Posted by Ginny Tosken [GinnyT] on April 08, 1999 at 08:29:34 {vxsc0.TBNk7fLSrSG9icFbqv3I7Em.}:
In Reply to: **WTS advice on Rape posted by Osarsif on April 07, 1999 at 21:42:13:
LOL. Good answer. :-)
Your answer reminds me of a song by Rodney Carrington -- different circumstances, but the relativity of "ugly" is explored:
She had a gap between her two front teeth that you could drive a truck
through,
Built like a trash can dumpster that would kill you,
She drove a 1973 Chevy Blazer,
And her legs and her armpits never seen a razor.
She had curlers in her hair, window rolled down, and a dip of snuff,
Spit on the
ground,
Drunk as I was, that woman looked good to me!
----------
On a serious note, I was annoyed with the sexual bias in the language about rape. The implication is that only women, the weaker vessels, can be forced to have sex against their will.
This same bias is usually apparent in language about domestic violence. It is usually assumed that the woman is the victim. Where I live, there is a shelter for battered women. There is no shelter for battered men.
It is not my intent to nitpick. But as long as our language implies that these things cannot happen to men, how will men have the courage to speak up when it does happen?
And it does happen. I have never personally met a man who has been raped. I have witnessed the assault of a man by his wife. He is 6' tall; she is 4'11". When the police arrived, the wife began to cry and claimed *he* had abused *her*. Had it not been for those of us who had witnessed the scene, the police would have hauled the man off to jail.
Ginny