On this thing called "rape culture"

Makes me wish there was an un-capslock translator built into google so I could read it.

Seth wrote:

Makes me wish there was an un-capslock translator built into google so I could read it. :(

My first thought any time I see a link to Film Crit Hulk.

Alien Love Gardener wrote:

http://convertcase.net/

...ALG, you just changed my life for the better.

Legitimately good article, with a few great comments to be taken out by themselves as well (such as the Devil's Advocate stuff at the start), but I'll be honest, I laughed for a solid minute at:

BACK IN COLLEGE, HULK VOLUNTEERED IN A RAPE CRISIS CENTER.

The imagery was just too bizarre. Huge Hulk sitting at a tiny front desk greeting people while hunched over as not to slam his head into the ceiling.

The description of a victim trying to recount their experience - and how it is a common occurrence and one that is easily dismissed or rationalized into "nothing really happened" by others so consistently - however, was not funny in the least.

Bloo Driver wrote:

Legitimately good article, with a few great comments to be taken out by themselves as well (such as the Devil's Advocate stuff at the start), but I'll be honest, I laughed for a solid minute at:

BACK IN COLLEGE, HULK VOLUNTEERED IN A RAPE CRISIS CENTER.

The imagery was just too bizarre. Huge Hulk sitting at a tiny front desk greeting people while hunched over as not to slam his head into the ceiling.

I can imagine HULK SMASHing when hearing the stories of the rape survivors.

That's the best explanation of rape culture I've ever read. Fantastic.

So I read this article this morning:
Why Rape Seems Worse in India Than Everywhere Else (but Actually Isn’t) @ TIME.com
I thought it was rather interesting, and brought certain points to light that I hadn't considered. I'd be curious to find out what the rest of you gang think.

Eleima wrote:

So I read this article this morning:
Why Rape Seems Worse in India Than Everywhere Else (but Actually Isn’t) @ TIME.com
I thought it was rather interesting, and brought certain points to light that I hadn't considered. I'd be curious to find out what the rest of you gang think.

Reads unfortunately like an Indian Tourist Board ad rather than a considered discussion.

Maybe the article would have seemed more useful if it had considered the very different definition of rape in the various countries compared. (Remember all the statistics used are prior to the 2013 bill, so the definition is impressively narrow.). This or a google can get the details.

Street Harassment: Is a Man Running Over a 14-Year Old Girl for Refusing Sex Serious Enough?

We hear about cases like this with dulling regularity and, undoubtedly, we don't hear about even more. Just a smattering of examples:

In San Francisco last year, a man stabbed a woman in the face and arm after she didn't respond positively to his sexually harassing her on the street.

In Bradenton, Fla., a man shot a high school senior to death after she and her friends refused to perform oral sex at his request. I

In Chicago, a scared 15-year-old was hit by a car and died after she tried escaping from harassers on a bus.

Again, in Chicago, a man grabbed a 19-year-old walking on a public thoroughfare, pulled her onto a gangway and assaulted her.

In Savannah, Georgia, a woman was walking alone at night and three men approached her. She ignored them, but they pushed her to the ground and sexually assaulted her

In Manhattan, a 29-year-old pregnant woman was killed when men catcalling from a van drove onto the sidewalk and hit her and her friend.

Last week, a runner in California -- a woman -- was stopped and asked, by a strange man in a car, if she wanted a ride. When she declined he ran her over twice.

I wanted to pull a good quote from that, then another, and so on, and then I'd be pasting the entire article. Excellent read from start to finish, and only overwhelmingly bleak at the beginning. Thanks for sharing that.

Eleima wrote:

So I read this article this morning:
Why Rape Seems Worse in India Than Everywhere Else (but Actually Isn’t) @ TIME.com
I thought it was rather interesting, and brought certain points to light that I hadn't considered. I'd be curious to find out what the rest of you gang think.

I agree with Cod. That seems fairly poorly written and lacking any real supporting evidence. Which I consider par for Time.
For example the claim that their media recorded "each and every" rape. Right there I call BS.
Cod also has a very good point about definitions.

While Cod and Realithack have good points about the writing and numbers, I did think that the protests deserved a nod.

