NS October 18th, 2008

In this week’s What The Fuck rape-related news:

A 28-year-old British soap star is cleared of raping a 16-year-old girl

What bothers me about this case is not that Freeman was cleared because I have no way of knowing what happened that day was consensual or not, though I can’t imagine why a teenage girl would want to go through a trial against a famous soap star and be put through the wringer just to make herself feel better about having sex with a C-list celebrity 12 years her senior. It’s not even that a 28-year-old approached a teenage girl for sex (though I find that kind of creepy as well), but that his exoneration seems to be based solely on what his defense said was the girl’s contradictory statements, including whether she was attracted to Freeman.

Now, I don’t know how other adults’ brains work but I have a hard time understanding why so many people fail to grasp the concept of rape as anything other than a dark and desperate stranger grabbing a woman off the street and having his way with her in a side alley. That kind of attack happens in only a very small percentage of rapes. The vast majority are perpetrated by ‘regular guys’, men whom the female victims know, sometimes even intimately. Rapists are our friends, family members, colleagues, neighbours, shopkeepers, classmates, fellow parishioners, holidaymakers, board members, gym buddies, spouses, dates and anyone else who is seemingly normal in every way except for the way in which he views women, sex and male power. Just because a woman finds or found her rapist attractive at some point, even right up until the point that rape was committed, it does not make his crime any less reprehensible nor her testimony less valid. Without knowing the details of the case I can’t condemn the verdict (he may very well be perfectly innocent) but I do condemn the manner in which rape and its victims are treated in courts of law and in society at large, and that includes language like this.

When a rape is reported the focus is all too often on the victim — what was she wearing, doing, saying, drinking, taking? Where was she walking, working, living? Who are her friends, who has she slept with? When did she say no and did she really mean it? The only thing asked of the accused rapist is often merely whether the sex was consensual. With rape there are no grey areas, there are no mixed signals. You either stop when someone withdraws consent (or doesn’t give it in the first place) or you are a rapist. It doesn’t matter if she was flirting and telling you she wanted to eat whipped cream off of your body two minutes before that. Capiche?

But judge, she was smiling! Victim’s photos on Facebook used as defense for rapist’s sentencing

A barrister has caused outrage by suggesting a rape victim could not have been upset by her ordeal because there were photos of her on Facebook looking happy.

The woman was attacked in 2001 when she was 19 and has since tried to kill herself.

Her attacker, Anthony Francis, was caught seven years later as a result of a DNA sample.

His barrister tried to persuade a judge to be lenient by showing pictures posted on the social networking site of the woman laughing and smiling at a fancy dress party in the years since the rape.

First, let me just say that I’m so glad that the judge didn’t buy this crap and that the victim’s MP came out and made a statement on its ridiculousness. The fact that this rapist’s defense attorney felt it was even remotely acceptable to use her personal photos as a basis for reducing his client’s sentence is appalling. Really, truly appalling. I hope that whatever association allows him to practice law strikes him off their register. A swift kick in the nuts wouldn’t go amiss either.

Sadly, the most outrageous thing about this entire case is not the barrister’s attempt to shame the victim but the fact that he did this in order to save his client from the ‘harsh sentence’ of 5.5 years. That five and a half years is considered ‘harsh’ for rape is the most pathetic part of this story. As it is, he’ll probably be out in three years due to overcrowding. For fuck’s sake, no wonder so many people don’t take this crime seriously.

MP calls for end to sleepwalking as successful defense for rape

I have no commentary to add, this speaks for itself. Unbelievable.

“>Beer and rape: Lock up your daughters edition

The message here is: Parents, don’t want your daughters getting themselves raped? Don’t buy them booze and let them become drunken hussies then! No messages about not buying their teenage boys beer so that they don’t become bullying rapists, no sir-ee. I can’t believe that this is a governmental Public Service Announcement. Well actually, I can, but that just makes it all the more maddening.

Sigh. Will things ever change?

• Activism , Feminist Fury , In The News
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