Campus Chronicle

Issue date: 3/29/04 Section: Legal

Kobe Bryant arrives with attorney Pam Mackey for hearings related to his rape trial in Eagle, Colorado. Bryant seeks to make the alleged rape victim´s unrelated sexual conduct an issue at trial.

Rape is prevalent in our society. Most - if not all - women either will experience it or know someone who has during their lifetimes.

However, most people view rape not as a societal problem we must correct, but as a fact of life. We haphazardly deal with this allegedly unavoidable problem through inadequate post-rape medical services and counseling, scare tactics disguised as (often incorrect) advice that women must follow in order to avoid being raped, and invasive criminal trials that treat the victims - not the rapists - as the criminals.

None of these methods work to lessen the rapid occurrence of rape. Nor do they place the blame for the existence of the rape culture - and the responsibility to end it - where it belongs.

This rape culture - the pervasive occurrence of rape simply accepted by society with no intention of actually solving the underlying problem causing it - is a symptom of a larger issue.

Men benefit from rape culture. Whether men admit it or not, the overarching presence of the threat of sexual violence against women affects the power structure between the sexes. The fact that women have to consider the consequences of going out alone at night, or whether a certain outfit may give a man the "wrong idea," or how much she can drink before "being taken advantage of" involves a great deal of energy that women must exert to protect themselves. Men, in comparison, do not worry about such matters, and therefore are able to use their energy in a more productive manner.

In fact, rape culture places a great deal of responsibility on women to protect themselves from the crimes of men, in lieu of making men take responsibility for their own actions.

Furthermore, it often encourages women to take unreasonable, ineffective or even dangerous actions in an attempt to protect themselves.

Likely everyone has at one point received the email detailing "advice" women should follow to avoid being raped. Don't wear your hair long. Don't wear a skirt. Don't wear heels. Don't walk alone at night. Don't drive alone at night. Don't, don't, don't. The advice we see advises women on how to change their lives - and to effectively stay indoors for a good portion of their waking hours - to avoid being attacked. Men, of course, can go out whenever they wish without similar fear.

This power imbalance between the sexes is further amplified by the social conditioning of women to be meeker, quieter, less intrusive. Why is it that too many women say it didn't occur to them to yell out for help when grabbed by an attacker? Being loud is not in our "nature." Even in the 21st century, it is not encouraged; it is not ladylike.

Then there's the advice to not physically fight back against attackers. The Department of Justice, local police departments, our parents - we hear from everyone that it's safer to submit than to risk being further injured or killed while resisting a rape. But in fact, resisting is not any more likely to get you hurt. Studies on the relationship between resistance and injury have shown that women are no more likely to become harmed by fighting back, and in fact, fighting back may deter a rapist looking for an easy target, as well as discourage him from attacking another woman in the future. Michelle J. Anderson, Reviving Resistance in Rape Law, 1998 U. Ill. L. Rev. 953, 957 (1998).

Furthermore, studies show that women who fight back blame themselves less for having been raped, according to studies. Id.

This "advice" also assumes one very vital, yet incorrect, fact: that women are most likely to be attacked by a stranger. But this isn't the case. Women are most likely to be raped by someone they know, even someone with which they presently have consensual sex. This so-called advice not only doesn't tell women how to deal with this reality, but leads them into a false sense of both security and insecurity - they feel unnecessarily insecure about going out alone and are more likely to stay home, where they subsequently feel safe despite the fact that they're even more likely statistically to be attacked in what they consider a safe haven.

The concept of non-stranger rape also brings up a controversial topic that highlights rape culture at its most extreme: the definition of rape. The legal definition varies from state to state and almost never includes all types of forced intercourse. Men can exert their physical power over women without actually using force, yet the law struggles to recognize such a threat without proof of actual force used by the man.

This leaves many types of rape with no legal recourse - rape of an intoxicated woman, rape through coercion, and rape by threat of physical force (as we saw in the infamous Maryland case State v. Rusk, 406 A.2d 720 (Md. 1981) where the attacker took the victim's car keys).

Very few rapists are convicted. Even if a victim can withstand the social stigma still surrounding rape (and the public lashing she may receive should she be raped by a famous sports "hero," for instance), survive pre-trial measures like invasive medical exams and finally make it to court, she must deal with her sexual past - not that of the accused - being put on trial. Despite rape shield laws that are meant to prohibit such a practice, a defendant may nonetheless attempt to prove that the victim had sexual intercourse with him willingly, or that the victim may have had intercourse with someone other than the defendant.

This leaves open a door often exploited by the defense to place the sexual history of the victim on trial, exposed to the bias of a judgmental jury likely to think the victim "deserved" what she got once the defense is finished with her on the stand.

Take the Kobe Bryant case, for instance. The victim (or alleged victim, if one prefers, though false claims of rape are actually quite rare, particularly ones that make it to the trial stage) was recently questioned extensively about her sexual history in a pre-trial hearing to see whether the rape shield law should be ignored in her "special" case. The defense aims to prove that the victim had sex with men in the hotel before and after her "alleged" rape, which is meant to discredit her claims against Bryant.

Apparently, women who have had intercourse within 24 hours of being raped were "asking for it."

As of press time, it's unclear whether this testimony will make it into the trial. Of course, it shouldn't. What the victim did before or after her rape is irrelevant. The only issue during the trial should be the rape itself. But the defense in Bryant's case - like the defense in many rape cases - will rely on a less than "perfect" (demure) sexual history of the victim in order to tarnish the jury against her.

The Kobe Bryant case is a perfect example of how society uses fear and intimidation to discourage women from reporting their attacks.

Bryant is a beloved sports celebrity. However, despite the fact that such a hero complex may make one more likely to commit rape under a sense of entitlement, the public at large instead turned on the victim, accusing her of making false claims and posting her personal information on the internet, reading it out on talk shows and printing it in tabloids so that others may intimidate and harass her. The message Bryant's (male) fans want to send to other victims of rape by sports stars (or even by ordinary men): keep your mouth shut if you know what's good for you.

But men don't have to harass a so-called "false accuser" to be guilty of promoting rape culture. Men perpetuate it with every rape joke they tell or laugh at, by ignoring the fear of rape that every woman is conditioned from birth to live with and by dismissing rape as a "woman's issue," when it is men who must change in order to stop the practice once and for all.

Related Links:
OurVoice Statistics
Facts About Violence - Feminist.com
Department of Justice
The Rape Culture: An American Epidemic
Transforming a Rape Culture - Amazon.com
Challenging Rape Culture - Men's Resource Center

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