RAPE: U.S. Representative Todd Akin is the product of an uneducated society.
Kayla Chang, Copy Editor
United States Representative Todd Akin was recently chastised by Republicans and Democrats alike for his comment regarding pregnancies that result from rape or incest. According to Akin, the world’s worst candidate for gynecologist, “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.”
Akin’s comment immediately incited media hoopla and was widely regarded as idiotic and borderline misogynistic. There is, however, one word that describes it more accurately: misinformed. And idiotic.
More to the point, it’s important to understand that Akin’s opinions are not unique to him. An alarming amount of men (younger men in particular) have a muddled understanding of what constitutes “rape.”
According to statistics in the book I Never Called It Rape by Robin Warshaw, 84 percent of college men who were tried and convicted of rape claimed that what they had done was not, in fact, rape. Furthermore, one third of college men said they were likely to have sex with an unwilling partner if they thought they would not be caught.
These men do not see themselves as perpetrators because society does not regard them as such. Victims are often presumed to have provoked the attack by parading around scantily clad or drinking alcohol excessively or throwing themselves greased and naked into men’s laps. Contrary to popular belief, women are never sexually assaulted based on their type of clothing or level of attractiveness. Rape is not a sexual act, but an act of violence. Rapists choose women based on their vulnerability, not on the length of their skirts.
The problem here lies within a lack of education. It follows that schools should be more conscientious with regard to the issue of sex and that parents must assume responsibility and inform not only their daughters, but also their sons (because men do, after all, make up 99 percent of rapists) of the realities of rape. The education agenda we face is much greater than setting straight one out-of-touch congressman.
Lawmakers tend to get all tangled up in the technicalities of the crime and lost in their own footnotes. But at the very heart of the issue, rape is defined simply as this: sex without consent. Sex without consent, whatever half-baked excuse someone might have for it, is rape. Even if a person is unconscious or otherwise impaired by alcohol or drugs, it is considered rape because they are legally unable to give consent.
People like Akin are why more than half of sexual assaults go unreported (according to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network). By justifying rapists and not educating themselves, these people downgrade the struggle of 207,754 victims each year and cement the self-hatred and guilt rooted within them.
Misunderstanding of rape arises from a misunderstanding between men and women. And when that misunderstanding is severe enough, we get congressmen who look at Fort Knox and see a female reproductive system under threat of attack. We should seize this opportunity, while the nation’s focus is on this issue, to clear up any ambiguities and firmly re-establish the line between consensual and non-consensual sex.
So again, to reiterate, with the utmost clarity achievable within linguistic means: sex without consent is rape. Chant it like a mantra if you must. And if it helps you, remember that the rule for sex is the same as the rule for vampires: enter only upon invitation.