Law in Contemporary Society

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WhyArePeopleAfraidOfTalkingAboutRape 8 - 05 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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 -- NonaFarahnik - 05 Apr 2010
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<		The problem I have with your story is not that people were emotional about rape. I agree with Matt in that law is a codification of values and criminal law leads to stronger emotions because criminal law, in general, has stronger consequences than property or contracts. It would frighten me if people could talk about something as violent and invasive as rape without getting emotional.
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>		The problem I have with your story is not that people were emotional about rape. I agree with Matt in that law is a codification of values, and criminal law leads to stronger emotions because criminal law, in general, has harsher consequences than property or contracts. It would frighten me if people could talk about something as violent and invasive as rape without getting emotional.
 
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<		The problem is that people whispered their disagreement rather than voicing it directly to you. I think your point that rape is inherently gendered is valid, but you trivialize it by using the two examples of "beer goggles" and a Vince Vaughn movie.
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>		The problem I have is that people whispered their disagreement rather than voicing it directly to you. I think your point that rape is inherently gendered is valid, but you trivialize it by using the two examples of beer goggles and a Vince Vaughn movie. This is what probably lead to the whispering rather than the topic of rape itself.
 -- JohnAlbanese - 05 Apr 2010
 
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Revision 8r8 - 05 Apr 2010 - 21:43:50 - JohnAlbanese
Revision 7r7 - 05 Apr 2010 - 19:34:18 - JohnAlbanese
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