Last week, a UK judge proved just how real “rape culture” is: In response to a jury quickly finding a man guilty of raping a woman who was passed out on his couch, the judge offered these condolences to the criminal (i.e. not the victim):
- “It’s sad to see a man of generally good character in the dock for such a serious offence.”
- “I do not regard you as a classic rapist. I do not think you are a general danger to strangers. You are not the type who goes searching for a woman to rape.
- “This was a case where you just lost control of normal restraint.”
- “It was almost out of the blue that two girls turned up late at night, very, very drunk, at your home.
- “The victim was the worst for drink out of the two of them. She was completely out of it. I accept that evidence.”
- “She was a pretty girl who you fancied. You simply could not resist. You had sex with her.”
Salon responded with an appropriate WTF article about how “[t]his is everything that is wrong with how we view and talk about rape.” And when we posted about it earlier this week on Facebook, Molly Durham wrote this hilarious response:
*snorts* if this guy had it his way, there’d probably be a rape matrix or something… “Victim must be held down for 9.4 sec, victim must scream for 12.7 sec and clearly call for help 4 times at a level of 150 decibels or more, however, if rapist is known by victim or tells her that it’s not actually rape, victim must start over and file formal petition to change relationship with rapist from known to unknown.” Or some other bureaucratic nonsense… Sigh. It’s hard to be female, cis or trans :/
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