Rape Is Terrorism

this is essentially the post i always meant to write, but didn't. actually, that describes most of my posts. i found this comment at alas a blog that perfectly expresses what i wanted to say, but never did:

Rape is a social control — whether it is stranger or aquaintance rape. It is more like an act of terrorism than it is an act of crime. Especially when you add in the factors of people’s good intentions of focusing primarily on what women can do or not do to prevent it from happening to them (as individuals). Rape, however, is not a singular act. It is not a singular abuse perpetrated by one person and played out on another person’s body. It is a socially condoned use of force that works to control women’s sexuality and women’s role in the social fabric. If you doubt that, read up a little on the rapes in the Congo. Rape is interwoven in how young men are socialized about their sexual role, about their need to be aggressive, to expect women to resist their charms, to give the woman sex because she will in turn give him love. That right there is the recipe for rape.

So no. Talking about women’s risk taking is akin to asking the men who worked for the WTO in the Trade Towers whether they had adequately figured the risk of terrorist attack, and shouldn’t they perhaps work in a different building. Or a different job. Or work from home. Or not be so blatent about whom the worked for. Perhaps if these men had simple been bankers, for say Wachovia, they would have been safer. Or perhaps they should be elementary school teachers — yes the pay and prestige would be less, but then so too would be the level of acceptable risk associated with terrorist acts.

Continually focusing on what women should or should not do actually points to the clear outline of our rape society — we have no problem suggesting that women curtail their freedom of choice or movement. We have no problem suggesting to women that public space is well, not quite so public for them because they might get raped, and then we can of course hold them responsible for being so naive as to think they can enjoy parks, streets, midnight walks in the same way that the average man can. Heaven forbid if a woman wants to walk to the public library after dark, by herself… she should know (especially if she is an adult) that such freedom is not reserved for her. And heaven forbid if she wants to be sexual in the ways that she wants to be sexual.