Eleima wrote:

While Cod and Realithack have good points about the writing and numbers, I did think that the protests deserved a nod.

I hadn't really been following them that closely, but reading up on the 2013 changes to the Indian rape laws that resulted from the protests, it does seem to be a sizable step in the right direction.

Absolutely! I'm not saying it's perfect, and I won't be going back there any time soon (mostly because of sanitary reasons, though, being pregnant and/or with small children in tow), but at least things are going in the right direction. It's still lightyears ahead of what's going on in next door, in Pakistan or Afghanistan.
And to be brutally honest, I've been following American and French news for a while now, and I've never seen anti-rape protests (for lack of a better term) on such a comparably large scale. Except *maybe* for the Ni Putes Ni Soumises (Neither Whores nor Doormats) protest back in 2003 (and those were walks against "plain" violence against women, with no more than 30,000 people, more or less). Or maybe the annual Walks to Prevent Violence Against Women, but I have no numbers on those.

One mother's crusade against "revenge porn"

I know often we want to blame the victim for sending a sexy photo to a boyfriend, etc. But this was a matter of getting her account hacked, which is a personal violation in itself. Then to get the death threats and rape threats, people surveilling the house...

Moore maintained that his victims were sluts, asked to be abused and deserved to lose their jobs, embarrass their families and find themselves forever ruined. Below photos on the site, his followers posted crude and mysogynistic remarks. Victims were taunted as "fat cows," "creatures with nasty teeth," "ugly whores," "white trash sluts" and "whales." One commenter said, "Jesus, someone call Greenpeace and get her back in the water." The website was not about pornography; it was about ridiculing and hurting others.

I thought this was a well told tale that people in this thread might appreciate. If you liked it, please consider liking or commenting to the artist on tumblr.
Source: http://fanoudraws.tumblr.com/post/68...

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Thanks for sharing, Songbird. At first, I was thinking "this should be in the feminism thread", and then I hit the part about the sexual abuse at 16. I'd been disappointed before, but that was an unexpected blow (I expected the gender slurs, having engaged in non "girly" pastimes as a teen, namely the computer club).
Good for her for putting the word out, and still hope that things can change for the better.

And for someone whose mother tongue isn't English, I think she did a great job.

Right in the feels.
Ug.

Keir Starmar, the head of the Crown Prosecution service, announced three years ago that the Crown Prosecution Service would be investigating ways to improve their handling of rape cases. As part of this investigation, Starmar spent 17 months reviewing cases involving false allegations of rape and domestic violence and commissioned a report (the first of its kind at CPS) on the number and nature of so-called false allegations of rape.

The report was just released.

Crown Prosecution Service Report[/url] (warning, PDF)]This report outlines the key findings from the review of those cases and the steps that we plan to take. Importantly, what it shows is that charges brought for perverting the course of justice or wasting police time for such "false" allegations need to be considered in the context of the total number of prosecutions brought for those offences. In the period of the review, there were 5,651 prosecutions for rape and 111,891 for domestic violence. During the same period there were 35 prosecutions for making false allegations of rape, six for making false allegation of domestic violence and three for making false allegations of both rape and domestic violence.

Furthermore, the report shows that a significant number of these cases involved young, often vulnerable people. About half of the cases involved people aged 21 years old and under, and some involved people with mental health difficulties. In some cases, the person alleged to have made the false report had undoubtedly been the victim of some kind of offence, even if not the one that he or she had reported.

So, at least in the UK, the rate of false allegations of rape is at 0.6%.

