rape; black and white, or grey?
At the age of 19, a college friend was on placement working with troubled
teens. One day she found herself pinned to the floor by an aggressive
young male and she needed to use some force to free herself. After
reporting the incident to her manager (male), his parting shot was "Bet you
enjoyed it though!" She didn't know whether she was more shocked by the
incident or by his retort.
Sadly, this is an all too common response. A cursory glance through
twitter, (the micro-blogging social networking site) on the recent
arrest of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, head of the International Monetary Fund
(IMF), has revealed a stunning level of ambivalence towards both rape
as an act of male dominance and aggression and, how the language of sexual
violence is used. There has been a tweet parade of
insensitivity, indecency, flippancy and poor taste, at best. Tweeters
have used the truly serious allegations of sexual assault and attempted rape as
an analogy to the IMF demanding severe austerity measures as a condition
of providing certain debt-ridden nations with a financial
bailout. Indeed the Chairperson of the Irish Green Party, Dan Boyle,
tweeting as @sendboyle tweeted last night "Strauss Khan sexual assault
allegations are of course of the utmost seriousness, but paying $3000 for a
hotel room isn't that far behind". For a public representative to compare
a sexual assault to a financial extravagance, on any spectrum, is totally
unacceptable. He did apologise later, and regardless of his original
intentions, it is of little comfort to any survivor of sexual violence who may
have read it.
Rape is a violent crime perpetrated by men, primarily against women.
Irish research had found that one in five adult women and one in ten adult men,
have experienced sexual violence. According to Irish and UK data,
approximately 90% of survivors knew the perpetrator. These statistics turn
the idea, that you are more at risk of being raped by a stranger in a dark
alley, on it's head.
What are the prevailing attitudes towards rape
victims?. Research carried out by Haven a support service for victims of
rape in London found, almost a third of respondents believed a victim was to
blame for the rape if they dressed provocatively or went back to the
perpetrators house for a drink. More women (70%) than men (57%) believed
the victim was responsible if the rape occurred after the woman got into bed
with the perpetrator. Public sympathy for victims has a direct correlation to
the amount of violence used in the commission of the crime; the more violence,
the more sympathy. Rape is never okay! Lack of physical violence
does not imply consent. All rapists use intimidation and fear to coerce
their victim. Not fighting back can be a survival tactic, or the
woman may have been simply paralysed by fear. I believe that we look for
reasons to apportion blame in order to distance ourselves from the possibility
of such a horrible event ever happening to us, perhaps why so many women
are less empathetic and supportive of those who have been raped.
Rape victims are never to blame for the attack. No matter how they are
dressed, whether alcohol or drugs were consumed or whether they had previously
been intimate with their attacker. No means NO! The recent "Slut Walk" movement
aims to reclaim the word 'slut' with the message "No one should equate enjoying
sex with attracting sexual assault". The movement was borne from comments
from a police officer advising students in a Toronto University on how to avoid
being sexually assaulted i.e., not dressing provocatively. The inherent
flaw in this assertion is that it places the responsibility for 'not' being
raped with women, rather than placing the blame and the responsibility squarely
on the shoulders of the rapist.
In March 2011 a shocking case in a small
town in Texas emerged. An 11 year old girl was gang-raped by 18 young
boys and men ranging in age from 14 to 27. What was even more shocking was
how the case was reported, particularly by New York Times journalist, James C
McKinley Jr.. He reported comments by local people about how this young
child, yes she is a child, dressed provocatively and more in keeping with
someone in their 20's. He also reported expressions of sympathy for
the destruction of the lives of the men and boys involved. No such
sympathy was expressed for the child victim.
Fears of not being believed, being blamed and of further traumatisation
contribute to low levels of reporting. Some estimates suggest that between
75% and 95% of rapes are never reported. Ireland has one of the lowest
conviction rates in Europe. According to the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre
Annual Report for 2009; of 289 clients who attended the DRCC for therapy (where
reporting status is known) 84 cases (29.1%) were reported to the
Gardai/Police. Of these 84 cases, 7 (8.3%) were tried resulting in 7
convictions or guilty pleas. I don't think it's a stretch to deduce that
the evidence in these 7 cases must have been extremely robust in order
to get to the point of prosecution in the first instance. The
victim's sexual history is often called into question by the defence, the reason
being that, if they can prove multiple sexual partners/promiscuity, it will
strengthen the case for the defendant, i.e., it was consensual. This is a
further act of violation, humiliation and traumatisation for the woman
involved, and should be borne in mind when understanding why the
number of false allegations is very, very low.
The narrative that we use in describing rape and the victims of
rape, influences directly on whether we see rape as an act of aggression
against women or, a sexual encounter that 'got out of hand'. Blaming the
victim is unacceptable; joking about rape is unacceptable; trivialising rape is
unacceptable. As long as this dialogue is tolerated and
perpetuated, and indeed if it goes unchallenged, then the physical,
emotional and social scars for survivors will be embedded more
deeply. The language of rape must always reflect the serious and
horrific nature of the crime, while paying respect and sensitivity to the women,
children and men who have experienced sexual violence.
