Sue Carroll, writing for the Mirror, contrasts date rape to fictional brutal rapes and finds reality lacking. By her logic any real crime which wouldn't be featured on a TV crime drama should never be reported or prosecuted. 

Silencing and Nullification

How to interpret date rapist's version of what happened
Frequently a rape victim's statement that no consent was given is declared to be meaningless until the alleged rapist's version of events is heard. This declaration comes without any acknowledgment that date rapists will try to spin events so they seem hapless at worst.

Speaking around rape
Analysis of an anonymous letter to the editor from a college woman who writes indirectly about her high school experience of being serially raped and being the object of rumors.

Rape acceptance comes from Australian judge
A judge excused an adult's sex crimes because a 12 year old girl lied about her age and the man described the victim as his first girlfriend.

Empowering women or blaming the victim
Often victim blamers try to spin their attacks into something they claim to be positive.

Rape Denial

Defense against alleged false accusations of rape
A defense attorney advocates a methodology for fighting alleged false rape reports in criminal court which contain no references to specific evidence indicating that the allegation is in fact false. The methodology shows instead how to attempt to distract jurors and others from the actual evidence in a specific case.

Implying consent through summarization
Many times those who want to deny that a case or a situation is real rape will whitewash the description of what happened and then compare their distorted version of what the rape victim described to the legal definition of rape.

Defining false rape reports by whether rape was legal
Often people will slander rape victims because the rape law in one or more jurisdictions contains a loophole or is worded in such a way that proving rape under certain circumstances is impossible.

Who is really part of the rape industry
Organizations who run rape crisis lines have been dishonestly described as being part of the rape industry.

What really fuels rape denial: Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
A series of posts about various aspects of rape denial which comes from a variety of people with vastly different motives. 

Indifference To Rape Victims

Afghan women jailed for being raped
In Afghanistan laws related to immoral sex there is no distinction between women who consent and those who are raped. An anti-feminist sees a positive side to this system. Women there won't lie about being raped.

Assumptions

There are many assumptions people make related to date rape. Read more ...