I don’t particularly like discussing politics with people.
I’m not good at separating my thoughts from what someone says and how I feel about him or her as a person. Politically charged topics call out the ignorance in people, like turning off the lights call out cockroaches.
With that said, I have recently encountered so many misconceptions from the political and cultural idiocy of one Rep. Todd Akin. The ensuing backlash from his words has set off a chain of ridiculously repulsive discussions about rape and victims of sexual assault.
We have heard former "Saturday Night Live" member Victoria Jackson delegitimize the trauma that rape victims suffer. In response to a blog post by the Huffington Post, Jackson wrote that she would keep a fetus conceived in rape, in spite of “(mocking tone) horrible nightmares." Regardless of how you feel about abortion, it is never OK to make light of trauma that someone else has suffered.
Jackson and Akin’s comments are a symptom of a much larger sickness.
We do not understand or take time to understand rape because it is an uncomfortable topic interwoven with problematic issues, like gender and sexual orientation.
We have created a culture in which we discourage victims from seeking legal retribution because they are put on trial, as the media hounds them for information, as legal attorneys discredit their stories and as they tell their stories over and over again.
A recent case in Arizona highlights the atrocities of victim shaming. On Sept. 6, Judge Jacqueline Hatch placed the blame of a sexual assault not on the drunken police officer who committed the crime, but on the victim who happened to be present in the same bar.
The police officer was fired from the force, but served no jail time because he is a “nice guy” while the victim endured blatant attacks against her character. She must have been asking to be assaulted.
But no one asks to be violated. How dare we blame victims for their own sexual assaults?
This is called “victim shaming,” sometimes called “slut shaming,” because defense attorneys paint the victims as sluts.
There is also the misconception that men cannot be raped. Not only are men raped, by both other men and by women, but they suffer trauma for it and are less likely and oftentimes less able to seek legal redress because of the ways in which we think about and define rape.
It is believed that women cannot rape men because men must have erections to endure rape. This is problematic for the same reason rapes were once considered illegitimate if women experienced arousal during assault. Arousal does not equal consent. Period.
How can we call ourselves a free country when there are victims afraid to speak out on crimes committed against them?
Let’s continue to fight the political and ideological fallacies that contribute to our rape culture.
If we continue on the path we’re walking toward, Todd Akin’s remarks might cease to seem so ridiculous.
Reach the columnist at alexandria.tippings@asu.edu or follow the columnist at @Lexij41
