"If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down."Congressman Akin has few friends these days and having decided to defy the Republican establishment by refusing to step down in his race against Claire McCaskill for the Missouri Senate seat he will face even more opposition. So I want to raise my voice in support of at least a portion of what he is saying that is so unpopular.
I agree with him first of all that his statement was poorly worded. And since he didn’t actually say what he meant to say, I have to interpret a bit what I think he actually intended. But two things, important things, jump out at me from this statement. One is that rape is not all of the same type. The second is that women must have a way shut down “that whole thing.”
President Obama has said that “rape is rape.” I don’t think that is true. A man coming in the window in the middle of the night is not the same as a couple of teenagers having sex when one is too young to give legal consent. I use as a basic standard that it is rape if one partner says, “no,” but sometimes the “no” is said too softly for the other to hear. I worked with many men convicted of rape in my psychotherapy practice and most of them deny that she said “no.” I have worked with a number of women who were ambivalent the night before but with the cold light of dawn found a part of them shouting, “No!” If she says, “no,” it is rape.
Still, it doesn’t seem right to punish him when she didn’t say the “no” out loud or at least loud enough for him to hear it. And I do think that justice requires (though is not limited to) punishment. So maybe her pregnancy is the punishment she gets for allowing herself to be raped. It was her choice, after all, to not say the “no” loudly enough.
The problem with that is that she is not the only one who is affected here. What about the unborn child. Why should the child have to suffer with a parent who sees him or her as a punishment? We know how critical healthy attachment to parents is to human development. What is the justice in saddling a child with a parent for whom they are a symbol of a disastrous mistake? No child should be unwanted.
This is why I agree with Congressman Akin that a just God will give “the female body” a way to “shut that whole thing down.” Under the stress of the rape the woman will naturally react though a process of introducing hormones into her system which will protect her and any potential child. This hormone is marketed under trade names Mifegyne and Mifeprex and commonly known as RU-486.
5 comments:
Mark, sorry to disagree but rape is rape whether by a stranger, friend, mate, husband. If a woman says no, & he proceeds it's rape!
He's giving men an excuse of "I didn't hear her say no".
If I were raped by anyone & I said no, you can bet I'd press charges!!
"No" is not a requirement. Many women are drugged or otherwise unable to give consent, and many women are intimidated and coerced, losing their voice through fears or threats of violence. Legally, minors are not able to consent. Most rapes occur between people who know each other. To discount those who cannot have a voice for themselves, who cannot shout NO through circumstance or fear is to perpetuate rape culture and victim blaming.
Honoring women's right to choice includes the right to allow the pregnancy to proceed. What is critically important in this discussion is to honor the agency of women, to help us find and claim our voices, so that whatever yeses and nos we offer will be heard and honored.
Mark, I get the impression now that this is satire? If so, I didn't get that at all on the first reading...which left me with a very different reaction (i.e. offended)than I think you were hoping for.
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