Our society has never accepted rape. What is frightening is how we define rape and its impact on the victim.
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Our country was in a public debate over rape and the penalty one should pay for committing a crime against the soul.
Then, while we were still wrestling with the ruling in the Stanford rape case we were smacked in the face with one of the most horrific mass shootings ever on our soil. Over a hundred people were either killed or injured in Orlando, Florida. The attack was a hate crime aimed at the LGBTQ community, which made it even more horrific.
That means 234 women were raped during the 3-hour siege in Orlando.
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Let’s look at some facts about rape. According to listen.nycagainstrape.org 683,000 women are the victims of rape each year. For perspective, that is 1871 per day, every day. That means 234 women were raped during the 3-hour siege in Orlando.
That’s horrific too.
The sexual abuse of a woman by a man is a collective men’s problem. Just as the sexual abuse of a man by a woman is a collective women’s problem. The sexual abuse of anyone is our problem. Perhaps we need to step up a level from a heartless justice and look at the system that allowed him to judge. Perhaps we need to look at a Stanford administration that admitted a rapist. Perhaps we need to redefine the importance of sports in or society. Athletes like Kobe, Lawrence Taylor, Mike Tyson and others have walked.
The national debate over gun control is heating up at the same time we’re trying to define rape.
We have had shootings in churches, movie theaters, nightclubs, schools and in the workplace. Perhaps we need to reexamine the role of guns in our society. Perhaps we need to understand why we need a gun for every man, woman, and child in America. Perhaps we need to find other ways of protecting ourselves.
Remember back then; women were the property of men.
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Rape dates back to Greek mythology. Zeus raped Europa and Ganymede. Think things haven’t changed since then? The thinkers of that time also said rape was wrong.
But obtaining a gun—that’s just our right to bear arms.
The second amendment became ratified 225 years ago. The country has changed since then. Perhaps we need to understand where we are currently. Let’s contrast that against what things were like in the late 1700’s. Remember back then; women were the property of men.
Well, that’s changed too.
Rape of a female slave in the late 1700’s was treated as damage to the slave owner’s property. Hey, guess what? We don’t have slaves here in 2016, so that’s changed too. Rape was wrong and punishable back then, just like in Zeus’ day.
The point here is that some things change, but all things don’t change.
The most suggestive person on the planet can be the victim of rape if she or he says “no.”
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Our society has never accepted rape; that is a constant. What is frightening is how we define rape and its impact on the victim. How we handle the excuses for rape to occur at all has just been horrendous. The most suggestive person on the planet can be the victim of rape if she or he says “no.” Every move after those words is a crime regardless of the circumstances.
Another thing that has changed is how we use guns.
We often turn them on ourselves and our most defenseless, our children or a group we don’t like. Much like a mass shooting, rape is a form of terrorism. It is fear created for control gratification. Like terrorism, the effects on the victims and their families last forever.
Guns and how we treat women are issues that are defining us.
We need to control our weapons and how we access them. We need to examine how we treat the victims and survivors of rape. And when people commit acts of violence we need to inflict a price so great no one will ever do it again.
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Photo: Getty Images