"So, at least in the UK, the rate of prosecution for the false allegations of rape is at 0.6%"

I'm shocked that it's that high. even in the most highly publicized cases that seem to test all the bounds of credulity and waste of the courts time, prosecution for false allegations rarely ever occurs. Just ask them Duke boys... or more recently, the guy from Ohio State... who appears to have dodged a bullet.

oddity wrote:

"So, at least in the UK, the rate of prosecution for the false allegations of rape is at 0.6%"

I'm shocked that it's that high. even in the most highly publicized cases that seem to test all the bounds of credulity and waste of the courts time, prosecution for false allegations rarely ever occurs. Just ask them Duke boys... or more recently, the guy from Ohio State... who appears to have dodged a bullet.

from another thread[/url]]
There's a skill to debating a topic/issue with people who have a personal, emotional stake in the subject. Who aren't just debating ideas and philosophies, but are wrestling with things that actually have an effect on their day to day lives. If you genuinely want to understand better where someone is coming from, try eliminate "Yeah ... but" from your approach and give some "Yes, and" statements a shot in the future.

oddity wrote:

"So, at least in the UK, the rate of prosecution for the false allegations of rape is at 0.6%"

I'm shocked that it's that high. even in the most highly publicized cases that seem to test all the bounds of credulity and waste of the courts time, prosecution for false allegations rarely ever occurs. Just ask them Duke boys... or more recently, the guy from Ohio State... who appears to have dodged a bullet.

So, if you can spend all the words you've added to this thread implying the only rapes that actually occur are the ones that are prosecuted, why can't we say the only false rape accusations that actually occur are the ones that are prosecuted?

oddity wrote:

"So, at least in the UK, the rate of prosecution for the false allegations of rape is at 0.6%"

I'm shocked that it's that high. even in the most highly publicized cases that seem to test all the bounds of credulity and waste of the courts time, prosecution for false allegations rarely ever occurs. Just ask them Duke boys... or more recently, the guy from Ohio State... who appears to have dodged a bullet.

Reading comprehension is your friend. That's the percent of all rape cases they prosecuted that turned out to involve prosecutable false accusations.

This might be more what you're looking for:

Allegedly false rape allegations

11. There were 121 suspects whose cases involved allegedly
false rape complaints. Of these, 35 were prosecuted: 25 for
perverting the course of justice and ten for wasting police
time.

So only 2% of rape prosecutions were suspect enough to be investigated further. And of those two percent there was a prosecution rate of 29%.

Also of note:

It was a feature of these cases that the suspect later
reported that the whole thing had spiralled out of control and
he or she had felt unable to stop the investigation.

Incidentally, it may be somewhat enlightening to see some of what gets filed under "false accusation" -

i. Ms A had reported to the police that she had been raped
on three occasions by her husband, against a background
of other domestic violence. As a result of her complaint,
he was arrested and charged.

ii. Some weeks later, Mrs A told the police that she no
longer wished her husband to be prosecuted and that,
whilst what she had said was true, they were now
reconciled and she wanted to retract her allegations.
Following careful consideration, the CPS Area decided
that the prosecution should continue, because cases
involving serious offences such as rape are not merely a
private matter between the parties.

7iii. Upon being told that the case would continue, Mrs A said
that she had lied in her statements and that her husband
had never raped or otherwise assaulted her. This meant
that there was no longer any evidence against him and
therefore the case was stopped. The decision was made
to charge Ms A herself with perverting the course of
justice on the basis that she had made false allegations
against her husband, who had as a result spent some
time in custody awaiting trial.

iv. However, after she was charged, Ms A then said that in
fact the original allegations had been true. As a result she
was further charged (in the alternative) with perverting the
course of justice, on the basis that she had falsely
withdrawn a true allegation. This situation is known as a
“double retraction”.

v. Ms A pleaded guilty, but on the basis that her original
allegations of rape were true and she had lied when she
said that they were not. She was sentenced by the Crown
Court to eight months’ imprisonment, which was reduced
by the Court of Appeal to a community order.

edit 2: Also -

There were 121 suspects whose cases involved allegedly
false rape complaints. Of these, 35 were prosecuted: 25 for
perverting the course of justice and ten for wasting police
time.

So it looks like Oddity's little "oh snap" moment is pretty much just him not bothering to actually read the article and learn something but rather bend something out of context towards his existing worldview.

Pointless. - Certis

Not a moderator. - Certis

Talk about the arguments, not the people. Getting tired of having to remind you of this. - Certis

In case anyone is confused, changing the opinions of others is NOT the reason P&C exists. The sooner you can internalize this the happier you'll be in your life.*

*And mine.

edit - with the comment I was responding to edited out, I figure I might as well blank this one too