I'm unwilling to discuss the specifics of this case. However, I stand by my definition: it's rape if the woman has not given consent paired with enthusiastic participation. If that makes practically every man a rapist (and it doesn't make the men I've known rapists, or any of the men with whom I've discussed such details for that matter) then we really need to rethink what we're teaching young people about sex.
Consent is not unilateral or unambiguous, so - like any other subjective state - it makes an exceptionally poor criterion. Further, it localizes 'rape' within a very constrained axis of violence (see, e.g., Zizek's Violence). At the level of ideology in actuality 'rape' occurs far more often than you seem to realize. Moreover, saying asymmetries of power are endemic to sex is like saying birds like to fly.
But I totally agree with your conclusion: We really need to rethink what we're teaching young people about sex. To that end, I would point out that sexuality is discursive and articulated via culture. Thus, if we are to 'rethink what we're teaching young people about sex' we'd need to re-articulate social formations from the ground-up.
It denigrates the experiences of many, many people to insist that they have no right to be hurt by sex that they did not consent to by calling it "not really rape". Rape exists in varying levels of severity, but we have to use words like "rape" and "assault" to encompass the experiences that traumatize people so that those people's experiences are ALL taken seriously, not just the physically forceful stranger rapes/gang rapes.
This isn't an issue of 'lives being taken seriously'. *NEITHER* of the women have accused Assange of rape. They could have. They were encouraged to. They did not.
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velvetpage) wrote2010-12-22 07:50 am
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But I totally agree with your conclusion: We really need to rethink what we're teaching young people about sex. To that end, I would point out that sexuality is discursive and articulated via culture. Thus, if we are to 'rethink what we're teaching young people about sex' we'd need to re-articulate social formations from the ground-up.
no subject
It denigrates the experiences of many, many people to insist that they have no right to be hurt by sex that they did not consent to by calling it "not really rape". Rape exists in varying levels of severity, but we have to use words like "rape" and "assault" to encompass the experiences that traumatize people so that those people's experiences are ALL taken seriously, not just the physically forceful stranger rapes/gang rapes.
no subject