(no subject)

[brambless.livejournal.com]

Tara grins broadly at the students as they enter, her good mood almost super-human.

"Hey. Only three weeks until the end of term, huh? I don't know about you, but that kind of snuck up on me! So today we've got a pretty heavy discussion topic, and I want you to remember that this is just a class. Emo Closet is there if you need it, although I hope we call all be gentle enough with one another that it won't be necessary, okay?

"Because today, folks, we're going to be talking about rape - and all I'm going to ask you folks to do is define it."

Comments

Re: Second Hour - Rape

[wraithbaitjohn.livejournal.com]

Going into the linguistics, it seems to me, will totally cause a loss of focus... Because the term 'rape' is used in non-sexual terms. You hear the phrase 'rape the land' or 'I feel violated' in circumstances that have nothing to do with sexual contact between people. So short answer to that one, 'yeah, you can, but it's a whole different thing.'

Because of the importance society places on sexual purity and sexual monogomy and this bass-ackwards out-dated mentality that still gets ingrained on people today, the emotional and psychological effects of rape are far different than any other kind of physical assault. A couple thousand years ago it was abhorent to beat a woman (who wasn't your wife, but don't start me on that), but if a woman was raped, then clearly she was 'putting out signals'. This led to victims of sexual assualt - rape - developing the impression that it was clearly their own fault and that they somehow 'asked for it'. So in regards to how the victim (and I used 'she' earlier, but I do understand that men/boys can also be victimized) internalizes the assault, 'rape' as a sexual violation is very different kind of assault than being beaten or restrained or some other forms of abuse. So in that more limited context, 'rape' cannot be a word to describe non-sexual assault. The sexual implications in the common use of the word define more than just what 'body parts' are involved, but the whole realm of psychological effects the victim can expect to suffer.