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RAPE from
Womankind(1972)
(Editors Note: Rape was just becoming recognized as a feminist issue
when this article was compiled from a pamphlet called Stop Rape and
an article in Ramparts Magazine.)
A look
at the laws regarding rape along with the actual "justice"
dealt out to rapists gives...us a good insight into society's view of
women and the place it holds for her and expects her to keep.
Men can
feel free and uninhibited to force sexual violence onto women as they
receive full protection from the law, police and courts. Men know this
and therefore understand that limitations are not placed on them in
this area. The careful wording of the law with the broad latitude
given the defense (rapist) make clear the state's intention to not
prosecute rapists.
To reveal
women's real status as sexual property, the law protects rapists by
upholding that no man can be accused: of raping his wife. Who are the
rapists? Strangers, friends, work or business associates, dates, boyfriends,
and husbands.
In Michigan
the prosecutor must prove that the rape was forcible and that there
was penetration of the vagina. Forcible rape is determined primarily
through trying to ascertain if the woman consented or not. Bruises,
marks on the body, cuts or gashes all reveal assault but in the eye
of the court they do not prove forcible rape and proof must be presented
beyond a shadow of a doubt. Thousands of rapists have received acquittals
by claiming that the victim had consented. Consent has been defined
as everything from inviting the rapist to your apartment as a stall
tactic, to not screaming loud enough. Anything a woman does issued
against her in court. And therefore there can be no other conclusion
than that the courts exist as one logical outgrowth of a male sexist
social order that allows rape as one of the ways that men are permitted
to oppress women.
Allowing
a male friend into your home who turns violent and rapes you cannot
be prosecuted in court. In the eyes of the court, allowing the male
into your home implies consent for him to have sexual intercourse with
you. The courts apparently see that opening your front door to a man
means that the vagina is opened to his penis. As brash and boorish
as these conclusions may sound, we must understand that they constitute
the thinking of the society and the courts, not of women. It is no
chance of fate that one man can visit another in his home, have an
argument where the visitor beats up the other man and the beaten man
can charge his former friend with assault. Yet a woman who has been
raped in her home by a former male friend need not press charges because
NO COURT will believe she didn't consent. But if rape was defined as
anytime sexual intercourse took place with a woman against her will
ill then husbands, boyfriends, and all men who are able to define their
woman as their property would be subject to prosecution, women would
be protected and have more freedom of movement and the chains of control
would be dealt a heavy blow. It is exactly these things which the police
and courts must prevent - not rape.
Here we
come to the heart of sexism and its brutal mutilation of women. Now
we must ask in all seriousness who is on trial. Women first of all
may not do anything to try to prevent the rape such as trying to divert
the attention of the man or direct him to a place where there is help
for her nor may they do anything to prevent violence to try to save
their lives, such as going limp instead of screaming, which may provoke
more pain for themselves.
The requirement
of the courts to prove penetration of the vagina is also established
to protect the rapist and further victimize the women. The only possible
way to prove penetration is through examination of the vagina and detection
of sperm. There could not be a requirement in all the cannons of law
with more loopholes in it than this one. What if the rapist didn't
have an orgasm? There is no sperm but the vagina was penetrated. If
we can't with any reliability determine penetration by examination
for sperm, then what about the examination of the vagina. Although
penetration may be revealed if the female is a young girl who has had
no sexual experience, we know from the scientific data of Masters and
Johnson that there is no way to prove penetration in a sexually mature
woman unless it is done minutes after intercourse. But because the
courts hold on to this requirement, women upon reporting a rape are
rushed to the emergency room of the local hospital where they are initiated
into the post-rape humiliation.
The treatment
a woman receives after she has been raped indicates clearly that she
has stepped out of her place in reporting a rape and asking for justice.
The policemen responding to the call provide the first level of harassment.
They apparently seek vicarious pleasure from having the women recount
over and over again the details of the rape when their initial report
usually doesn't require the information they are eliciting from the
woman. Because the law requires proof of penetration of the vagina
the raped women must be taken by the police to the hospital. Here doctors
who also identify with the rapist hold attitudes toward the victimized
woman from disinterest to sadism. A women reported recently that when
she arrived at the hospital after being raped and visibly upset, the
doctor shook her unmercifully yelling "Shut-up, you bitch!"
But the
zealous interest the police frequently exhibit in the physical details
of a rape case is only partially explained by the requirements of the
court. A woman who was raped in Berkeley was asked to tell the story
of her rape four different times "right out in the street,"
while her assailant was escaping. She was then required to submit a
pelvic examination to prove that penetration had taken place. Later,
she was taken to the police station where she was asked the same questions
again: "Were you forced?" "Did he penetrate?" "Are
you sure your life was in danger and you had no other choice?"
This woman had been pulled off the street by a man who held a 10-inch
knife at her throat and forcibly raped her. She was raped at midnight
and was not able to return to her home until five in the morning. police
contacted her twice again in the next week, once by telephone at two
in the morning and once at four in the morning. In her words, "The
rape was probably the least traumatic incident of the whole evening.
If I'm ever raped again...I wouldn’t report it to the police because
of all the degradation...”
If white
women are subjected to unnecessary and often hostile questioning after
having been raped, third world women are often not believed at all.
According to the white male ethos (which is not only sexist but racist),
third world women are defined from birth as "implore." Thus
the white male is provided with a pool of women who are fair game for
sexual imperialism. Third world women frequently do not report rape
and for good reason. When blues singer Billie Holliday was 10 years
old, she was taken off to a local house by a neighbor and raped. Her
mother brought the police to rescue her, and she was taken to the local
police station crying and bleeding:
"When we got there, instead of treating me and Mom like somebody
who called the cops for help, they treated me like I'd killed somebody..
.I guess they had me figured for having enticed this old goat into
the whorehouse.. All I know for sure is they threw me into a cell.
A fat white matron... saw was still bleeding, she felt sorry for
me and gave me a couple glasses of milk. But nobody else did anything
for me except give me filthy looks and snicker to themselves. After
a couple of days in a cell they dragged me into a court. The rapist
got sentenced to five years. They sentenced me to a Catholic institution."
And so
we come to the ultimate conclusion that this society protects rapists
because of its insidious contempt for the female and all she represents
but most particularly her sexuality.
This article
combines articles from STOP RAPE, available from Women's Liberation
of Michigan and Ramparts Magazine.
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