Law in Contemporary Society

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WhyArePeopleAfraidOfTalkingAboutRape 10 - 06 Apr 2010 - Main.JohnAlbanese
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 When we went over rape in our criminal law class, I made a comment about the role gender plays in our society in determining the definition of "rape". While I still believe in the truth of my comment, I realized immediately that I had not made any friends because of it. I could hear whispers around me and I knew that many thought I had crossed some sort of line. My comment was fairly benign, but many of my classmates still saw it as insensitive and possible chauvinistic.

I am not writing this to try to vindicate my comment. My frustration is because the topic of rape was such an emotional issue that there was no room, even within the halls of an academic institution as prestigious as Columbia Law School, to discuss the topic in an academic manner. I felt like even considering defending the side of the alleged rapist was an obvious taboo, something to be hidden like an unconscious racist assumption. The law is supposed to be inherently unemotional, but people refuse to treat it as such when discussing this specific topic.

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 -- JohnAlbanese - 05 Apr 2010

Please explain, I don't understand why my comment was trivializing.
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I understand your point to be that society's genderized perception of rape makes it harder for men that have experienced real trauma to seek redress without being disregarded or an object of laughter. Unfortunately, neither of your examples support that point. Neither Vince Vaughn nor your friends experienced the emotional trauma that rape causes. Hence, your examples trivialized what you were trying to get across and perhaps led people to misinterpret your comment.

-- JohnAlbanese - 06 Apr 2010

 
 
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Revision 10r10 - 06 Apr 2010 - 03:21:58 - JohnAlbanese
Revision 9r9 - 05 Apr 2010 - 23:14:00 - MikeAbend
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