Unless the
narrative around sexual violence changes, rape will continue to be
described in shades of grey.
teens. One day she found herself pinned to the floor by an aggressive
young male and she needed to use some force to free herself. After
reporting the incident to her manager (male), his parting shot was "Bet you
enjoyed it though!" She didn't know whether she was more shocked by the
incident or by his retort.
Sadly, this is an all too common response. A cursory glance through
twitter, (the micro-blogging social networking site) on the recent
arrest of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, head of the International Monetary Fund
(IMF), has revealed a stunning level of ambivalence towards both rape
as an act of male dominance and aggression and, how the language of sexual
violence is used. There has been a tweet parade of
insensitivity, indecency, flippancy and poor taste, at best. Tweeters
have used the truly serious allegations of sexual assault and attempted rape as
an analogy to the IMF demanding severe austerity measures as a condition
of providing certain debt-ridden nations with a financial
bailout. Indeed the Chairperson of the Irish Green Party, Dan Boyle,
tweeting as @sendboyle tweeted last night "Strauss Khan sexual assault
allegations are of course of the utmost seriousness, but paying $3000 for a
hotel room isn't that far behind". For a public representative to compare
a sexual assault to a financial extravagance, on any spectrum, is totally
unacceptable. He did apologise later, and regardless of his original
intentions, it is of little comfort to any survivor of sexual violence who may
have read it.
Rape is a violent crime perpetrated by men, primarily against women.
Irish research had found that one in five adult women and one in ten adult men,
have experienced sexual violence. According to Irish and UK data,
approximately 90% of survivors knew the perpetrator. These statistics turn
the idea, that you are more at risk of being raped by a stranger in a dark
alley, on it's head.
What are the prevailing attitudes towards rape
victims?. Research carried out by Haven a support service for victims of
rape in London found, almost a third of respondents believed a victim was to
blame for the rape if they dressed provocatively or went back to the
perpetrators house for a drink. More women (70%) than men (57%) believed
the victim was responsible if the rape occurred after the woman got into bed
with the perpetrator. Public sympathy for victims has a direct correlation to
the amount of violence used in the commission of the crime; the more violence,
the more sympathy. Rape is never okay! Lack of physical violence
does not imply consent. All rapists use intimidation and fear to coerce
their victim. Not fighting back can be a survival tactic, or the
woman may have been simply paralysed by fear. I believe that we look for
reasons to apportion blame in order to distance ourselves from the possibility
of such a horrible event ever happening to us, perhaps why so many women
are less empathetic and supportive of those who have been raped.
Rape victims are never to blame for the attack. No matter how they are
dressed, whether alcohol or drugs were consumed or whether they had previously
been intimate with their attacker. No means NO! The recent "Slut Walk" movement
aims to reclaim the word 'slut' with the message "No one should equate enjoying
sex with attracting sexual assault". The movement was borne from comments
from a police officer advising students in a Toronto University on how to avoid
being sexually assaulted i.e., not dressing provocatively. The inherent
flaw in this assertion is that it places the responsibility for 'not' being
raped with women, rather than placing the blame and the responsibility squarely
on the shoulders of the rapist.
In March 2011 a shocking case in a small
town in Texas emerged. An 11 year old girl was gang-raped by 18 young
boys and men ranging in age from 14 to 27. What was even more shocking was
how the case was reported, particularly by New York Times journalist, James C
McKinley Jr.. He reported comments by local people about how this young
child, yes she is a child, dressed provocatively and more in keeping with
someone in their 20's. He also reported expressions of sympathy for
the destruction of the lives of the men and boys involved. No such
sympathy was expressed for the child victim.
Fears of not being believed, being blamed and of further traumatisation
contribute to low levels of reporting. Some estimates suggest that between
75% and 95% of rapes are never reported. Ireland has one of the lowest
conviction rates in Europe. According to the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre
Annual Report for 2009; of 289 clients who attended the DRCC for therapy (where
reporting status is known) 84 cases (29.1%) were reported to the
Gardai/Police. Of these 84 cases, 7 (8.3%) were tried resulting in 7
convictions or guilty pleas. I don't think it's a stretch to deduce that
the evidence in these 7 cases must have been extremely robust in order
to get to the point of prosecution in the first instance. The
victim's sexual history is often called into question by the defence, the reason
being that, if they can prove multiple sexual partners/promiscuity, it will
strengthen the case for the defendant, i.e., it was consensual. This is a
further act of violation, humiliation and traumatisation for the woman
involved, and should be borne in mind when understanding why the
number of false allegations is very, very low.
The narrative that we use in describing rape and the victims of
rape, influences directly on whether we see rape as an act of aggression
against women or, a sexual encounter that 'got out of hand'. Blaming the
victim is unacceptable; joking about rape is unacceptable; trivialising rape is
unacceptable. As long as this dialogue is tolerated and
perpetuated, and indeed if it goes unchallenged, then the physical,
emotional and social scars for survivors will be embedded more
deeply. The language of rape must always reflect the serious and
horrific nature of the crime, while paying respect and sensitivity to the women,
children and men who have experienced sexual violence.
Unless the
narrative around sexual violence changes, rape will continue to be
described in shades of grey.